RafaelFajardo

Climate change has already guaranteed that the world will experience a rise in sea level of several feet; there won’t be a “new,” static coastline for centuries to come. This means that cities and towns on the shoreline are guaranteed an increase in flooding vulnerability. Some of the damage this will cause is inevitable. Many flood-prone portions of Manhattan, for example, are so dense that there’s no moving them. But other forms of damage are completely avoidable. (Perhaps you’ve heard about the New Jersey waterfront property owners who don’t want sand dunes obstructing their view.)

If it were up to him, says Bill Hooke, a senior policy fellow at the American Meteorological Society, the government would buy up the most vulnerable seaside properties and simply return them to nature. Of course, that isn’t what’s happening. “People are rebuilding like before,” he says. “And that’s a big issue.”

“People are rebuilding like before…And that’s a big issue.”
The state of New York has dedicated $400 million to buying out homeowners in flood-prone areas, but very few have taken advantage of the program. That’s partly because officials can’t just put money on the table and expect people to line up, says Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness. “The [program] in New York state is quite good. It recognizes something important, that there are some places we shouldn’t rebuild,” he says. “But you can’t just announce a buyout program…You have to have a very active program to give people assistance relocating. The relocation process itself is very, very complicated and traumatic for people.”

In New Jersey, Christie declined to improve upon a state regulation that forced rebuilding to take place at least one foot higher than FEMA’s new flood maps recommended—even though FEMA’s maps do not account for more frequent floods or an inevitable rise in sea level. By contrast, New York state, in accordance with the recommendations of climatologists and flooding experts, is requiring a two-foot margin of safety. Kenneth Miller, a Rutgers University geologist who tracks sea level rise, recently told NJ.com, “If I want my grandkids to be in my house, I would make sure that I was protected for 2 additional feet above FEMA recommendations.”

Rebuilding in these fragile areas requires enormous amounts of government resources. For example, restoring the entire coastline will require the Army Corps of Engineers to replace 27 million cubic yards of sand at a cost of around $3.5 billion—restoration efforts outside Ocean City, New Jersey, alone cost $14 million. In a perfect world, says Hooke, there wouldn’t be any more aid for shoreline property owners whose homes are destroyed by predictable disasters in the future. “The reality is, if you’ve got it, you’ve probably got to really afford to be able to rebuild it yourself,” he says.