NYT: “America’s Flooding Problem.” When asked why flood damage in the US keeps rising [2023 estimated costs $180 billion], Chad Berginnis, head of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, said “Two things, irrationality and elections.” The underlying causes are not mysterious: global warming is making storms more severe because warmer air holds more water, while more Americans are moving to the coast and other flood-prone areas. How do we fix this? Strategy #1: “Build walls to keep it out of your city, along with giant pumps and drains to remove whatever water gets in. Think of Holland, much of which would be underwater without a massive network of barriers, or Venice, which now relies on sea walls during high tide.” Strategy #2: accept the tyranny of water, so elevate homes, roads + critical infrastructure off the ground, as builders sometimes do in the Outer Banks of North Carolina or coastal Louisiana. Strategy #3: Pack your bags, relocation, managed retreat, whichever term you prefer. “In 2016, the Obama administration provided $48 million to move Isle de Jean Charles, an island village of a few dozen families in Louisiana, away from the rising Gulf of Mexico,” first such project in the US. But my personal preference is strategy #4: don’t build is areas at high risk of failure. Candidly, expect a lot of pushback from property owners, planners, surveyers, realtors, municipal + county officials, politicians. On the other side are environmentalists, climate scientists, taxpayers, insurance companies, and clear-eyes realists. Personally, locally, I know of families in Washington State that have been flooded twice + yet incomprehensively refuse to relocate. Finally—I threw in one cartoon for its emotional resonance.
Flood Mitigation
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