and coastal points in between. The question is which people living in these expanding flood plains are pragmatic enough to sell their homes there now while there is still a real estate market of clueless new retirees, and which people will sentimentally & stubbornly wait to be flooded out. Cause if you can't get a mortgage and flood insurance on these properties, and that day has already arrived in some areas, there is no market for them. If you want to stay there, lease a property or get a houseboat.
http://savannahnow.com/news/2014-10-18/tidal-flooding-forecast-new-normal-savannah-tybee-island
A national report released recently by the Union of Concerned Scientists highlights these nuisance flooding events in U.S. coastal communities and warns that more and worse coastal floods are coming in future decades.
“Several decades ago, flooding at high tide was simply not a problem,” said Melanie Fitzpatrick, report co-author and climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Today, when the tide is extra high, people find themselves splashing through downtown Miami, Norfolk and Annapolis on sunny days and dealing with flooded roads in Atlantic City, Savannah and the coast of New Hampshire.”
In Norfolk, evidence of climate change is in the streets at high tide
NORFOLK — At high tide on the small inlet next to Norfolk’s most prestigious art museum, the water lapped at the very top of the concrete sea wall that has held it back for 100 years. It seeped up through storm drains, puddled on the promenade and spread, half a foot deep, across the street, where a sign read, “Road Closed.”
The sun was shining, but all around the inlet people were bracing for more serious flooding. The Chrysler Museum of Art had just completed a $24 million renovation that emptied the basement, now accessible only by ladder, and lifted the heating and air-conditioning systems to the top floor. A local accounting firm stood behind a homemade barricade of stanchions and detachable flaps rigged to keep the water out. And the congregation of the Unitarian Church of Norfolk was looking to evacuate.
“We don’t like being the poster child for climate change,” said the Rev. Jennifer Slade, who added that the building, with its carved-wood sanctuary and soaring flood-insurance rates, would soon be on the market for the first time in four decades. “I don’t know many churches that have to put the tide chart on their Web site” so people know whether they can get to church.
On May 6, the Obama administration released the third National Climate Assessment, and President Obama proclaimed climate change no longer a theory; its effects, he said, are already here. This came as no surprise in Norfolk, where normal tides have risen 11 / 2 feet over the past century and the sea is rising faster than anywhere else on the East Coast.
Check out these pictures of street flooding in Norfolk - the owners can write off those cars. Come to think of it, in addition to being unable to get mortgages/homeowners' insurance, auto insurance will also be hard to get/incredibly expensive in those areas.
http://hamptonroads.com/2014/05/pictures-heavy-flooding-norfolk-portsmouth
http://hamptonroads.com/2014/05/pictures-heavy-flooding-norfolk-portsmouth
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