Kenya's Rift Valley Lakes Have Flooded Properties and Displaced Communities
07 December 2020
Climate
A local fisherman paddles a traditional raft made from reeds past one of the submerged buildings of the Soi Lodge on the shores of Lake Baringo, where rising water levels have seen the lake surface area expand to occupy elevated ground surrounding it's shores displacing entire villages and inundating farmland and crops as well as building and infrastructure, near Marigat, Baringo county on the Kenyan Rift Valley, on October 6, 2020. TONY KARUMBA / AFP / Getty Images
By Wesley Langat
Over the years, the Rift Valley lakes in Eastern Africa have been vital in supporting livelihoods of local communities who depend on fishing, farming and livestock keeping. Apart from being a UNESCO world heritage site, the lakes are also a major tourist attraction destination with rich flora and fauna.
<p>But recent rising levels of water in the lakes have become disastrous, displacing thousands of people. One of those displaced individuals is 60-year-old David Maragoli, a father of three. Maragoli invested his savings into buying a piece of land and building a brick house for his family in the Borut village in Nakuru, 165 kilometers west of Nairobi – Kenya's capital city. </p>
<p>"I'm not employed anywhere, but all my savings from the hawking business, amounting to over 2 million KSh (USD 2,000), was lost here," he said. </p><p>Climate change is one of the present day global challenges that is continuously exposing millions of people to persistent accumulation of vulnerabilities and risks such as flooding, droughts and land slides among other natural disasters.</p><p><a href="https://www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/grid2019/downloads/report/2019-IDMC-GRID-sub-saharan-africa.pdf" target="_blank">The 2019 Global Report on Internal Displacement</a> shows that Sub Saharan Africa recorded 2.6 million people were negatively impacted by weather-related disasters, more than any other region and accounting for 36% of all displacements worldwide.</p><p>A few months ago, the shore line of the lake was almost one kilometer away from Maragoli's house, but in recent weeks waters have been submerging houses and farms at an alarming rate near his home. Maragoli said that drivable gravel roads in the village are no longer useful. People are now having to travel by boat as a new means of transportation to collect the remains of their homes, such as bricks, iron sheets and other building materials. </p>
<p>"It's so sad, some weeks ago, I could load my belongings into a truck just in the compound, but now it is not accessible anymore – only by boat," he added. </p><p>Even though the entire region of the Rift Valley is not experiencing heavy rain, several other lakes including Baringo, Naivasha, Bogoria, and Turkana among others are recording high levels of water, overflowing into the nearby settlements and displacing people, flooding farms, and destroying property. </p><p>John Hauwory, an independent consultant and geologist based in Nakuru, attributed these issues to the rapidly changing climate preceded by erratic rains, droughts and increased human activities in the watershed catchment areas. </p><p>"The anthropogenic activities coupled with meteorological activity in the Lake Nakuru basin and geological activities dispose the lake to flooding," said Hauwory. He added that the impact of human activities in the lake's catchment area has had a profound effect on the flooding risk. </p><p>Dickson Ritan, the assistant director of the Central Rift conservation area based in the Nakuru Kenya Wildlife Service Office (KWS) – a government agency, said that this year Lakes Nakuru and Baringo have recorded the highest levels of waters. He noted that the flooding in the lakes has not only affected livelihoods but also wildlife and tourism, most of the hotels have been closed down and the wildlife displaced.</p>
<p>"In almost all the Rift Valley's lakes, water level has risen considerably, engulfing riparian areas which were previously pasture spaces for wildlife like hippos and buffalos," Ritan explained.</p><p>He added that flooding is causing a serious impact on wildlife as most of them have been displaced. In Baringo and Nakuru, for instance, Ritan said that his organization is continuously monitoring the situation and has relocated the affected wildlife to flood free zones.</p><p>Reports indicate that floods in Lake Baringo have left more than 5,000 people homeless. <a href="http://www.environment.go.ke/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/NCCAP-2018-2022-v2.pdf" target="_blank">The Kenya's National Climate Change Action Plan</a> indicates that the economic cost of floods and droughts in Kenya is estimated to create a long-term fiscal liability equivalent to between 2% and 2.8% of the country's GDP every year. The costs of floods are estimated to be about 5.5% of GDP every seven years, while droughts account for 8% of GDP every five years.</p><p>Experts and geologists described the East Africa Rift System as the biggest rift on Earth. Its formation was as a result of hot volcanic magma separating the two tectonic plates creating Eastern Rift Valley and Western (Albertine) Rift Valley. Additionally, the formation of the great lakes of Eastern Africa is due to massive volcanic activities and depressions.</p><p>According to Hauwory, the Great Rift Valley lakes have diverse biodiversity that supports millions of people and wildlife. However, due to the fertile soil in the upper catchment areas, a large percentage of lands adjacent to these lakes experience intensive and unsustainable land use such as agriculture, infrastructure developments, deforestation and urbanization. Therefore, these becomes the source of erosion leading to massive uncontrollable sedimentation in the lakes.</p><p>"The soil has high porosity, permeability and loose structure, therefore, highly susceptible to erosion, land subsidence and fractures during or after heavy rain," he noted. He further pointed out that widespread sediment deposition storage in these lakes end up occupying a lot of space, forcing water overflow like in the case of Lake Nakuru which is shallow.</p><p>"Due to high gradient in the catchment area, such as the Mau Forest Complex, the rate at which sedimentation takes place is too high, considering that most of these lakes do not have outlets, so the underground seepage is gradually filled with silt," he said.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.iucn.org/about" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> shows that the Kenya Lake System is a habitat for endangered and threatened species. In addition, due to its alkalinity, Lakes Nakuru, Elementaita and Bogoria, enable the growth of food for wildlife. The biodiversity created supports approximately 75% of the global population of flamingos.</p><p>Ritan also revealed that the current rising level of water is a threat to aquatic life, like flamingos. In Lake Nakuru, water has already covered a 30 kilometer square area of land destabilizing the composition of biodiversity in the lakes.