NC, SC Cities Suddenly Notice That Rising Sea Levels Are Real And Will Have To Be Dealt With
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North Carolina passed a law in 2012 preventing the state from forming coastal polices based on sea rise predictions. But Republican control of the legislature is waning, and local leaders say hurricanes Matthew in 2016, Florence in 2018 and Dorian in 2019 — along with changing attitudes toward climate science— appear to be shifting the state’s outlook. North Carolina created an Office of Recovery and Resiliency this year to plan for floods and other extreme weather events. “There will need to be political stressors to get people to understand the importance of climate change,” said Beaufort, North Carolina, Mayor Rett Newton.
An Air Force retiree who is getting his Ph.D in marine science, Newton sweeps his arm across the Beaufort Channel. One spot is where the pirate Blackbeard scuttled some of his ships 300 years ago. Nearby is where blockade runners hid from British ships while helping supply the U.S. in the War of 1812. And on the horizon is where freed slaves helped Union troops defeat Confederates in 1862.
The historic buildings along Beaufort’s waterfront are gleaming now, reflecting millions in new investment. It wasn’t like that when Newton grew up in the 1960s amid grimy seafood shops, rundown shacks and fish plants. People wealthy enough to buy waterfront property can always move, Newton said, but escaping the seas will be much harder for poorer residents, who often live on low-lying land handed down through generations, are already beset by social and economic problems.
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Charleston, with state and federal help, is spending $64 million to raise the lowest part of the seawall guarding its downtown Battery, which should keep that part of the city safe even if the ocean rises more than 6 feet (2 meters) in the next century, Chief Resilience Officer Mark Wilbert said. The city also is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to modernize its storm water system. But these measures alone probably can’t save a city that was once the most heavily fortified in North America, with a system of walls, moats and drawbridges to keep out the Spanish, French, Native Americans, and occasionally the ocean as well.
The city’s 7 million visitors each year come looking for old charm along the water, but probably not underfoot. Downpours regularly cause flooding these days, and more than once a week on average, Charleston gets “sunny day” flooding when tides push water onto city streets. Four of the seven highest water levels recorded in Charleston Harbor have happened in the past four years, pushed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016, Hurricane Irma in 2017 and nor’easter type storms that hit in 2015 and 2018.
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https://www.recorder.com/Historic-US-towns-endured-wars-storms-What-about-sea-rise-31069142
= new reply since forum marked as read
I happen to know that reports of sea level rise are part of the global warming hoax, as reported by Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, James Dobson, Bob Dutko, and Tony Perkins. In addition, Jerry Falwell informed us that the global warming hoax is a tool of Satan,being used to distract churches.
How can these climate experts be wrong?
