Nearly 75% Of Coastal States Aren't Prepared For Sea Level Rise

As thousands of people in the Northeast lost power due to a pre-Christmas storm that put coastal towns on flood alert, the Pacific coast was grappling with its own flood warning brought upon by the largest high tides of the year ("King Tides&quot . As climate change progresses, storms will increase in strength, sea levels will rise more rapidly, U.S. coasts will flood more frequently, and shoreline properties will disappear.

Each year, $500 million worth of coastal structures are lost as coastlines disappear. The federal government spends nearly $150 million each year to manage the loss of beaches and coastal real estate. Two-thirds of the U.S. population lives and works in coastal counties. Ocean-related businesses are responsible for over $352 billion of the U.S.' annual GDP. By the end of the century, as sea levels rise between six to ten feet and nearly 2.5 million coastal homes experience chronic flooding, many coastal livelihoods will be put at risk.

Many coastal regions are taking steps to prepare their communities for coastal flooding. After Hurricane Florence inundated the eastern seaboard earlier this year, North Carolina joined the Paris Climate Agreement despite outlawing sea level rise in 2012. And, many California cities are in the process of updating their sea level rise and flood warning systems. Yet, over half of all coastal states continue to develop in areas that are likely to experience sea level rise and extreme weather events that wipe out their shorelines.

While ocean currents naturally change shorelines by taking sand away, they are generally replenished by sand from elsewhere along the coastline. However, coastal developments can change the course of these currents or block them entirely. Sea walls, a form of coastal armoring intended to prevent water from entering coastal communities, are merely temporary solutions that can damage beaches and further alter ocean currents. Because it takes several thousands to millions of years for wind to erode rocks into sand, sand is a finite resource that is in high demand and will not always be available to restock disappearing beaches.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/priyashukla/2018/12/27/nearly-75-of-coastal-states-arent-prepared-for-sea-level-rise/#582b8ff63205