After the storms, clouds remain
Virginia must urgently tackle flood mitigation, battle climate change as if our lives and homes depend on it
We made it, Hampton Roads. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season was the most active in history, producing 30 named storms and 12 storms that made landfall, but our corner of Virginia was mostly spared the effects. Residents here saw heavy rain, some strong gusts and inland flooding, but mercifully did not suffer a direct hit this year.
Hampton Roads has been fortunate, but sooner or later that luck will run out. That’s why the commonwealth and our region must urgently tackle flood mitigation and battle climate change as if our lives and homes depend on it.
Forecasters predicted this year’s hurricane season would be extremely active, and those predictions bore out. The Atlantic produced so many named storms that eight systems were named for letters in the Greek alphabet, having exhausted the regular nomenclature by mid-September.
The storms largely stayed clear of Hampton Roads, with some moving through the west and central parts of Virginia after striking the United States south of the commonwealth while others turned out to sea without making landfall.
Only Hurricane Isaias really lashed the region with severe rain and strong winds, including several damaging tornadoes, though Hurricane Fay and Hurricane Zeta both made their presence felt. None caused the sort of widespread flooding that Tidewater experienced from the remnants of Hurricane Matthew in 2016, to use one recent example.
Still, even though the most active hurricane season on record spared Hampton Roads, residents here know all too well the
threat they face. They know that rising seas fueled by climate change pose an existential threat here, and that the surge from a powerful storm would cause catastrophic damage.
So this is no time to relax. There are three areas, from micro to macro, on which Virginia should devote its energy.
First, the commonwealth needs to further refine its protocols for when a storm threatens. The “Know Your Zone” initiative did well to organize emergency evacuations and should get people in the most threatened areas out of harm’s way in
an orderly fashion.
But Virginia knows it lacks adequate shelter capacity to house a large evacuation should a major storm threaten when the region’s population swells with tourists in the summer. We need to be better prepared and ready to accommodate far more evacuees should the need arise.
Second, it must continue to emphasize, and expand, efforts to make our communities more resilient to sea-level rise and flooding. The General Assembly this year made tremendous strides on adaptation initiatives, including the big step of funding flood protection projects with revenue generated by the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
In October, Gov. Ralph Northam announced the Virginia Coastal Resilience Master Planning Framework, laying the groundwork for the commonwealth to draft a comprehensive master plan for coastal adaptation and resilience next year. That will guide so much of the state’s efforts in the coming years and make sure everyone’s operating on the same page — no small achievement.
Finally, it must continue to work on climate change by developing a green energy economy and doing its part to lead on the environment. The absence of federal leadership in recent years has left states to work individually or in partnership with other states to reduce harmful emissions, doing their bit to combat global warming.
The science is clear: Continued warming will substantially increase sea levels, putting more of our coastal communities at risk. Hampton Roads is projected to see some of the highest rates of sea level rise in the next 50 years, a problem made worse by land subsidence here, so battling climate change is imperative here.
By investing in green energy initiatives and developing an economy based around renewable fuel sources, Virginia would both help fight climate change and position itself for future employment and economic growth.
Hampton Roads survived another Atlantic hurricane season and for that we should be thankful. But we cannot be complacent, knowing full well that next year could bring a vastly different outcome.