OCR Text |
Show 29 make sure that they were not going to have a whole lot of debris collecting in there that would aggravate the floods, and so forth. So I think that both the engineering solutions and better scientific understanding and better predictive capability can do a lot toward helping us in the long run. Ms. WOOLSEY. Well, thank you. But, actually, I live there. Dr. POTTER. Yeah. Ms. WOOLSEY. And it was the first time in history houses slid down hills that had been stable forever. There was no way to predict that that was going to happen. Dr. POTTER. That's quite true. There are many activities like that. But there are other activities where the warning was out. Now, there is not much that one can do about protecting a million dollar- plus house that's sitting on the edge of a Ms. WOOLSEY. These are little cabins they aren't Dr. POTTER. Okay. Ms. WOOLSEY. They are not outrageous- I know coming from my area you could think that. Dr. POTTER. Some on the east side Ms. WOOLSEY. But these are just very, very little houses. Dr. POTTER Yeah. Ms. WOOLSEY. And the prevention now, we have raised a lot on the Russian River that's in my district, we've raised the homes that wanted to be raised. So that the next time it floods, you know, it doesn't serve a flood, but it's the increase that I want to prevent. And I thank you for thinking about it. I think that's where part of our energy and a lot of our thinking must go. And you are a scientist and you're an expert, and Mr. Eubank, thank you very much. Mr. CANNON. Mr. Baird, would you like to ask questions? Mr. BAIRD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you for your leadership on this and it's a pleasure to serve with you on the Amphetamine Caucus as well, and my good friend, Jim Matheson, as well as who is tremendously focused on this problem and a champion of issues related to Utah, in the Congress and it's a privilege to serve with them. It's also fun for me to be back as a graduate of the University of Utah and remember seeing Mark on TV when I say that. Mr. CANNON. AS a fact of the matter, we like you to be part of our delegation. That's a standard invitation. I speak for Jim, Jim Hansen I believe, also I hope Jim Matheson. Mr. BAIRD. I take that as a compliment. Thank you very much. ACCURACY OF DROUGHT PREDICTION How accurate are we in the sense of, if you look over say the last 10 years, assuming we have been getting better, what percentage of the time are we within what percent of our prediction? How does that compare with the predicted for the norm and standard deviation? Mr. EUBANK. That's a tough one to answer. Mr. BAIRD. Yes. Sorry. Mr. EUBANK. In the- I think that the Climate Mitigation discussion may get into some of those details but right now the prediction tries to go into one of three categories: Near normal, above normal, 80- 093 D- 3 |