</p><p>"The water salinity has affected the growth of algae, mainly the red algae, which is the main food for flamingos," Ritan said.</p><p>"When these food resources are threatened, this means aquatic animals are also affected. In particular, flamingos will be forced to migrate."</p><p>He commented that his agency is doing continuous surveillance, as well as, sensitizing the public to tame human-wildlife conflict as a result of displaced animals. On the other hand, Hawoury pointed out their need for educating the public on sustainable land management, soil erosion prevention, and building flood controls in the lakes.</p><p>According to government officials, the government of Kenya has formed a multi-agency technical team to deliberate on the root cause of the problem. The team also will assess the environmental, social, and economic impact of the rising level of water in the region. In addition, they seek possible mitigation measures and a possible solution.</p><p><em>Wesley Langat is a freelance journalist passionately covering environment, climate change and agricultural reporting around East Africa and Horn of Africa. He is currently writing for various international media outlets including Thomson Reuters Foundation, Climate Home News, News Deeply and InsideOver among others.</em><br></p>
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A man walks across an arcade by a flooded St. Mark's Square on Dec. 8 in Venice following a high tide "Alta Acqua" event following heavy rains and strong winds, and the mobile gates of the MOSE Experimental Electromechanical Module that protects the city of Venice from floods, were not lifted. ANDREA PATTARO / AFP / Getty Images
Flood waters swamped Venice's iconic Saint Mark's Square on Tuesday, despite the implementation of a barrier system that was supposed to protect the city from the flooding events that are getting more frequent because of the climate crisis.
<p>The water level rose to a high of 4.5 feet above sea level in the afternoon, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/venice-flooded-as-new-8-billion-dam-system-fails-to-activate/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AFP reported</a>. This swamped St. Mark's Square, the lowest point in the city at only about three feet above sea level, as well as its historic basilica. </p>
<p>"The situation is terrible, we're under water in a dramatic way," the church's head procurator Carlo Alberto Tesserin told Italian media, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/weather/2020/dec/08/venice-floods-as-forecasts-fail-to-predict-extent-of-high-tide" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>The flooding came despite the fact that the city had finally installed a system of retractable flood barriers called MOSE. However, the system failed to activate because of a mistaken weather forecast.</p><p>MOSE is designed to close its barriers before high tides of 1.3 meters (approximately 4.3 feet). However, Tuesday's tide was only predicted to rise to 1.2 meters (approximately 3.9 feet), instead of the 4.5 feet it eventually reached.</p><p>"The situation is really bad as we weren't expecting it," Matteo Secchi, head of the activist group Venessia.com, told The Guardian. "It's frustrating as we thought that with Mose this kind of thing wouldn't happen any more, but instead we're back to square one. It's the same old problem."</p><p>The higher than expected tide was also driven inward by stronger winds than predicted, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/international-news-floods-tides-92b6ec9b969a86acd13eb1764de2f25f" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>"Unfortunately, the weather is freer than us. It does what it wants," Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told The Associated Press.</p>
<p>In addition to flooding the church, the water also inundated some shops and businesses. The damage is not yet known, according to The Guardian. However, the flood is likely to put a further strain on shop or restaurant owners already suffering from a lack of tourism due to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, The Associated Press pointed out.</p><p>The MOSE flood barrier was first designed in 1984 and was supposed to be installed by 2011, according to The Guardian. However, it was beset by corruption and delays. It was originally supposed to cost two billion euros, but the final price tag was seven billion, according to AFP.</p><p>The long-awaited barrier <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/venice-flood-barrier-2648098487.html" target="_self">successfully</a> protected Venice from an approximately four-foot high tide in October of this year. Its final installation came about a year after Venice <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/venice-flooding-2641326129.html" target="_self">experienced</a> its worst high tide in more than 50 years during November 2019, an event that Brugnaro blamed on climate change. There were only 10 "exceptional tides" in Venice between 1923 and 2000, but that number rose to 14 between 2001 and 2019, according to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12052020/coronavirus-venice-canals-clear-climate-change-flood/" target="_blank">InsideClimate News</a>. The November 2019 flood covered more than 85 percent of the city and killed two people.</p><p>MOSE consists of 78 barriers and is designed to protect the city from up to 10 feet of flooding, according to The Associated Press.</p><p>Brugano emphasized that the project is still being tested, and that lessons from Tuesday's failures will be taken into account. He said that protocols would be developed to activate the system more quickly. For now, the city is working to activate the barrier to protect itself from a high tide of 1.2 meters predicted for Wednesday.</p><p>However, some say the barrier can only ever be a short-term fix for the problem of climate change. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">Sea level rise</a> is projected to swallow Venice by 2100 if nothing is done to lower greenhouse gas emissions, InsideClimate News reported.</p><p>University of Padua Maritime Construction professor Piero Ruol pointed out that even best-case-scenario projections for sea level rise would require the barriers to be shut more than six months a year, which would devastate the ecosystem of Venice's lagoon.</p><p>"Therefore, the MOSE can not be considered a solution that 'lasts forever' for protecting Venice from flooding," he told InsideClimate News, "and it is time to think of new solutions for solving this delicate conundrum, in the face of climate change."</p>
From Your Site Articles
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A boy and a man save chairs from a flooded house due to the heavy rains caused by Hurricane Eta, now degraded to a tropical storm, in Puerto Barrios, Izabal, north of Guatemala City on Nov. 5, 2020. JOHAN ORDONEZ / AFP via Getty Images
The storm formerly known as Hurricane Eta slowly dragged across Honduras Wednesday, dumping heavy rains across the region and prompting emergency flood and landslide warnings.
