I, and the houses/communities I then lived in, have experienced & survived tornadoes (Kansas/Illinois), floods (Illinois/ Pennsylvania), fires, hurricanes (Florida) & earthquakes(California). Comparing those sporadic natural disasters to rising sea levels is a form of denial for those living in areas which will be PERMANENTLY flooded out. There's nothing FEMA, the Red Cross, homeowner's insurance, local emergency responders or the like can do to rescue/repair from rising ocean levels.
I heard a presentation by the director of Florida's emergency management agency - about 20 years ago. He had a flip chart with the map of Florida and plastic overlays showing the paths of hurricanes. There was not an inch on the map which was spared. He also discussed the heavy concentration of the state's population within a few miles of the coast line, and the inadequacy of evacuation routes relative to the size of the population. Then of course, you have the heavy percentage of elderly in the state who would not be able to survive the heat and humidity of summer months should there be a prolonged power outage re air conditioning. The specter of rising ocean levels was not even considered back then.
While major cities such as New York and Baltimore can construct flood and storm surge barriers, that is not possible for ANY portion of Florida. I have cautioned family and friends for years now - do NOT retire to Florida. If you already own property there, sell it and just lease or rent or time share. I know people who have sold their homes elsewhere and invested all that money in beautiful places in Florida. If they can afford to write off that investment, fine. But if at some point they need to sell a primary residence in Florida to pay for care in assisted living, they may find themselves "underwater" re their home's declining value.
A report prepared a few years ago for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated that 40 million people and $3 trillion in assets are already vulnerable to coastal flooding in cities around the world. By 2070, the OECD paper said, those numbers could rise to 150 million people and $35 trillion—and that's assuming a sea-level rise of just 20 inches (0.5 meter).
New York has taken the threat much more seriously than most American jurisdictions. At least one state, North Carolina, is actively ignoring the problem: The state legislature has refused to include realistic sea-level rise projections in its coastal planning policies.
Even with enlightened leadership, however, the sorts of engineering solutions proposed by Bloomberg won't work everywhere. Miami, for example, which tops the OECD report's list for cities with the most assets at risk, rests on a foundation of highly porous limestone. Seawater would flow unimpeded beneath any levee or storm surge barrier.
It's already contaminating Florida's underground water supply, and it regularly erupts from Miami's sewers during "king tides," when the sun and moon exert their most powerful tidal pull on Earth. The problem is only going to get worse: By the century's end large parts of Florida may be underwater.
Meanwhile, fools in Miami are still building:
Perhaps its most high-profile project currently under construction is Brickell CityCentre, a massive undertaking that is expected to transform Miami’s urban core. JMA — in a joint venture with Americaribe — is managing construction of the project, which will incorporate a luxury shopping center, two condominium towers, a hotel, apartments, a wellness center and an office complex.
The construction contract for BrickellCityCentre is estimated at almost $500 million, according to developer Swire Properties.
Read more here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/06/09/3442564/betting-big-on-miami.html#storylink=cpy
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