Govt. restricts water use; Gods laugh with rain
by Hawes Spencer
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The Rivanna River is low, and not just because the Woolen Mills dam is coming down.
PHOTO BY HOOK STAFF
Today, both the City and County governments issued their mandatory water restrictions, and tonight around 8 o’clock the heavens opened up with a fierce thunderstorm whose light show and dancing waters have yet to fully abate.
Like the infamous drought of 2002, this one seems to be laughing at the authorities who saw their 2002 restrictions followed by deluges and then 2003, the wettest year since record-keeping began.
More seriously, the National Weather Service is reporting damage from wind, including downed trees in Earlysville, Ruckersville, Stony Point, and Free Union.
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Where are you seeing this 4.75-inch datapoint?
I see that at this website http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/KCHO.html the NWS says that we received 1.5 inches in the last 24 hours at CHO airport. So if John Guiliano says 4.75 inches, he should cite his source. Also, I notice that NWS has a page for Staunton and for Orange, but neither gives a rainfall summarry. They got 3.02 inches at Wakefield, and at UVA’s Observatory they got 1.26 inches according to http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KVACHARL8&month=8&day=16&year=2007
[...] 6:05pm update: We just remembered that the Daily Progress happened to publish a recent news story about the belief by fire investigators that 2007 has been a record year for lightning damage. The story, entitled “Fire from the sky, was published August 11 and penned by Rob Seal. Perhaps he angered the rain and thunder gods! [...]
[...] you can follow the drought (or deluge) by visiting the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority website. Today’s [...]
I was thinking about Interlaken, CH recently–a gorgeous place to live. I wish that
either my wife or I also had Swiss citizenship so we could cough up dream funds
for a chalet along the Grindelwald or a view of the Jungfraujoch.
It struck me that all of Switzerland has controlled its development very well…and
thus maintains its attractiveness. Now it’s oranges and apples to think of Interlaken
and Charlottesville aside from both areas being very attractive.
However, it’s not a stretch to state that Cvil will erode its own attractiveness
away through development beyond sustainability and development which will disfigure
Albemarle County.
A big distinction in Switzerland of an economic nature is that the governmental
intervention there to hold development down while maintaining prosperity is a simple
economics thing with government stewardship setting the boundaries. So first if
CH had only slowed housing, then there would have been a shortfall and existing
home prices would have skyrocketed due to demand throughout the EU. That’s simple
market economics…the intervention by government so the citizens could still afford
housing was this…housing was limited to citizens, i.e., all others cannot buy
homes there. so the prices are down from free-market or one could say economic equilibrium
at much lower prices is now attained between supply and demand limited to CH citizenry.
Yes oranges and apples but stewardship nonetheless. In our area the CH approach
won’t work. But…maybe if the dupervisors could hold their welfare-developer
friends back from trashing our locale and driving up living costs, maybe we could
all enjoy a nice standard of living, with infrastructure that meets growth and is
within costs for benefits-received.
Then guess what? The developers would know the rules and their risk with flaky,
whiney dupervisors would attenuate to the point that developers could really do
some planning and organizing with a sustainability perspective from the supervisors
who will exercise their job title in part by control of development.
In immediate terms, wouldn’t it be nice to stop the current water rationing
that was caused by excessive demand?
Best regards,
Tony Deivert
[...] Summer 2007 - Albemarle and Charlottesville issue water restrictions August 16, and heavens erupt mere hours later with rain and high winds that damage trees and utility [...]