<p>A 15-year-old boy drowned in a rain-swollen river, bringing the storm's direct death toll to four. Hundreds of homes were destroyed by floodwaters in San Pedro Sula alone, according to the city's mayor. At least 38 Honduran communities have been cut off by washed-out roads, and five bridges in the country were wiped out by swollen rivers.</p>
<p>La Prensa Nicaragua also reported multiple <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-peoples">Indigenous</a> communities were forced to self-evacuate and were caught unaware after officials failed to warn them of Hurricane Eta's arrival. Some of those communities are the same that were violently attacked by settlers earlier this year. Eta, which is now a Tropical Depression but may strengthen to a Tropical Storm, is currently projected to hit Cuba and Florida, bringing heavy rains and flooding to the Southeast U.S.</p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-eta-nicaragua-mudslides-74c7bdeeef25ce2ef71c187c6d74a93d?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_pYbObA2uVl5i0vXtOvF1QeafLXl-gCXGqhPI3yfOlV0odxEZXrzFCVZBszNf3XI4OBahpFW5SpJ2ywF4y_hW_yq2kqw&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>, Eta left destruction across the city of Bilwi on the northern Nicaragua coast:</p><blockquote>"The debris teams are starting to work and we still can't give a sense of what happened," said Ivania Díaz, a local government official in Bilwi. "We have seen very humble homes completely destroyed."</blockquote><blockquote>South of Bilwi, closer to where Eta came ashore Tuesday, the seaside Miskito community of Wawa Bar was devastated. The military had evacuated the community before Eta hit, but what residents found Wednesday was distressing. Wind-twisted trees, shredded roofs and some structures damaged beyond recognition sat within view of the sea.</blockquote><blockquote>"There's nothing standing here," an unidentified resident told a local television station. "Wawa Bar is now a Miskito community where destruction reigns."</blockquote>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-eta-nicaragua-mudslides-74c7bdeeef25ce2ef71c187c6d74a93d?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_pYbObA2uVl5i0vXtOvF1QeafLXl-gCXGqhPI3yfOlV0odxEZXrzFCVZBszNf3XI4OBahpFW5SpJ2ywF4y_hW_yq2kqw&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.laprensa.hn/honduras/1420188-410/honduras-evacuados-huracan-eta-tormenta-tropical-inundaciones?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--4mCKgn7qcIic4GkE959RRzLQNb_8d3DXjBN1XurzgO4nh_Fa0kKXDnmemNhY72QauLKcXjzaDwrbVizLqGo-XpwrPXA&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">La Prensa HN</a> (es); Indigenous communities: <a href="https://www.laprensa.com.ni/2020/11/03/nacionales/2742210-bosawas-donde-nadie-les-aviso-que-los-golpearia-el-huracan-eta?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-848_Yhsc0z-DAcT3YRwdFNmnHDaId0SZwoTiZI9CG5HwGd_SPhhvs1dNIZ9YdMyKrM3PhLXlKFCpUdRNGA8YExl0AYnw&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">La Prensa NI</a> (es); Expected track: <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article246958282.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8cwrOFkepUVj012pL5S5HSj6lsNxIAWFLuF-2aYAPSfYJKemiuq6lRZEWhSZzVB2hHU50Nfcdw-IwSIeorQB2-ZaRUYw&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>; Climate Signals background: Climate Signals background: <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-change-hurricanes?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_2-fnXiSrNy9ObPbm_Rhved25iNcI77PE607P3LsD99oAaLjVBlTJI8qHzVeHamvYBUZxUWvd5BXGnYWPCNy27Rvmpvw&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Hurricanes</a>, <a href="https://www.climatesignals.org/events/atlantic-hurricane-season-2020?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=99106663&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9kP58_jHS155uCdvhQaQCc0m1P2svHVy7jPpXZa8R_BUnGjgzrs1j4csJwPC6_CIrp1MRZhQYxLaDzwZNXSUyftvjQuQ&utm_content=99106663&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 Atlantic hurricane season</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Hurricane Eta, 28th Named Storm of 2020, Menaces Nicaragua ... ›
- Tropical Storm Eta Hits Florida Keys; Central American Death Toll Rises - EcoWatch ›
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Popular tourist attraction St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. Edmund Hochmuth / Pixabay
A rising tide threatened to flood Venice, Italy, on Saturday, providing the first test for the city's long-awaited flood barrier. The tide peaked around four feet, potentially affecting more than one-third of the city, but controversial underwater barriers contained the rising waters, the AP reported.
