Cuccinelli Denies Climate Change Even Though Major Hurricane Would Destroy Hampton Roads

As noted in the prior post, Ken Cuccinelli spent last night with a group of perhaps the most vehement deniers of climate change in Virginia, if not America.  It is also safe to conjecture that also in attendance and kissing the ring of Victoria Cobb, the president of The Family Foundation were many Republican members of the Virginia General Assembly.   It has come to the point in Virginia where one cannot successfully run as a Republican unless they have sworn fealty to The Family Foundation and endorsed all of its anti-religious freedom and anti-science pronouncements.  It is a principal reason that no serious study has been authorized to deal with Virginia's threatened coast line which mentions "climate change" or "rising sea levels" even though both phenomenon are visibly happening.   What makes the situation so insane is that a direct hit from a major hurricane would all but wipe out Hampton Roads and leave its flagship hospitals flooded as the image above indicates.  Here are highlights from a Virginian Pilot article that looks at the seriousness of the threat:

[A] pair of researchers at Old Dominion University have painted a richly detailed depiction of how a major hurricane would hit vulnerable populations in Hampton Roads.

They call their fictional storm "Sandtrina." And it's not a pretty picture.

Joshua Behr and Rafael Diaz, professors at ODU's Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, have created a computer model that takes Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 superstorm that hammered the Northeast, and turns its path straight toward Hampton Roads.

The effect, they conclude, would be similar to that of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, a city that bears a close resemblance to Hampton Roads in terms of topography, demographics and economics.

The computer-generated image of the resulting 13-foot storm surge - the abnormal swelling of tidal waters produced by such a powerful storm - shows vast swaths of Hampton Roads underwater.

The bottom line, Behr said: "The worst-case scenario is going to catch us with our pants down." 

One phase of the research looked at how the region's health care infrastructure would be affected by a worst-case storm. The resulting map shows dozens of medical facilities - hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and the like - underwater. 

The problem, Diaz said, is that "above a certain level of storm, say a Category 3, preparations like generators, food, fuel and batteries won't help you."

Behr underlines the point: "I don't care how many cans of green beans you have. If you have 11 feet of water in your neighborhood, green beans don't do you any good. If it passes a certain threshold, you need to get out of Dodge."

A recent study by CoreLogic, a property data provider, found that more than 300,000 properties in Hampton Roads valued at $73 billion would be exposed to storm-surge risk in a hurricane. That's the third-highest financial exposure in the United States, behind New York and Miami.

Do we really want a governor who doesn't even believe this growing threat exists?