Sea levels in Florida are rising fast. Tough decisions ahead

In Jacksonville, street flooding could soon make major roads inaccessible to emergency vehicles. In Pensacola, officials are offering some coastal residents a choice: Elevate your home or take a buyout. The situation isn’t much better in parts of Pinellas County, where high tide alone is enough to inundate some streets and yards.

Anyone who thought the very real impacts of sea-level rise are decades in the future needs to recalibrate their thinking, and quickly. Sea-level rise is already happening, affecting almost all of Florida’s 1,350 miles of coastline. And experts say it’s going to get worse at an increasing pace.

That gloomy forecast is one of the major findings in a startling Washington Post analysis of sea-level rise across the American South, which is experiencing one of the most rapid surges on the planet. Scientists aren’t sure why it’s happening, but sea levels from Texas to Florida are at least 6 inches higher than they were 15 years ago. That matches the sea-level rise that occurred over the last 50 years.

“We are preparing for the wrong disaster almost everywhere,” Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, told the Post. “These smaller changes will be a greater threat over time than the next hurricane, no question about it.”

Scientists say sea levels are rising particularly fast along the Gulf of Mexico, which has major implications for anyone living on Florida’s west coast. Flood insurance rates, already painful for many, could rise even more in coastal areas. And mitigating the effects of rising seas will cost local governments more and more.

https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2024/05/23/sea-levels-florida-are-rising-fast-tough-decisions-ahead/