Flood Risk Outreach and the Public's Need to Know

Summary In summary, the work shown here is not expected to “solve” the flood problem but it is a starting point for efficient regional development of a flood‐risk outreach program that can ultimately help saves lives and property and reduce human suffering. I am grateful to the project's sponsors and the media contributors who have helped support this public service effort. And we are indebted to the people and communities of Central Texas who agreed to be interviewed. There can be little doubt that other areas of the country have similar problems (both from floods and the lack of education about the dangers). If there is any obligation of our society to improve safety precautions for a phenomenon like flooding, it begins with a forthright sharing of all the best, most compelling information we can produce with the most modern techniques that is then widely distributed and highly publicized to the general public. To put it in the bureaucratic vernacular: the public has “a need to know.”