In this week’s cover story, Lina Fisher tackles two very serious threats keeping local emergency planners up at night: wildfire and flood. I asked Lina, a native Austinite who writes frequently about environmental and development issues, about her experience reporting this story.
“I was struck by the omnipresence of the risk, due to climate change and the way the city has been built. It intersects so much with land development code.” Lina pointed out that, though code has been written to steer future construction, “a lot of these problems were created in the Eighties,” mentioning subdivisions built without evacuation routes in mind, or buildings constructed with flammable materials.
Lina told me the flood component of the story required less work to report – Austin has more experience with flooding, which also means “we have a more robust system in place for that” – but the fire reporting was more labor-intensive, and that her findings there were more dismaying.
Her biggest takeaway? “It’s more about preparation than actual response.” She encouraged readers to take a look at the city of Austin’s “What’s My Wildfire Risk?” map (find that interactive map with her story online at austinchronicle.com/news) and consider ways you can make your home and community safer, including becoming a Firewise neighborhood.
A different kind of disaster, an unnatural one, took place Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas, when 19 children lost their lives after a gunman opened fire in their elementary school. There is a poison here. How any sane person could look at this state and this country’s epidemic of mass shootings and think the answer is to further loosen gun control laws is beyond me. My heart goes out to the community of Uvalde, and to every parent who knows not even a school or a place of worship can offer safe harbor for their child so long as the gun lobby is steering the moral compass of our elected leaders.
Online This Week
Seeking: Major Donors for Development Foundation Communities is seeking a final $30 million in funding in order to enable construction on 1,000 new affordable housing structures across eight properties.
Will Travel for Sounds Raoul Hernandez justifies flying 1,500 miles to see the Mysterines.
Best of Tees and Totes Celebrate the local businesses, people, and places that make Austin the best with a limited-edition Austin Chronicle “Best of Austin” T-shirt or tote bag, now on sale at austinchronicle.com/store.
Cine Returns to Cinemas Cine Las Americas International Film Festival announced the lineup for its June 8-12 festival. The long-running fest kicks off its return to in-theatre programming with opening night film El Buen Patrón (The Good Boss), a Spanish comedy from Fernando León de Aranoa.
Live Music This Week Photographer David Brendan Hall rounds up his favorite shots from roadshows the Eagles, Phoebe Bridgers, Megafauna, and more.
Wolff: “Wacky Game” Austin FC mounted a comeback against a nine-man Orlando City squad on Sunday to end the chaotic home game in a 2-2 draw.
This article appears in May 27 • 2022.