<p>Popular tourist attraction St. Mark's Square usually floods at three feet, but remained mostly dry with the exception of some puddles, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-flood-barrier/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CNN</a> reported. </p><p>This is due to a new flood barrier dubbed MOSE, short for Electromagnetic Experimental Module in English. The system comprises 78 barriers submerged where the Adriatic Sea meets the Venetian lagoon, which form a dam during high tides, CNN reported.</p><p>"I'd heard the [warning] sirens in the morning but I didn't raise any of my furniture this time because the barrier lifted on the last test, and I had faith that it would work," Sebastian Fagarazzi, co-founder of social initiative Venezia Autentica, told CNN. "This is historic."</p>
<p>The MOSE system has been in development since 1984, but corruption, ballooning costs and concerns from environmental groups created delays, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/world/europe/venice-floodgates-flooding.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>"We found a difficult situation and slowly, slowly we've been able to resolve things," Giuseppe Fiengo, one of the commissioners who have overseen the project since 2014, told The New York Times. "The important thing is that today, for the first time, with high water, Venice didn't flood."<br></p><p>The timing of the successful test is a welcome relief to Venetians who endured the city's worst flooding in 53 years in November 2019 and who see the climate crisis as a mounting threat that will jeopardize the survival of the city, reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-weather-venice/mose-flood-barrier-finally-holds-the-waters-back-for-fragile-venice-idUSKBN26O0AZ" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>Despite MOSE's success on Saturday, there is still infrastructure work to be completed on the barriers. The plan is for the barriers to rise when the tide passes 3.6 feet above normal levels. However, the current threshold is 4.2 feet until the MOSE system is finished, according to the AP.<br></p><p>Saturday's tide levels were a fraction of what Venice experienced last year when the tide rose six feet above sea level. While engineers say the barrier will protect the city from tides up to 10 feet high, the MOSE system has not yet been tested in those conditions, The New York Times reported.</p><p>Some noted that rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis might force the barriers to stay up half the year, which would harm shipping channels and turn the Venetian lagoon into a swamp.</p>
<p>"With climate change, there's a chance that the floodgates could be employed 150-180 days a year, becoming an almost fixed barrier and severing the lagoon's relation to the sea," Cristiano Gasparetto, an architect and former provincial official who has long opposed the project, told The New York Times. "If the lagoon is cut off from the sea for long periods, it dies, because the natural exchange of waters stops, and all of its organic life risks decaying," he added. "If the lagoon dies, Venice dies." </p><p>The mayor, however, celebrated a device that may bring relief to Venice.</p><p>"Today, everything is dry. We stopped the sea," mayor Luigi Brugnaro said according to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/Reuters" target="_self">Reuters</a>. "Lots of bad things have happened here, but now something wonderful has happened."</p>
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Homes Are Flooding Outside FEMA’s 100-Year Flood Zones, Exposing Racial Inequality
28 September 2020
Climate
People walk down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 27, 2017 in Houston, Texas. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Kevin T. Smiley
When hurricanes and other extreme storms unleash downpours like Tropical Storm Beta has been doing in the South, the floodwater doesn't always stay within the government's flood risk zones.
New research suggests that nearly twice as many properties are at risk from a 100-year flood today than the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood maps indicate.
<p>Unfortunately, many of the people living in those properties have no idea that their homes are at risk until the floodwaters rise.</p><p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=SmYUxIEAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sociologist who works on disaster vulnerability</a>. In a new study, I looked at the makeup of communities in Houston that aren't in the 100-year flood zone, but that still flood. What I found tells a story of racial disparities in the city. Research in other cities has shown <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar flooding problems</a> in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.</p><p>Poor stormwater infrastructure, expanding urbanization and limited flood mitigation efforts are a few of the reasons why.</p>
Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>About <a href="https://furmancenter.org/files/Floodplain_PopulationBrief_12DEC2017.pdf" target="_blank">15 million</a> Americans live in FEMA's current 100-year flood zones. The designation warns them that their properties face a 1% risk of flooding in any given year. They must obtain flood insurance if they want a federally ensured loan – insurance that helps them recover from flooding.</p><p>In Greater Houston, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2012.01840.x" target="_blank">47% of claims</a> made to FEMA across three decades before Hurricane Harvey were outside of the 100-year flood zones. Harris County, recognizing that FEMA flood maps don't capture the full risk, now <a href="https://www.hcfcd.org/floodinsurance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recommends that every household</a> in Houston and the rest of the county have flood insurance.</p><p>New risk models point to a similar conclusion: Flood risk in these areas outstrips expectations in the current FEMA flood maps.</p><p>One of those models, from the <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/2020-national-flood-risk-assessment-highlights/" target="_blank">First Street Foundation</a>, estimates that the number of properties at risk in a 100-year storm is 1.7 times higher than the FEMA maps suggest. Other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aaac65" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">researchers</a> find an even higher margin, with 2.6 to 3.1 times more people exposed to serious flooding in a 100-year storm than FEMA estimates.</p>What FEMA’s Flood Maps Miss
