Superstorm Sandy's warning about our future

 

Today is the one year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy that devastated the New York and New Jersey coastal communities.  Sandy wasn’t a hurricane but the cost in terms of dollars was enormous.

--$2.4 billion authorized by the SBA in disaster loans for residents and businesses

--$2.7 billion in funding to municipalities for clean-up, infrastructure repair and opening affected hospitals

--$7.8 billion paid out from the federal flood insurance program

Now consider what would have been the cost of exactly the same storm years from now with a one, two or three foot rise in sea level due to climate change.  It could be up to a six foot rise in sea level by the end of the century (high estimate from NOAA) if we don’t start cutting back on carbon pollution.

Chris Carnevale of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has his latest blog out entitled, “How High Will the Seas Rise?”  Check it out and then picture what could happen to our South Carolina coastal tourism communities years from now with higher sea levels and a Sandy-like superstorm or another Hurricane Hugo hits us.