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Looking for a US 'climate haven' away from heat and disaster risks? Good luck finding one
Southeast Michigan seemed like the perfect "climate haven."
"My family has owned my home since the '60s. … Even when my dad was a kid and lived there, no floods, no floods, no floods, no floods. Until [2021]," one southeast Michigan resident told us. That June, a storm dumped more than 6 inches of rain on the region, overloading stormwater systems and flooding homes.
That sense of living through unexpected and unprecedented disasters resonates with more Americans each year, we have found in our research into the past, present and future of risk and resilience.
An analysis of federal disaster declarations for weather-related events puts more data behind the fears—the average number of disaster declarations has skyrocketed since 2000 to nearly twice that of the preceding 20-year period.
Yet each of these cities will likely have to contend with some of the greatest temperature increases in the country in the coming years. Warmer air also has a higher capacity to hold water vapor, causing more frequent, intense and longer duration storms.
These cities are already feeling the impacts of climate change. In 2023 alone, "haven" regions in Wisconsin, Vermont and Michigan suffered significant damage from powerful storms and flooding.
The previous winter was also catastrophic: Lake-effect snow fueled by moisture from the still-open water of Lake Erie dumped over 4 feet of snow on Buffalo, leaving nearly 50 people dead and thousands of households without power or heat. Duluth reached near-record snowfall and faced significant flooding as unseasonably high temperatures caused rapid snowmelt in April.
Older cities tend to have older infrastructure that likely wasn't built to withstand more extreme weather events. They are now scrambling to shore up their systems.
Electricity grids are extremely vulnerable to the mounting effects of severe thunderstorms and winter storms on power lines. Vermont and Michigan are ranked 45th and 46th among the states, respectively, in electricity reliability, which incorporates the frequency of outages and the time it takes utilities to restore power.
At the confluence of these infrastructure challenges is more frequent and extensive urban flooding in and around haven cities. An analysis by the First Street Foundation, which incorporates future climate projections into precipitation modeling, reveals that five of these six haven cities face moderate or major flood risk.
Disaster declaration data shows that the counties housing these six cities have experienced an average of six declarations for severe storms and flooding since 2000, about one every 3.9 years, and these are on the rise.
Collaborating across sectors is also essential. For example, a community may rely on the same water resources for energy, drinking water and recreation. Climate change can affect all three. Working across sectors and including community input in planning for climate change can help highlight concerns early.
There are a number of innovative ways that cities can fund infrastructure projects, such as public-private partnerships and green banks that help support sustainability projects. DC Green Bank in Washington, D.C., for example, works with private companies to mobilize funding for natural stormwater management projects and energy efficiency.
Cities will have to remain vigilant about reducing emissions that contribute to climate change, and at the same time prepare for the climate risks creeping toward even the "climate havens" of the globe.
Citation:
Looking for a US 'climate haven' away from heat and disaster risks? Good luck finding one (2023, August 24)
retrieved 24 August 2023
from https://phys.org/news/2023-08-climate-haven-disaster-good-luck.html
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