PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — After back-to-back storms battered the Northeast in January, rental properties Haim Levy his owner on the coast of Hampton, New Hampshire, were hit by nearly two feet of water, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and forcing him to evacuate tenants to safer ground.
“Put them in hotels and stuff. So it was cruel, for everyone. And in the apartment I have no floors; I have nothing,” Levy said. “It’s really crazy. Not fun.”
Many scientists who study the intersection of climate change, flooding, winter storms and sea level rise agree that the kind of damage Levy suffered was a sign of things to come rather than an anomaly. They say last month’s storms that destroyed docks in Maine, eroded sand dunes in New Hampshire and flooded parts of New Jersey still reeling from hurricane damage from years ago are becoming more the norm than the exception. and that now is the time to prepare for it.
Climate change is predicted to bring more hurricanes to the Northeast as waters warm, some scientists say. Global sea levels have risen faster since 1900, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk, the United Nations said. Erosion caused by changing conditions is endangering beaches around the world, according to European Union researchers.
A new storm caused flooding in Massachusetts and New Hampshire on Tuesday. In the Northeast, the problem of climate change is especially acute because of projected sea level rise here, says Hannah Baranes, a coastal scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s Climate Center in Portland, Maine. The state has already experienced a rise of 7 inches (19 centimeters) since 1910 and is expected to manage 4 feet (1.2 meters) of sea level rise by 2100, she said.
These rising seas mean communities in New England’s coastal areas will have to make tough choices about when it’s responsible to rebuild, Baranes said. January’s storms, which flooded streets and washed away historic buildings, are a good example of the type of serious event we need to be prepared for, she said.
“This is a real moment to consider how much flooding there is with a few meters of sea level rise,” Baranes said. “And to consider when we need to rebuild, and in some cases whether we need to rebuild at all.”
The storms caused damage that coastal communities in several states are still struggling to clean up. President Joe Biden also recently issued a federal disaster declaration for some communities damaged by a wind and rain storm in December.
January’s attack was devastating to working waterfront communities in Maine, where dozens of docks, buildings and wharves were damaged or destroyed, said Patrick Keliher, commissioner of the state Department of Marine Resources. He said the combination of back-to-back storms in the second week of January and tidal waves has caused “damage like we’ve never seen before” in a state where waterfront industries such as commercial fishing are crucial economic cogs.
Owners of waterfront businesses have vowed to rebuild. But Democratic Gov. Janet Mills told the Maine Climate Council that the storms also provided a clear lesson that “resilience is not just repairing and rebuilding physical infrastructure.”
The governor directed the council to develop a plan to address the impacts of climate change in the state. That could include strategies such as rebuilding piers that are higher than before, planting more trees along the waterfront and building newer, more sustainable culverts, bridges and roads, speakers said at a January climate council meeting.
“It’s easy to think that maybe this one storm was just an aberration. Or maybe the three storms we’ve had are just three out,” Mills said. “But what do we do with the future? We are not just talking about rock dumping and quays, we are talking about preparation in many ways.”
Even inland communities are not immune to flooding caused by weather events such as January storms. The storms brought back bad memories of Vermont’s summer storms, which caused devastating flooding and new damage in some areas, said Julie Moore, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources.
Vermont, which also suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Irene in 2011, is working to set floodplain standards for the entire state, Moore told the Maine Climate Council.
Winter flooding brought “a lot of post-traumatic stress to Vermont, honestly,” but there is also a sense that there is hope to prepare for the future, Moore said. “We have a unique opportunity that hasn’t arisen since Irene.”
Preparing for a future of stronger storms, worse flooding and increased erosion will present difficult choices in many coastal areas. In New Jersey, the resort town of North Wildwood made emergency repairs to its protective sand dunes without permission from the state government — and they’re embroiled in a legal battle.
In Rhode Island, the RI Coastal Resources Management Council is encouraging the state’s many coastal home and business owners to elevate structures and move landward where possible, said Laura Dwyer, the council’s public education and outreach coordinator.
“People have always been attracted to the water and the coast, and that will continue to be the case,” says Dwyer. “We must be smart about development, realizing that sea levels are rising at an unprecedented rate and that storms are becoming more frequent and intense. ”
But after January storms, a badly damaged house that fell into the ocean in Narragansett, Rhode Island, signaled to some that the world’s changing climate is bringing the ocean closer to where people live.
For Conrad Ferla, a resident of nearby South Kingstown, the house foreshadowed a future of severe storms and dangerous flooding in the region, which will require more than just plywood, crushed stone and sandbags.
“I think a lot of properties along the coast need to move to higher ground,” said Ferla, who founded a group called Saving RI Coastal Access/Rights Of Way and advocates for a cautious approach to coastal development. “I think that retreat is probably the best option.”
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Associated Press photojournalist Charles Krupa and videojournalist Rodrique Ngowi contributed to this report in Hampton, New Hampshire.
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Follow Patrick Whittle on X, formerly Twitter: @pxwhittle