Jay Inslee believes climate change intensified flooding in Hamburg. Some residents say no.

[TexasTowelie]

With each block that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee walked, the damage from flooding in Hamburg became more vivid.

Some 1,100 western Iowans live in the town, established in the mid-1800s between the Nishnabotna River and the Missouri River. On Friday, the town stood mostly clear of residents.

Those who were in town relied on bottled water since tap water was deemed unsafe. Port-a-potties lined residential neighborhoods for people who couldn't flush their toilets.

Construction workers ripped up carpeting in a drug store where empty pill bottles and papers littered the floor. Outside, Inslee stepped on the grass — the ground beneath deeply saturated — and his feet sunk into the mud.

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/elections/2019/04/12/iowa-caucus-2020-jay-inslee-brings-climate-change-message-flooded-town/3450185002/

[PeaceFan]

1. "Some residents say no."

In other words, the sky is blue and some people will always deny climate change's effect on whatever.

Why does Des Moines Register feel the need to elevate these kind of opinions which appear baseless?

“I think they’re totally stupid, myself. That’s ridiculous,” said Ron Perry, a local Hamburg resident who met Inslee on Friday at his car shop, Risky Business. “What they need to do is load the senators and congresspeople and put them in helicopters and bring them over and let them look what we really are.”

[Hortensis]

6. :) Agree. With 68% voting Trump, that local paper no doubt

hedged its coverage to avoid offending conservatives, but it did give space to responsible discussion, while also getting in the usual knuckledragger-type opinions that it's all the government's fault.

I notice Inslee didn't blame the Corps' efforts to slow the river and reestablish native vegetation and wildlife. As experts and the science become more sophisticated, the gap in understanding widens. Used to be, build a dam, dig a canal, run the water elsewhere. Things everyone who was once 5 years old can understand.

Local climate analyst John Davis, 70, led the tour. Davis' family has lived in Hamburg for four generations, he said, and this was the first flooding to cause damage at his home, built in 1938. ... Davis contends climate change caused the extreme flooding in Hamburg.

... “Nothing could have stopped this,” Davis said. And it’s only going to get worse, he said: Heavy rain events and droughts are expected to increase as air temperature continues to warm and create unstable weather events because of climate change. ...

His friends and neighbors don’t believe that climate change is what caused their homes to flood. “People here are in shock, and they’re still going to be in shock,” Davis said. “They’re still in climate denial because it’s too big of a problem to fathom.” ...

Inslee said the Trump administration has rejected climate change, so the Corps is unable to study the effects of changing weather conditions on bodies of water to prevent flooding from happening. “He’s told these agencies to ignore clear science,” Inslee said.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. Gawd that is dumb

I'd accept a contrary scientific opinion if they didn't have an axe to grind but why would the paper feel the need to elevate some local whom AFAIK don't have any background whatsoever to contribute?

[Persondem]

2. Thank you for the OP. Nice to get another article about Inslee out there. K & R nt

[TexasTowelie]

3. You're welcome.

I'm trying to post articles as I search through newspapers around the country

[BlueStater]

4. Inslee needs to do a better job of telling everyone his record.

He's a superior candidate to Biden in pretty much every way.

Borrowed from a post on the Daily Kos:

He voted against the Iraq war (Biden, of course, voted for it).

He voted against the bank bailout.

He voted against the repeal of Glass-Steagall which set the regulatory dominos falling that caused the Wall Street crash in the first place.

As governor, his state was the first to sue Trump over the Muslim ban.

He instituted a moratorium in the death penalty. The top court in his state followed that up by abolishing the death penalty in his state.

He signed a statewide guaranteed paid family leave plan. You get 12 weeks paid time off from work by state law for having a kid or for a serious medical issue.

He signed a statewide equal pay law for men and women to get equal pay for equal work.

He signed the first state net neutrality law.

He’s proposed a statewide version of the public option for health insurance. The public option, you remember, got traded away at the national level when Obamacare passed. But now, they’re going to do it in his state. Public option for health insurance everybody can buy into.

He’s proposed statewide pardons for marijuana-related misdemeanor convictions.

His state’s minimum wage is 12 bucks an hour. It will be $13.50 an hour by this time next year. And the state’s biggest city and the state’s biggest airport, the minimum wage is at $16 an hour, actually a little bit above that at airport and the state has one of the highest rates of job growth in the country.

[artislife]

5. We are living in a slice of heaven, here in WA.

And we can still do better. He is on my shortlist. I just worry he isn't getting an traction. I cannot understand the appeal of Beto or Biden, when all is said and done.

[watrwefitinfor]

7. Good post. Can you make it an OP?

I so agree, he needs more national exposure.

Wat

[BlueStater]

8. Thanks but it's not my post.

I just copied it from one I saw on Daily Kos.

I think I will make it an OP. People need to know more about Governor Inslee and what he has done.