On the morning of November 5th, the highest astronomical tide of the year — the so-called King Tide — will swamp low-lying areas throughout Hampton Roads, with water peaking at 2 feet above mean sea level. By 2050, that is likely to be the new normal. “King tides are increasingly viewed as harbingers of things to come as sea levels …
Toxic Emissions From 46 Petrochemical Sites, Flooding At 14 Toxic Waste Sites, & ~100 Hazardous Substance Spills — Hurricane Harvey’s Talley To Date
September 11th, 2017 by James Ayre on Clean Technica Now that a bit of time has elapsed since Hurricane Harvey tore a path of destruction along the coast of Texas, things have begun to get clearer as regards the fate of Houston’s many petrochemical facilities. The tally on that count, as it stands right now, is: flooding and/or damage reported at 14 toxic …
Disasters are, and now is a good time to talk about climate change. Public health risks are rising
By Jason Samenow, Washington Post, August 29 at 4:07 PM The rain from Harvey is in a class of its own. The storm has unloaded over 50 inches of rain east of Houston, the greatest amount ever recorded in the Lower 48 states from a single storm. And it’s still raining. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist, said a rain gauge in Mont Belvieu, about …
New research finds that most previous estimates for sea level rise were too conservative, while visualizations show what U.S. cities may look like by 2100
On Common Dreams, by Nika Knight, April 2017 President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort would be completely drowned in the most extreme scenario for sea level rise. (Image: Climate Central) A new report shows that many previous estimates of global sea level rise by 2100 were far too conservative, the Washington Post reported Thursday, and the research comes as new maps and …
Pence took part in crafting post-Katrina “Shock Doctrine” reducing rights and privatizing services
By Naomi Klein in The Intercept, 24 Jan 2017 Here’s a lot of recovery and adaptation work:”After all the layers of subcontractors had taken their cut, there was next to nothing left for the people doing the work. For instance, the author Mike Davis tracked the way FEMA paid Shaw $175 a square foot to install blue tarps on damaged roofs, even though …
Coastal cities could flood three times a week by 2045
By John Updike, 9 Feb 2017, Originally published on Climate Central The lawns of homes purchased this year in vast swaths of coastal America could regularly be underwater before the mortgage has even been paid off, with new research showing high tide flooding could become nearly incessant in places within 30 years. Such floods could occur several times a week …
Flood frequency diminishing in the southern half of most of the US, except Florida and the Gulf, while increasing across the northern US and central Midwest
A new study finds the threat of flooding is increasing in the northern half of the United States and declining in the South. The findings are based on water-height measurements at 2,042 stream and rivers, compared to NASA data showing the amount of water stored in the ground. A University of Iowa study has found that the risk of flooding …
Green infrastructure reduces flooding, increases quality of life, property values, and safety along with climate resilience
Excerpt from article at The Christian Science Monitor 20 Dec 2016 Cost-effective climate response What cities are learning is that green infrastructure could prove a low-cost approach to relieving inundated pipelines as climate change intensifies storms, all the while adding community amenities like greenspace. Heavy rainfalls are a fingerprint of climate change because a warmer atmosphere causes more evaporation and holds more …
Tidal flooding becoming more frequent with sea level rise, with flooding more than half the days of the year in sight in the next 15-30 years
“It’s a new way of thinking about risk.” said Doug Plasencia, president of the Association of State Flood Plain Managers Foundation. “We always have estimated flood risk by believing that magnitude and frequency would repeat, meaning that climate and other conditions, such as land use, were relatively stable. But now, with the changes in the climate, that is no longer …
Sea level rise could be limited to 5-6 ft this century if we keep temp increases below 2°C – transition needed in next decade or two to save east coast cities
From Joe Romm/Climate Progress, 31 Mar 2016 — We still could limit sea level rise to two feet this century if we keep total warming below 2°C, according to new analysis. Otherwise, we should be anticipating five to six feet of sea level rise by 2100 — which would generate hundreds of millions of refugees. That isn’t even the worst-case scenario. This latest …