Homes Being Built in Soon to be Flood Zones

Although sea level is rising, homes continue to be built along the coast in what will become flood zones in the not-to-distant future. Doesn’t make much sense. This image shows the number of homes (and their values) built in South Carolina from 2010 to 2017.

Below is part of an article written by Climate Central.

In 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed into New Jersey, producing a major storm surge and damaging or destroying many thousands of homes. Over the years that followed, builders put up new houses and reconstructed damaged ones, in many areas that will be vulnerable to more flooding in the future — even in the absence of a superstorm like Sandy.

The post-Sandy rebuilding was a striking example of a broader pattern. Across the U.S., coastal communities have recently built tens of thousands of houses in areas at risk of chronic future flooding driven by sea level rise from climate change. That has put homeowners, renters, and investors in danger of steep personal and financial losses in the years ahead.

In a new analysis, Climate Central and Zillow isolated the number of new homes in low-lying coastal areas in all 24 coastal states, projecting how many will become exposed to chronic ocean flooding over the coming decades — depending on what choices the world makes around greenhouse-gas pollution today.

If the world makes moderate cuts to greenhouse-gas pollution — roughly in line with the Paris agreement on climate — some 10,000 existing homes built after 2009 will be at risk of flooding at least once per year, on average, by 2050. The figures for 2100 are about three times higher under moderate emissions cuts, and five times higher if pollution grows unchecked.

In more than half of U.S. coastal states, the percentage growth rate at which new homes were added inside of America’s highest coastal flood-risk zones outpaced the percentage growth rate outside of those areas. Some communities, in other words, are amplifying their development in flood-prone areas.

New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas are projected to see the most new homes at risk by 2050. Between 2009 and 2016 (or 2017 in Florida’s case), those states added a total of roughly 5,700 homes that will lie in the flood-risk zone.

In total, unchecked pollution would put 2.5 million existing homes at risk of yearly flooding or worse by 2100. Those properties are currently worth $1.33 trillion — an amount equal to 6 percent of the U.S. economy. No state has more to lose from such a future than Florida: unchecked pollution would put 730,000 more homes in flood-risk zones than would moderate cuts to emissions — and 960,000 more than deep cuts.

Here’s the link to the complete article:

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/ocean-at-the-door-new-homes-in-harms-way-zillow-analysis-21953