Growing Returns

Selected tag(s): flooding

Five years after Hurricane Florence, EDF looks back at efforts to build resilience in North Carolina

In 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, taking 42 lives and costing more than $16 billion in estimated damage. Now, five years later, many residents and communities are still reeling from the storm’s floodwaters. Blue tarps remain on unpatched roofs, businesses have not returned and communities have experienced disproportionate recoveries. 

The immediate and residual impacts from Hurricanes Florence and Matthew, Tropical Storm Fred and other subsequent unnamed flooding events have had long-lasting impacts on communities. As a result, these events have encouraged state leaders to take action to better prepare for future storms.  

Environmental Defense Fund thanks leaders, as well as businesses, conservation groups and community members, for working to build a more flood-resilient North Carolina. Let’s look at how far we’ve come in the last five years.  

LUMBERTON, NC – SEPTEMBER 14 : 40 members of the National Guard and 100 volunteers fill sand bags and build a wall across train tracks where flood waters flowed into Lumberton in hurricanes past behind West Lumberton Baptist Church on Friday, Sept 14, 2018 in Lumberton, NC. North Carolina State Senator Danny Earl Britt, Jr. organized the action through facebook in defiance of CSX Transportation but with permission of the Governor to try and prevent major flooding in the area. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

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It’s nearly one year since Hurricane Ian. Will Florida be ready when another storm hits?

It was just last fall when Hurricane Ian, now classified as a category 5 storm, wreaked havoc across the state of Florida. Residents braced the eye of the storm as Ian made landfall on the state’s southwestern side, and millions more watched as communities, businesses and families changed forever.  

Ian nearly decimated Sanibel, a beloved vacation spot known for its array of colorful seashells, while it uprooted trees and tore off roofs in Fort Myers. Not to mention, inland communities suffered from flooding due to excessive rainfall, power lines went down and a series of destructive tornados followed Ian’s path. Not long after, Hurricane Nicole rocked northeast Florida, washing away beaches. 

Fast forward one year and where do we stand? Ian, then Nicole, now Idalia – it’s time to ask ourselves if Florida will be ready when another big storm hits. Here at EDF, the Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds team is focused on building resilience in Florida and ensuring communities are prepared for the increasingly frequent and severe weather events that are predicted. In recent months, there’s been a lot of progress – but there’s still a long way to go. Let’s look at how far we’ve come, and ways leaders can further prioritize a more resilient future.  

Damage and destruction on the west coast of Florida (Naples, Matlacha, Pine Island) caused by Hurricane Ian

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Why every state needs a Chief Resilience Officer

By Makenna Cavanaugh, Federal Affairs Intern, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds

Communities across the country are grappling with the whiplash of flooding and extreme storms as the frequency and severity of climate hazards reach unprecedented levels. From economic instability to safety hazards, to inequities and the destruction of entire neighborhoods, these events have proven to have devastating and lasting impacts. And one thing is made clear – we need real, robust solutions and we need them across all levels of government to protect communities and promote long-term sustainability.  

Some states have acted by establishing a Chief Resilience Officer (CRO), a government position that is responsible for spearheading resilience coordination and bringing together stakeholders to build, develop and implement resilience strategies. Creating a state-level CRO helps leaders effectively plan at the state, county and municipal level and is a major step forward in protecting communities from future climate impacts. 

Currently, 21 states have an established resiliency office or position at the state level. Among them, 11 states have a CRO.  Read More »

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Hurricane season is here again. And finally, leaders are addressing multiple flood risks.

Every year hurricanes present a variety of threats to communities along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. And these risks aren’t just from storm surge.

Harvey and Ida showed us the effect of heavy rainfall, while Hurricane Florence demonstrated how rivers can overflow into homes and businesses. Meanwhile, climate change is impacting sea level rise, which increases sunny day flooding and the trauma caused from storm events.

Flooding doesn’t just impact coastlines, it impacts entire communities both inland and by the water. It hinders parents’ ability to bring their children to school and it limits patients’ access to vital healthcare and medical services. Not to mention, flooding has inequitable impacts on the wealth, health and wellbeing of millions of families.

flooding from hurricane

As we enter into the 2023 hurricane season, we’re reminded of the urgent need to implement natural disaster mitigation strategies that address comprehensive flood and storm risks. Acting before the next storm strikes means protecting both communities and ecosystems, in addition to saving nearly six times the cost spent on disaster recovery.

The good news? Over the past year, leaders have responded to our call to act – a call that was supported by more than a hundred organizations around the country. Here are two major ways their efforts can prepare us for the next hurricane: Read More »

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New research shows the potential consequences of unpriced flood risk in US housing markets

No region of the US is unaffected by the impacts of climate change. From recent flooding in California to impending sea level rise along the East coast, the increased risk of climate disasters has made every community more vulnerable.

New research published in Nature Climate Change led by EDF economists finds that increasing flood risk due to climate change pose threats to the stability of the US housing market. Published with researchers from First Street Foundation, Resources for the Future, the Federal Reserve, and several academic institutions, our research revealed that the real estate located in flood zones is overvalued by US$121–US$237 billion due to unpriced climate risk.

Growing flood risk—and a growing bubble in the housing market

pricebubblegraphic

Currently, over 14.6 million properties in the United States face at least a 1% annual probability of flooding, with expected annual damages to residential properties exceeding US$32 billion. The increasing frequency and severity of flooding under climate change is predicted to increase the number of properties exposed to flooding by 11% and average annual losses by at least 26% by 2050.

