Disastrous History

Desperately need Midwesterners to stop complaining about Canadian wildfire smoke.

I saw a video today claiming it would essentially obliterate Seattle and Portland. And just no.

It is driving me up the wall. Especially since Russia the other day.

No earthquake alone has caused a tsunami that large. Any tsunami that large has always required some form of landslide falling into the water.

Online news websites stop posting articles without actually reading the research paper challenge level: Apparently impossible. No one is calling for a 300 meter megatsunami to hit the west coast if the Cascadian Subduction Zone has an earthquake.

Genuine question. If someone said the phrase “up underneath” do you know what they mean?

The majority of California is red because of a high risk of a disaster happening but the response of Cal Fire and others there is some of the best in the world. It’s a trade off and this has stripped all context from the map.

Take western Nebraska for an example. On the map it’s blue indicating a relatively low risk. But that’s simply for the hazards occurring. Your disaster response there is going to be slow and your recovery is going to be longer and more difficult because the infrastructure is not there.

So this AccuWeather article title has been driving me nuts since they posted it the other day. This map is *not* supposed to show the best and worst places to live for hazards. It gives you an idea of what to expect for recovery post disaster.

Disaster Dispatch for 7/19/25 to 7/25/25 Disasters that happened over the past week.

Read this week’s disaster dispatch here! disastroushistroy.substack.com/p/disaster-d...

Out of curiosity I looked up how much smoke jumpers make. It’s $16 an hour. No joke. $20 an hour if on an uncontrolled wildfire. That’s ridiculous.

Historical wildland firefighters had the coolest names. Wag Dodge? Immaculate.

Oh this next podcast episode is going to be sad.

The Forest Service Claims It’s Fully Staffed for a Worsening Fire Season. Data Shows Thousands of Unfilled Jobs. DOGE cuts and voluntary resignations have severely hampered the agency as the nation enters the peak of fire season, with more than 1 million acres burning across 10 Western states.

Can read the original ProPublica article here as well. www.propublica.org/article/fore...

Wildfire Season is Upon Us The US Forest Service is not fully prepared

I wrote a deeper breakdown of what the numbers in the ProPublica article released about wildfire firefighter staffing yesterday. You can read it here. disastroushistroy.substack.com/p/wildfire-s...

You cannot want more prescribed burns and full suppression on all wildfires. You cannot want better forest management practices and full suppression on all wildfires. You cannot want to keep wildland firefighters safe and and full suppression on all wildfires. These things are not possible.

It's corn sweat time.

(and yes I have started writing the book)

Watching an active IR flight over a wildfire in northern California in the midst of writing a book about disasters is a surreal experience.

Pushing for full suppression on all wildfires is shortsighted and a disaster waiting to happen.

Disaster Dispatch for 7/11/25 to 7/18/25 Disasters that happened this week.

Disaster Dispatch for this past week! You can read it here: disastroushistroy.substack.com/p/disaster-d...

Apparently the LASD believed the explosives that detonated this morning were inert when they were handling them at the training facility prior to the explosion that killed three deputies. So, do with that what you will.

Change the Flash Flood Warning Polygon Color Flash Flood warnings are being ignored and it is costing lives. Part of that is the color of the polygon.

We should change the colors of flash flood warnings. Article here: disastroushistroy.substack.com/p/change-the...

Hey everyone! I am officially writing a book! It's going to be called Disastrous History. Should hopefully release next year.

I'm working on putting together an article on it right now but essentially, green has historically indicated that things were "safe" and I think that's what is going on with ignoring flash flood warnings at least somewhat.

The more I write this article about flash flood warnings being ignored, the more I’ve convinced myself that we have to change the coloring

Evacuation Notification Colors: How Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico are Doing it Wrong Are evacuation colors important?

Hello all, I wrote an article on evacuation color notifications and how several western states are doing it wrong disastroushistroy.substack.com/p/evacuation...

The first step in fixing people ignoring flash flood warnings is to change the color of the polygon

Timeline of Events of the Hill Country Floods on July 4th, 2025 A full breakdown of the events of the flooding on July 4th, 2025

Friendly reminder as the news goes around that the Kerrville city manager didn’t have emergency alerts turned on on purpose, here is a timeline of the flooding and when actual alerts went out. substack.com/@disastroush...

The Kerrville city manager said he had emergency alerts turned off the night of the devastating flooding on July 4th. Intentionally.