Coastal infrastructureFlorida's First Coast region trying to cope with rising seas
City planners in Florida’s First Coast region are taking steps to avoid massive destruction to property and human life as sea level rise is expected to cause mass flooding and super storms during the next few decades. Some groups are lobbying for coastal property-insurance reforms, while others are researching ways to help historic properties manage flooding.
City planners in Florida’s First Coast region are taking steps to avoid massive destruction to property and human life as sea level rise is expected to cause mass flooding and super storms during the next few decades. Some groups are lobbying for coastal property-insurance reforms, while others are researching ways to help historic properties manage flooding. “It’s kind of like insurance. If you do this stuff, you’re insuring against it,” said David Reed, a Conservation and Efficiency Specialist with Jacksonville Electric Authority.
Reed chaired an Emergency Preparedness Committee of volunteers that explored the implications of sea level rise for the Regional Community Institute of Northeast Florida (RCI). Findings from the group’s work were adopted in 2013 by the Northeast Florida Regional Council (NEFRC), a seven-county panel of elected officials working to prepare the region for rising sea levels between six inches and six feet.
Hurricane Sandy, magnified by flooding due to rising sea levels, caused at least $19 billion in losses to New York City alone. First Coast officials want to avoid a similar fate when the next big storm arrives. The NEFRC reports that just an extra foot of sea-level in Northeast Florida would flood about seventy-five square miles of private property in the region. A six-foot rise would flood 123,000 acres of private land- impacting $6.4 billion in property. “What you’ll start to see as sea levels begin to rise is a lot more erosion during Northeasters, for instance due to naturally higher water levels. You’re also going to see your wetland start to disappear because they’ll become flooded, they’ll become open water. You’ll have more frequent riverine flooding during storms,” said Brian Teeple, CEO of the NEFRC.
The Florida Times-Union reports that authorities are looking to discourage private citizens from building new projects or expanding existing ones along the coast. “Public education has not really begun in Northeast Florida,” stated a report by Reed’s committee. Although Congress restricts new homes built in “coastal high hazard” areas from qualifying for federally-backed flood insurance, Florida continued to insure new construction in vulnerable areas, until July- when the state passed a law barring state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. from insuring new houses built in environmentally sensitive coastal areas. The law is expected to keep property developers from building oceanfront homes that will last only a few years or decades, before being washed away or destroyed by storms. “If you’re going to develop there, that’s fine. But do it on your own dime,” said Sarah Owen Gledhill, a planning advocate for the Florida Wildlife Federation.
Following recommendations from the RCI, the NEFRC is looking to establish a clearinghouse website to publish regional sea level rise data for individuals, businesses, and governments. The council also plans to form a voluntary educational working group to advise it on identifying community needs and creating educational materials for sea level awareness.
