CTNewsJunkie (Op-ed): Managed or Disastrous Retreat; It’s Time to Decide

"What blew my mind while East Coast cross-country bicycle touring is how much housing is still getting built in low-lying areas that are going to get harder and harder to protect from sea level rise and large storms. The new construction in coastal areas typically includes flooding resiliency features, such as a raised first story. So yes, the new houses may survive above a storm surge. What about the municipal infrastructure, sewer system, and other public utilities? Will the home on stilts be worth living in when the roads wash out every few years and are impassable during high tides? Will the coastal towns be able to keep going to the state and federal government for rebuild and infrastructure money after repeat storms? Are government-backed flood insurance policies going to be tenable as the public costs of insuring coastal homes rises? There is likely a stopping point in public opinion for bailing out properties lost to flooding and more frequent storms.

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"I think it is going to be more and more common that local communities, state governments, and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), will be pushing vulnerable properties to take buy outs rather than rebuild in the same place. I do not see this happening as a managed retreat effort ahead of a huge storm, but more likely after the disasters occur. There will not be enough managed retreat and resiliency investment ahead of natural disasters. The sea level rise and increasing storm severities are already baked in, even if we meet the global best case scenarios for reducting global warming emissions. We need to be prepared, emotionally and fiscally, for decades of disastrous retreat.

If legislators, housing experts, planners, and local leaders would rather get ahead of this storm, I recommend the Georgetown Climate Center’s Managed Retreat Toolkit."

Read the full op-ed from Anthony Cherolis in CTNewsJunkie.