A decade after Hurricane Sandy, critics of a federal plan that allocates billions to protect the region from rising waters are calling it a ‘failure of imagination.'
Daelé Guerra keeps a stack of bricks in her first-floor apartment in Hialeah. It’s the only protection she can afford against the floodwaters that have ruined all of her belongings three times this year alone. When the water comes, she uses them to prop up her furniture.
Prioritizing Miami Beach may be the best route if the public is looking to minimize total economic losses due to climate risk. The problem with this strategy is that low income areas are left less protected.
Future building codes should require an elevation standard that is consistent with our sea level rise trends and perhaps a stipulation requiring an area of unoccupied space at the bottom of each new structure.