<p>Understanding why areas outside the 100-year flood zones are flooding more often than the FEMA maps suggest involves larger social and environmental issues. Three reasons stand out.</p><p>First, some places rely on relatively old FEMA maps that don't account for recent urbanization.</p><p>Urbanization matters because impervious surfaces – think pavement and buildings – are not effective sponges like natural landscapes can be. Moreover, the process for updating floodplain maps is locally variable and can take years to complete. Famously, New York City was updating its maps when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012 but hadn't finished, meaning flood maps in effect <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nyc-flood/" target="_blank">were from 1983</a>. FEMA is required to assess whether updates are needed every five years, but the <a href="https://www.fema.gov/cis/nation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">majority of maps</a> <a href="https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2017/OIG-17-110-Sep17.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">are older</a>.</p><p>Second, binary thinking can lead people to an underaccounting of risk, and that can mean communities fail to take steps that could protect a neighborhood from flooding. The logic goes: if I'm not in the 100-year floodplain, then I'm not at risk. Risk perception <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab195a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research</a> backs this up. FEMA-delineated flood zones are the major factor shaping flood mitigation behaviors.</p><p>Third, the era of climate change scuttles conventional assumptions.</p><p>As the planet warms, extreme storms are becoming <a href="https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank">more common and severe</a>. If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at a high rate, computer models suggest that the chances of a severe storm dropping 20 inches of rain on Texas in any given year will increase from about 1% at the end of the last century to 18% at the end of this one, a chance of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1716222114" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">once every 5.5 years</a>. So far, <a href="https://www.rstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/195.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FEMA hasn't taken into account the impact climate change is having</a> on extreme weather and sea level rise.</p>Racial Disparities in Flooding Outside the Zones
<p>So, who is at risk?</p><p>Years of research and evidence from storms have highlighted social inequalities in areas with a high risk of flooding. But most local governments have less understanding of the social and demographic composition of communities that experience flood impacts outside of flood zones.</p><p>In analyzing the damage from Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area, I found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aba0fe" target="_blank">Black and Hispanic residents disproportionately experienced flooding</a> in areas beyond FEMA's 100-year flood zones.</p><p>With the majority of flooding from Hurricane Harvey occurring outside of 100-year flood zones, this meant that the overall impact of Harvey was racially unequal too.</p><p>Research into where flooding occurs in Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix points to some of the potential causes. <a href="https://www.nap.edu/read/25381/chapter/4#16" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In Baltimore and Chicago</a>, for example, aging storm and sewer infrastructure, poor construction and insufficient efforts to mitigate flooding are part of the flooding problem in some predominantly Black neighborhoods.</p>What Can Be Done About It
<p>Better accounting for those three reasons could substantively improve risk assessments and help cities prioritize infrastructure improvements and flood mitigation projects in these at-risk neighborhoods.</p><p>For example, First Street Foundation's risk maps account for <a href="https://firststreet.org/flood-lab/research/flood-model-methodology_overview/" target="_blank">climate change</a> and present <a href="https://floodfactor.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ratings</a> on a scale from 1 to 10. FEMA, which works with communities to update flood maps, is <a href="https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1521054297905-ca85d066dddb84c975b165db653c9049/TMAC_2017_Annual_Report_Final508(v8)_03-12-2018.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exploring rating systems</a>. And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2019/03/new-report-calls-for-different-approaches-to-predict-and-understand-urban-flooding" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called for a new generation of flood maps</a> that takes climate change into account.</p><p>Including recent urbanization in those assessments will matter too, especially in fast-growing cities like Houston, where <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1boBRyDvMFW6W" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">386 new square miles</a> of impervious surfaces were created in the last 20 years. That's greater than the land area of New York City. New construction in one area can also <a href="https://scalawagmagazine.org/2018/01/city-in-a-swamp-as-houston-booms-its-flood-problems-are-only-getting-worse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impact older neighborhoods downhill</a> during a flood, as some Houston communities discovered in Hurricane Harvey.</p><p>Improving risk assessments is needed not just to better prepare communities for major flood events, but also to prevent racial inequalities – in housing and beyond – from <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/03/05/688786177/how-federal-disaster-money-favors-the-rich" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">growing</a> after the unequal impacts of disasters.</p>From Your Site Articles
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The Community Flood Watch Project is collecting resident reports of flooding in Jamaica Bay, Queens. Bjoertvedt / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
Many of New York City's coastal residents are plagued by flooding – during storms and on sunny days.
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<p>"There are certain times of the year associated with the new and full moons where it brings higher-than-normal high tides. And with that, those tides can bring flooding into communities," says Helen Cheng, a former coastal resilience extension specialist with <a target="_blank" href="https://seagrant.sunysb.edu/" rel="noopener noreferrer">New York Sea Grant</a> and with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.srijb.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science and Resilience Institute</a>.</p><p>She says in the Jamaica Bay watershed, flooding can block access to the subway station that people need to get to work from day to day.</p><p>"Even services, sometimes – you know, the delivery of mail – can get impacted by water on the streets."</p>
<p>Cheng says tidal flooding is getting worse as sea levels rise, and it's important to know how people are affected. So as part of the Community Flood Watch Project, residents document and report flooding.</p><p>"There's a lot of value in on-the-ground information and community data, right? Because they're living in these places and experiencing these events 24/7," she says.</p><p>Cheng says the data improves flood warnings and sea-level-rise predictions, and it helps city leaders understand how flooding affects people's lives.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/09/new-york-city-residents-document-sea-level-rise-in-coastal-neighborhoods/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Hurricane Delta Floods Parts of Louisiana Still Recovering From August’s Laura
12 October 2020
Climate
An aerial drone view shows a model home surrounded by flooding from Hurricane Delta in an area still recovering from Hurricane Laura on Oct. 10, 2020 in Iowa, Louisiana. Mario Tama / Getty Images
Record-breaking hurricane Delta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane near Creole, Louisiana Friday evening, striking another blow to a region still recovering from Hurricane Laura just six weeks earlier.
