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Texas Floods And Fears Of Big Brother Collide

Oracle

During the years I’ve lived in Central Texas, I've heard the area referred to as the flash flood capital of the nation.

I don’t know if we can officially claim that title now, but the floods that hit Austin and its surroundings in the last week—sweeping away more than 300 homes from the beautiful community of Wimberley and claiming far too many lives—were a stark reminder that few structures can withstand the power of a raging flood.

Monday afternoon, the storms came again, and with the thunder, lightning, and torrential downpour came 10 reports of tornadoes in the Austin area—one near the mall where my daughter was working.

And that night, it was Houston’s turn. Some areas got 10 inches of rain in just a few hours. The city’s famously wide highways quickly became rivers, littered with abandoned and partially submerged cars. Houston Rockets fans who attended the team’s playoff game in Toyota Center were advised to stay put after the game, and many did, including the Rockets' star center Dwight Howard. I’m assuming some beer was consumed.

Like millions of others who live here or who have family here, I was glued to the local news broadcast through it all, as well as to live feeds on my laptop and phone. I was struck by how modern technology gives us access to so much information immediately—yet when you’re in a situation like this, you can’t help but want more.

I’ve lived in Texas all of my life and have seen more than my share of floods. I’ve stood on a Texas hill country road and watched as a wall of water crashed over the low-river crossing that was my only way out.

When I was home from college in 1983, we weathered Hurricane Alicia in our home in Houston, which went without lights for days. We gathered around our battery-operated radios for updates, and when the winds calmed, we went into the backyard to watch the eye of the storm pass overhead.

Of course, battery-operated radios have long since been replaced by our smartphones, which use location tracking to warn people at risk for flooding. At Austin’s shopping malls, the simultaneous alarms sent to everyone’s phones when a tornado was spotted nearby on Monday was so loud it sounded like it came from the mall’s loudspeaker.

Tech Lifesavers

Cell phone alarms sent out in the middle of the night—when flash floods and tornadoes are most terrifying—can be lifesavers.

Weather radar can now detect debris from a twister, indicating that a tornado has touched down. That’s a great improvement, but it was terrifying when a local TV station’s radar showed that a debris-throwing twister was heading down a rural highway right by my mother’s house.

Obviously, the technology that keeps us this informed when extreme weather strikes has dramatically improved. When it comes to personal safety, however, I can’t help but want even more and better technology.

When that tornado was barreling toward my mom’s house, I wished there were cameras stationed along that rural highway so I could see exactly where it was.

When more than 200 low-river crossings flooded and closed around Austin, I wished that car computer systems were synced with flood sensors at every crossing, providing personalized and loud warnings to any driver approaching—and especially those ready to gamble with their lives.

I wished for automatic alternative route suggestions to help steer drivers unfamiliar with a flooded area to streets that were high and dry.

Of course, all of this is possible, at least in theory. New Internet of Things and big data technologies can provide these solutions and so much more. Some probably already exist.

Privacy Trade-Offs

But with those technologies—as with many of the apps and capabilities we enjoy—comes another aspect that we may not be so comfortable with in our everyday lives: cameras everywhere, and our locations known by who knows how many companies, agencies, and individuals.

The very capabilities I wish for in an emergency require the collection of personally identifiable data that I may not feel comfortable with when the you-know-what isn’t hitting the fan. And how would that data be used and by whom over time? Are the systems secure, or are they vulnerable to hackers with less-than-noble intentions? Will systems initially installed for one purpose (like flood or storm detection) eventually be used for other purposes (like flagging speeders or tracing our personal travel patterns)?

Which brings to mind Joseph Heller’s famous line in Catch-22: “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.” In fact, it’s actually quite rational to have these thoughts in an era when the world’s largest taxi company is truly a big data company.

To what extent are we okay with enabling Big Brother—be he corporate or governmental? When disaster strikes, the lines get a bit more blurred.