The increasing risk and cost of flooding due to climate change has led to growing concerns that housing markets are mispricing these risks, thus causing a real estate bubble to develop.

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, the study is the first-ever national-scale assessment of climate risk to property values, using the property-specific, climate-adjusted First Street Foundation flood model. To do this, we evaluated the extent to which property values already account for the costs of flooding. We then compared those price discounts with property prices that fully capture expected damages from flooding over the next 30 years.

We found a nearly $200 billion dollar bubble.

The cascading and inequitable impacts of unpriced flood risk

Accurately pricing the costs of flood in home values is needed to support climate adaptation and to remove perverse incentives for development in floodplains. However, doing so could have negative financial impacts on households, communities, and municipalities. In the event that property values fully account for exposure to climate risk, our results raise concern that:

  1. Low-income communities are particularly vulnerable. The extent to which flood risk is not priced into housing values varies based on neighborhood and state characteristics, with low-income households at a higher risk of losing home equity . Such inequities have the potential to exacerbate wealth gaps in the US.
  2. Coastal housing markets are particularly vulnerable. In general, we find that highly overvalued properties are concentrated in counties along the coast with no flood risk disclosure laws and where there is less concern about climate change. In particular, properties in Florida are overvalued by more than US$50 billion.
  3. Municipalities that are heavily reliant on property taxes for revenue could experience budgetary shortfalls if housing prices are corrected for flood risk. Cities and towns concentrated in coastal counties, as well as inland areas in northern New England, eastern Tennessee, central Texas, Wisconsin, Idaho and Montana, are particularly vulnerable to losing revenues in the event of a pricing correction. In these areas, local governments may need to adapt their fiscal structure in order to continue to provide essential public goods and services.

We need efficient and effective climate change policies

The cost of unrealized flood risk in the US real estate market is an increasing threat to economic stability for households, communities and municipalities. Despite clear need for improving flood risk communication via updated flood maps, broadening flood risk disclosure laws at the state and federal level, and increasing investment in flood risk reduction, the realization of these risks will largely depend on policy choices that influence the distribution of flood-related costs in society. In effect, these policy choices will require decision-makers to grapple with moral questions about who should bear the costs of climate-related disasters.

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Building climate resilience requires a whole-of-government approach. Here’s how Louisiana is making it happen.

As communities in southwest Florida, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean struggle to recover from the damages of an active hurricane season, efficient, proactive resilience solutions have never been more important.

Louisiana continues to be a world leader in the planning and implementation of coastal resilience. Louisiana will release the fourth iteration of its Coastal Master Plan in early 2023, which provides the most science-based and publicly informed plan in the nation. Since the first plan, $21.4 billion has been invested in flood resilience infrastructure – focused on restoration of coastal ecosystems that provide essential flood risk benefits and grey infrastructure such as levees and seawalls. Other state agencies have also invested billions in rebuilding their infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and prisons.

flooded hospital

Flooded hospital in Louisiana after a storm.

However, flood resilience is not just about infrastructure but also the ability of government agencies to maintain programs and services their constituents rely upon, from trash collection to food assistance to healthcare. Louisiana is the first to take a step toward a whole-of-government approach to ensure communities have access to the essential services they need to rebuild and thrive in the face of future flood risks.

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5 ways federal policymakers can bring equity into flood risk reduction

Flooding remains the costliest, most deadly natural disaster in the U.S., causing more than $1 trillion in damages since 1980.

As climate change continues to fuel more intense hurricanes, sea level rise and heavier rain events, more Americans are at risk from flooding than ever before. And federal resources to protect communities from flooding are not provided to all communities equitably.

This gap in protection is a direct result of unintentional, but consequential flaws in the current cost-benefit analyses that agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) use for flood protection projects.

Here are a few ways policymakers and coastal planners can help adjust cost-benefit analyses to expand access to flood protection and achieve more equitable results.

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4 strategies for policymakers to get more natural infrastructure in the ground, fast

Climate change is fueling increased flood risk across our nation’s coastal regions and floodplains. 

States and local communities are turning to natural infrastructure as a key solution to build long-term flood resilience. Natural and nature-based features like wetlands, dunes and reefs offer multiple protective benefits — from absorbing stormwater, to minimizing the shock of storm surge to reducing flood severity. 

However, identifying funding for natural infrastructure projects is not always straightforward.  

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4 ways North Carolina’s Legislature can build lasting flood resilience

As North Carolina continues to recover from a string of flooding and storm disasters, legislative leaders have recognized the opportunity for the state to not just recover from recent storms but to rebuild better before the next disaster.

This week, Environmental Defense Fund released a white paper [PDF] recommending four specific policy actions that would better protect residents and businesses from more severe flooding, create jobs and increase climate resilience.   

These four policies will also help the state better compete for federal funding, build capacity within communities and equitably align solutions for those who are disproportionately impacted by disasters.   Read More »

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Federal Reserve warns of financial risks from climate change. Agricultural banks must act fast.

Climate change poses a multitude of financial risks and financial leaders are increasingly calling for the measurement, disclosure and mitigation of these risks.

The Federal Reserve recently highlighted climate change in its annual financial stability report, warning that climate-driven weather events could cause price instability and other significant financial system vulnerabilities. The Fed’s report adds momentum to a growing wave of attention being paid to climate-related financial risk. Read More »

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