<p>Especially hard hit by the one-two punch of storms was the town of Lake Charles, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-tropical-storms-storms-hurricane-laura-hurricane-delta-b79a7554173b9e5730ae0f658be52868" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. While Delta was weaker than Category 4 Laura, which damaged almost every building in the town, the second storm brought more <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a>, inundating hundreds of the same buildings.</p><p>"Add Laura and Delta together and it's just absolutely unprecedented and catastrophic," Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter told The Associated Press. "We are very concerned that with everything going in the country right now that this incident may not be on the radar nationally like it should be."</p>
<div id="b1ead" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c72bcdab8d9280617a4c52d2fbaf7df0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314704983523115008" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Delta is the 2nd #hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana this season (Laura was the other). This is the first ye… https://t.co/dN78re5Pjz</div> — Philip Klotzbach (@Philip Klotzbach)<a href="https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/statuses/1314704983523115008">1602285068.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In addition to walloping Lake Charles, Delta also knocked out power to more than 400,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas as of Sunday morning, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/11/weather/hurricane-delta-sunday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>. The outages had deadly results. An 86-year-old man in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana died in a fire after trying to fuel a generator in his shed.</p><p>The storm weakened to a post-tropical cyclone and moved north out of Louisiana over the weekend but continued to cause damage. A train derailed in Lilburn, Georgia because of heavy rain, and two <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/tornadoes" target="_self">tornadoes</a> also touched down in the state, injuring two.</p><p>By Sunday night, the post-tropical remnants of the storm were located about 60 miles north-northeast of Atlanta, Georgia and were expected to continue to weaken, the <a href="https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIAWPCAT1+shtml/120245.shtml" target="_blank">National Hurricane Center said</a>.</p>
<p>The back-to-back impacts of Laura and Delta are a reminder of how catastrophes can compound because of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>"We live today in the age of crisis conglomeration," climate justice writer Mary Annaïse Heglar wrote for <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/2020-crises-wildfires-pandemic-election-climate-crisis-1069907/" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a> Oct. 4. "It is no longer useful or honest or even smart to look at any of them through a single lens."</p><p>The climate crisis is making hurricanes <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-hurricanes-wetter-2619851055.html" target="_self">wetter</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-delta-2020-2648150767.html" target="_self">more likely to intensify rapidly</a>, as both Laura and Delta did. And the storms together have forced more than 9,000 people in Louisiana into shelters in the middle of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/11/louisiana-surveys-deltas-devastation-wonder-how-much-federal-aid-they-can-expect/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p>
<p>"We are responding to Hurricane Delta and continue to recover from Hurricane Laura in a covid environment," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday, urging people to continue social distancing and wearing masks as they respond to the storm.</p><p>On Sunday, he said 20 more people in the state had died of the disease.</p><p>Hurricane Delta is also the latest record-breaker in an unprecedented Atlantic hurricane season. It was the earliest ever 25th named storm, and the 10th named storm to make landfall in the U.S., the most ever in a single season, meteorologist Steve Bowen pointed out on Twitter.</p>
<div id="e45b8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3de3462f0a6de38226d20e3d0ac27241"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1314706724687839232" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Delta has made landfall in Louisiana. This marks a record 10th named storm landfall on the U.S. mainland, and the… https://t.co/wmiNUDq7DL</div> — Steve Bowen (@Steve Bowen)<a href="https://twitter.com/SteveBowenWx/statuses/1314706724687839232">1602285483.0</a></blockquote></div>
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An aerial photo shows a flooded New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on September 11, 2005. NOAA / Wikimedia Commons
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph was severely damaged by flooding.
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<p>The nuns moved elsewhere while repairs began. But the following year, lightning struck the roof and started a fire. The convent could not be saved.</p><p>"We began to pray for some kind of insight that would enable us to use the property in a way that would minister to the people of New Orleans," says Sister Pat Bergen.</p><p>She says an architect came to the nuns with an idea – converting the 25 acres into a wetland that helps prevent flooding in nearby areas.</p>
<p>They're calling the project the <a target="_blank" href="https://nola.gov/resilience-sustainability/areas-of-focus/green-infrastructure/hazard-mitigation-stormwater-projects/mirabeau-water-garden-phase-i/">Mirabeau Water Garden</a>. Plans for the site include recreational areas, meadows that absorb stormwater, and retention ponds.</p><p>When the city's drainage system is overwhelmed, water will be diverted to the property and held there until it can be safely released.</p><p>"Healing, strengthening, restoring Earth was a major part of our decision-making, and that's why this design resonated with our hearts right away," Bergen says.</p><p>So when the city breaks ground, it will turn what was once a major loss into a gain for the flood-prone city of New Orleans.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/08/nuns-agree-to-convert-damaged-convent-into-flood-prevention-project/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Hurricane Sally Makes Landfall Slowly With 'Life-Threatening' Flooding Expected
16 September 2020
Climate
A road floods as the outer bands of Hurricane Sally come ashore on Sept. 15, 2020 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
The Florida panhandle, the Alabama coast and Mississippi are seeing Hurricane Sally batter its shores Wednesday morning as the slow-moving hurricane starts to make landfall. The storm intensified overnight as it churned slowly over the Gulf of Mexico. It's expected to be a Category 2 storm when it fully makes landfall Wednesday during the mid-morning hours from 8 a.m. to noon, according to AccuWeather.
