The present disclosure relates to the field of early warning for geological disasters, and discloses an early warning method for icefall-caused moraine lake outburst disasters, which aims at solving the problems of low early warning precision and difficulty in implementation in an early warning solution of the prior art. The method includes: S1, calculating topographic parameters of moraine lakes and upstream glaciers thereof, and filtering a moraine lake to undertake focal monitoring; S2, calculating a freezing-thawing cycle index and a regional accumulated temperature index of an upstream glacier region for the moraine lake to undertake focal monitoring, S3, calculating a catastrophic climate determination factor T.sub.G-year, wherein if the catastrophic climate determination factor T.sub.G-year satisfies a corresponding catastrophic climate determination condition, an early warning condition is satisfied, otherwise the early warning condition is not satisfied; and S4, implementing early warning.

A protective shelter including an enclosure having at least a floor, at least one sidewall coupled to the floor, a door, and a roof coupled to the at least one sidewall. The protective shelter further includes one or more members coupled to the enclosure that support the protective shelter on a substrate and a resilient grouser attached to at least one of the one or more members and in contact with the substrate.

The present invention relates to a retractable floodwall unit that comprises a foundation unit having a plurality of guide tracks along side walls of the foundation unit, a floodwall panel stowed in the foundation unit; and a power system for raising and lowering the floodwall panel. The foundation unit includes a first housing unit enclosing an actuator of the power system, and the floodwall panel includes a plurality of guides that mate with the guide tracks of the foundation unit.

A column bracket assembly is provided. The column bracket assembly comprises a bottom base bracket and a top base bracket, each including a bracket body adapted to receive an end of support element (e.g. a wooden column) and a mounting bracket/plate pivotally coupled to the bracket body and adapted to be coupled to a structural element (e.g. a footing, pile, header, beam etc.). The column bracket assembly optionally includes mounting brackets for installing cross brace brackets and/or tension rods to the bracket bodies. A method of installing the column bracket assembly, and a method of repairing, resettling, shoring, and/or leveling a structure with the column bracket assembly are also provided, along with structures comprising the column bracket assembly.

Transportable and rapidly deployable air supported structure systems and related methods are disclosed. The air supported structure systems include at least one transportable container. The systems also include a flexible outer membrane configured to couple to a base in a substantially air-tight manner. The systems further include at least one air handling mechanism contained within the at least one container configured to force air between the outer membrane and the base to form an enclosure therebetween via internal air pressure. The systems are configurable between a packaged state with the outer membrane contained within the at least one container, and a deployed state with the outer membrane being coupled to the base and the at least one air handling mechanism forming the enclosure via the internal air pressure. The at least one container may form a portion of the base and/or provide for ingress and egress with the enclosure.

Apparatus allowing ventilation through a ventilation shaft to an underground ventilation duct fluidly communicating through the ventilation shaft to an atmospheric opening of the shaft and on threat of flooding operable to prevent downward flow of surface water into the underground ventilation duct includes one or more hinged panels closing a ventilation passage between the top and bottom of a support fitting in the shaft to prevent flooding. The panels have handles on their topside and pivotable arms on their underside and are liftable to an upright home position allowing ventilation, using tools to reach through grating covering openings on the shaft and lift the panel handles and after the panels are partially lifted, using reach tools to engage and lift the arms to press them again support sidewalls to exert lateral force on underside of the panels to complete upward rotation to the home position.

User-configurable weather warning apparatuses, and methods for providing and configuring user-configurable weather warning apparatuses are presented. For example, according to one aspect, an apparatus comprising a processor and memory may be provided. The processor may be configured to, responsive to a user preference to trigger an alert system only in the event of a particular type of warning.

A modular storm shelter is provided. The shelter has a central node with individual modules attached to the node and extending outwardly from the node. Any number of additional modules may be attached to other modules to extend the modules farther from the node and increase the capacity of the shelter. The outwardly extending modules function as stabilizing extension arms that prevent the shelter from overturning during extreme wind events, such as tornados and hurricanes. Each of the modules can be individually transported to an installation site so that the shelter can be assembled on site. Once assembled, the storm shelter rests on the ground and does not require attachment to a concrete slab or similar foundation.

Apparatus allowing ventilation through a ventilation shaft to an underground ventilation duct fluidly communicating through the ventilation shaft to an atmospheric opening of the shaft and on threat of flooding operable to prevent downward flow of surface water into the underground ventilation duct includes support sidewalls fitting in the shaft providing a ventilation passage between support top and bottom openings and a suspension member supported on opposed lateral sidewalls unobstructively horizontally spanning the passage proximate the top opening and holding one or more hinge connected panels in the passage that manually release to rotationally close the passage and prevent flooding and are manually rotationally liftable to a home position allowing ventilation. The suspension member is liftingly removable from the support and may include end keys received in keyed supports to allow the suspension member to fit in the supports so a specific panel closes to a specific sidewall.

A system for monitoring flooding can include a plurality of flood monitoring stations and at least one flood warning station in communication with each flood monitoring station. Each flood monitoring station can include at least one sensor configured to detect water level and a visual warning device to alert users of actual or predicted flooding. Each flood monitoring station can include a processor to determine a water level using the sensor and control the visual warning device. Each flood monitoring station can include a processor and a wireless communications device to communicate the water level to the flood warning station.