River Flood Warning System v2.1 copyright Aaron Nelson 2017 ([email protected])

RiverWarn is a python3 script that will retrieve river gauge data from https://water.weather.gov and posts an alert to your Facebook account (or page you manage) when flood stages have been reached.

USAGE:

• Once the initial script riverwarn.py is executed the flood check function is passed to a scheduler which runs every 2 hours. This delay can be changed at the top of the file where the variables are defined under check_delay. Future releases will provide an option to run the script once, or scheduled.
• You will have to obtain a Facebook OAUTH Token (https://developers.facebook.com/docs/pages/getting-started). Future releases will provide a method for automatic token generation. Once you have your FB Token (note: if posting to a page you will need to obtain the page ID also), enter the values in the provided river_key.txt. file.
• Finally you will need to populate your river_list.txt file with the URLS for the rivers you want to check. To find your URL you will need to visit http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/glance.php? and first select your region, and then river. Put the URL in river_list.txt using the dictionary format: 'river name':'river url' The rivers currently in the list are for example purposes and can be replaced with different values.
• It is preferable to add riverwarn.py to /usr/bin/ or /usr/sbin/ and set up cron to run at boot. Executing the command: crontab -e and then on the last line enter @reboot /path/to/riverwarn.pywill make riverwarn.py run at startup.

See it in action here: https://www.facebook.com/TxRiverFloodWarn/