<p>Even though the center of the storm stayed offshore over night, the effects of Hurricane Sally were being felt. Some locations along the Gulf Coast have already received 20 inches of rain and the National Weather Service (NWS) in Mobile, Alabama warned that amount could double, considering how quickly the rain has already come down, as <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-sally-updates-flash-flood-emergency-issued-parts/story?id=73038603" target="_blank">ABC News</a> reported.</p><p>"These warnings are issued for exceedingly rare situations when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening," the NWS said in a statement Wednesday morning. "This is a life-threatening situation. Seek higher ground now."</p>
<p>Early Wednesday morning, flash <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">flooding</a> inundated roads in the southeast corner of Alabama and the western part of Alabama. According to poweroutage.us, nearly 300,000 homes have already lost power, as <a href="https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-09-16-hurricane-sally-forecast-landfall-alabama-florida-coast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Weather Channel</a> reported.</p><p>On Tuesday night, the slow moving hurricane was chugging toward land at just 2 mph. The slow pace meant areas of the Gulf Coast were feeling 70 mph winds and receiving rain from the outer portion of the hurricane, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/16/weather/hurricane-sally-wednesday/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a>. As Sally approached landfall early Wednesday morning, some areas registered winds peaking at 105 mph, according to AccuWeather.</p><p>To prepare for the storm and the possibility of water main breaks that would exacerbate the flooding or release sewage, the Escambia County Utilities Authority in Pensacola, Florida shut off the water system around 11:00 pm Tuesday night since the storm surge and the rising tides overwhelmed the sewer system, according to CNN.</p>
<p>Due to the storm's slow movement, the National Weather Service predicts that the relentless wind and rains will last for most of the day on Wednesday, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/15/hurricane-sally-live-updates/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. That slow pace means the area could see 30 inches or more of rain on Wednesday alone.</p><p>The stalling of storms has been notably costly recently. Last year, Hurricane Dorian stalled over Bermuda and caused widespread destruction from its relentless rains and wind. And, in 2017, Hurricane Harvey was no longer a hurricane when it stalled over Houston and dropped more than 4 feet of rain, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/climate/hurricane-sally-climate-change.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>"Our work indicates that climate change is favoring this phenomenon," said Michael E. Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, in an email message to The New York Times. "It likely plays a role in the decreased translation speed of landfalling hurricanes."</p><p>Mann and his colleagues have found that Arctic warming is affecting the jet stream and not only causing hurricanes to stall, but also locking air in place to cause heat waves and other <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather">extreme weather</a>, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>While Hurricane Sally has stalled near the Gulf Coast, it is not predicted to affect the areas that were hardest hit by Hurricane Laura several weeks ago. On Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center dropped its hurricane and tropical storm warning for New Orleans and the Lake Pontchartrain as Sally is too far east to hit those parts of Louisiana, according to AccuWeather.</p>
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There are more than 90,000 dams in the United States, most of which were built more than 50 years ago. AlbertPego / Getty Images
There are more than 90,000 dams in the United States. Many of those dams are at risk of failure.
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<p>"Most of them were built more than 50 years ago. Usually, the design life of a dam is between 50 and 60 years, so a lot of our dams are already past their design age," says Paulina Concha Larrauri, a researcher at Columbia University.</p><p>She says many of these dams are not only old, but poorly maintained.</p><p>"There's a lot of variation on the safety and oversight of these dams across the country," she says.</p><p>In many areas, climate change is making the situation even more dangerous by causing more frequent and heavier rains.</p>
<p>In a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.essoar.org/doi/abs/10.1002/essoar.10503795.1">recent report</a>, Concha Larrauri and her team analyzed the risks and potential impacts of dam failures. She says that if one dam fails, it can cause other breaches downstream.</p><p>The risks can be extensive, and not just to people and homes. Flood waters can disrupt power generation and block roads and railways.</p><p>But funds to address the problem are limited, so she says it's important to assess the risks and potential losses, and prioritize repairs accordingly.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/more-frequent-heavier-rains-strain-u-s-dams/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>
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Tropical cyclone Yasa has killed at least two people in Fiji, including a three-month-old baby. ABC News (Australia) / YouTube
Category 5 Cyclone Yasa has laid waste to Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island, killing two on Thursday and forcing thousands to seek shelter.
<p>Though Yasa moved relatively quickly, causing less immediate damage than had been feared, officials worry it could cause "a second disaster within a disaster," Oxfam regional director Raijeli Nicole told The Guardian.</p><p>"Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable with flooding and coastal inundation expected in low-lying areas, along with strong winds and heavy rain …. Without assistance, people will be at risk of waterborne infections," she added. </p>
<p>Other relief agencies also said the storm wiped out many families' food stores. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">Climate change</a>, caused by burning <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>, increases the intensity of strong storms like Yasa, which may be the strongest-ever recorded storm in the southern hemisphere. </p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/cyclone-yasa-two-die-in-fiji-as-storm-hits-second-largest-island?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8t3oHOITikUFA2gUk7eK3IpBBbjFhlgXiIgNGBalnbqOSfYb1wqmMUpTmvHbrjZCFmmqvBAMkY0I3F3kzELF2zkjQoDQ&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>:</p><blockquote>The cyclone is another blow to the country's tourism-reliant economy, already devastated by pandemic shutdowns which have caused tens of thousands of job losses. Fiji's economy has shrunk more than 20% this year due to the pandemic.</blockquote><blockquote>The prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, an outspoken advocate on behalf of the Pacific for greater global climate change action, pointed out that Yasa hit 12 years to the day since Cyclone Evan struck Fiji. He has consistently argued that climate change is making cyclones more frequent and more intense across the Pacific.</blockquote><blockquote>"Since then, we've been battered by 12 more cyclones, two of which, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/20/a-farm-to-withstand-a-cyclone-rebuilding-after-fijis-worst-storm" target="_blank">Winston</a> and Yasa, are now jockeying for our hemisphere's strongest-ever storm in history.</blockquote><blockquote>"This is not normal. This is a climate emergency," he said.</blockquote>
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<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/cyclone-yasa-two-die-in-fiji-as-storm-hits-second-largest-island?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8t3oHOITikUFA2gUk7eK3IpBBbjFhlgXiIgNGBalnbqOSfYb1wqmMUpTmvHbrjZCFmmqvBAMkY0I3F3kzELF2zkjQoDQ&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/17/weather/cyclone-yasa-damage-intl-hnk/index.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8NVjE4es63KD-ZBQ3eLB4POmh-MCXnmkI0JTpJRDXCwZUhi_BXXppsyaSN6Uy2LqIVmbHEb38yvno5XTpWJISNkqB8Bg&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">CNN</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/18/cyclone-yasa-slightly-weakens-but-leave-damage-in-fiji?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_i3TP6pYCmgCrCyYOaf8JSgMMh0dQkIeR6xbDp25z3OGJVt18JT9Mgv0HJXKBfa_v7cX3elDG-mm9Mb2vzjbPvkgFBPA&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/12/17/cyclone-yasa-hits-fiji/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-84hQSi25yo1uxoLko1vH14C-XN6Dnu902rpVhBfjgTrTu3m4z_D1-jq0b3n2J4mz2Y1lb9MiJSRhy8yR_uDsDVjcET3Q&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN28R09P?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8iUHWgX2Hh1MrVs5i2_vp1hiNdiVPpZQZ6WvbOkEccg0Tn0dSlgkBOtBYPrB34H7NxildzgWdSjCMRQFxNt42dJ1xFXA&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/tropical-cyclone-yasa-makes-landfall-in-fiji-with-145-mph-winds/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_7xtfLrPI1KMvskgrtAMAP9LEXRY4p2sAWZ3pU5Ms1ZGYbpJktM09yGv5SWn_8p76XDeKQ98nXLwZz0UhJqlkDkv1xKg&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>; <span style="background-color: initial;">Climate</span> signals background: <a href="https://newsletter.climatenexus.org/e2t/tc/MWKJKrrLL4xW5r4Jvk26Tc1ZW5q0Twr4kLCzhN1sYgZZ3p_b1V1-WJV7CgMjfVvQ7zb5-shLtW3F72sj779qDNW5Jbh7f3wT8N9N3FlVNQnj9h5W1n3QCD4x0LJYW4_RSwr24qvrRW4xHgQj1VVPcqW2tCF9q79kc_tW4H0D0-4JdcXJW4wHRFW4jG4FBW13ZDQ34l_VFnW8SL9cW89K_DlW686LB_92zv4PW8HBDg83jJPdSVB8my84p0W6RW2gbGMp8rmnVRW46gCHH3LCqvzV8mPKP8KWPmfW6fxsB817WsjBVmZ61x5WDswKW6N5RXW99PHF7W4yJw116GlgS2W4H7_xw8tFjpMW1fYBMm2g2XXLW8TG86V7sm-https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/intense-cyclone-hurricane-typhoon-frequency-increase?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=103531313&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_f9aJC7w1LpsUh8QucLIctsdyHP7tC0viGXw_dFgABOvHljF0nitJYWV0QSEeANJh1CeBf52mLgJG1-hXLrFub5PDCLQ&utm_content=103531313&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Intense cyclone frequency increase</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A man observes a flooded stretch of Dock Street in Annapolis, Maryland on Jan. 25, 2010. Matt Rath / Chesapeake Bay Program
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Tuesday that a trend of increased coastal flooding will continue to worsen as the climate crisis escalates.
<p>Increased flooding is happening even without storms. "Nuisance" or "sunny day" high-tide flooding is becoming more commonplace across the U.S., according to the NOAA report that warns such flooding will worsen in the decades to come as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">seas continue to rise</a>, according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/14/coastal-flooding-continue-increase-noaa-report-says/5437524002/" target="_blank">USA Today</a>.</p><p>The agency noted record levels of high-tide flooding in 2019. Some of the hardest hit areas were on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, where the increase in high-tide flooding has been "extraordinary," according to the report, <a href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/publications/Techrpt_092_2019_State_of_US_High_Tide_Flooding_with_a_2020_Outlook_30June2020.pdf" target="_blank"><em>2019 State of High-Tide Flooding and 2020 Outlook</em></a>.</p>
<p>The number of days with high-tide flooding set or tied records in 19 places around the country last year, including Corpus Christi, Texas, which recorded 18 days of flooding; Galveston, Texas (18 days); Annapolis, Maryland (18 days); and Charleston, South Carolina (13 days), as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/coastal-flooding-noaa.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. The place with the greatest number of recorded flood days was Eagle Point, Texas, in Galveston Bay; it dealt with high-tide flooding on 64 days, or about one out of every five days.</p><p>Those numbers represent huge jumps in a short period of time, the report found. In 2000, Corpus Christi had just three days of tidal flooding; Charleston had two. The report notes that Charleston recorded just 13 days of high-tide flooding in the more than 50 years that measurements were first kept — the exact amount that occurred in 2019 alone, according to The New York Times.</p>
<p>The Southeast, on average, has seen a three-fold increase in flooding since 2000, according to NOAA.</p><p>The Northeast will not be spared. NOAA predicts that from May 2020 to April 2021, the national high tide flood frequency is expected to accelerate, with U.S. coastal communities seeing an average of 2 to 6 days of flooding in the coming year. Communities along the northeast and western Gulf coasts are projected to see even more days of flooding, according to the report.</p><p>"America's coastal communities and their economies are suffering from the effects of high tide flooding, and it's only going to increase in the future," said Nicole LeBoeuf, acting director of NOAA's National Ocean Service, in a <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/us-high-tide-flooding-continues-to-increase" target="_blank">statement</a>. "NOAA is committed to working with coastal communities to provide the information and data they need to tackle the problem of high tide flooding, both now and in the coming years as sea levels continue to rise."</p>
<p><a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html" target="_blank">High-tide flooding</a> occurs when tides reach anywhere from 1.75 to 2 feet above the daily average high tide and start spilling onto streets or coming up from storm drains, according to NOAA. As sea level rise accelerates, damaging floods that used to happen only during severe storms now happen much more regularly, such as during a full-moon tide or with a change in prevailing winds or currents.</p><p>By 2030, NOAA projected, the frequency of high-tide flooding could double or triple, according to The New York Times. By 2050, that number could be five to 15 times as great, with the typical coastal community flooding between 25 and 75 days a year, NOAA said, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>"You see where this is going," LeBoeuf said. "We all need to pay attention."</p>
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