A need for urgency
Communities need to step up the pace of flood-protection projects
Seawalls that effectively serve as a redoubt to defend against the encroaching water. Elevated walking areas and lookouts that will help protect businesses and critical infrastructure. Natural levees and living shorelines that absorb and thrive in perpetually wet conditions.
These are a few of the defenses coming to Norfolk in the coming years, part of the critical work being developed to guard against the rising sea levels that put the city at grave risk. Residents should feel a sense of relief to know this work is ongoing.
But it is also a warning to the region, since it took more than a decade for these projects to evolve from planning to development to implementation — and Norfolk is still years away from seeing this vision realized. Speed is of the essence if Hampton Roads hopes to protect itself from what’s to come and there is no time to waste.
Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released revised projections that should serve as a dire warning for residents throughout coastal Virginia. Rising seas driven by a changing climate promise to push water higher while sinking land, a process known as subsidence, will multiply the problem.
All told, this region should expect to see about 1 foot of sea level rise by 2050
— or as much as has been recorded in the last century. Future projections are even worse. That means more flooding in more places will happen more frequently, putting homes, businesses, military installations, civic resources and, most importantly,
people’s lives at risk.
After the destructive Hurricane Sandy in 2012 inflicted severe damage to the East Coast, hammering New York City and the surrounding areas, Congress directed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate the danger that sea-level rise and flooding could pose to major population centers. Norfolk was among those places selected for study.
The Army Corps delivered the first draft in late 2017, proposing a $1.8 billion network of natural and hardened storm surge barriers, floodwalls and other
measures to control tidal flooding, elevate low-lying and at-risk development when necessary, and protect homes and businesses from ruin. The final version of the plan came in September 2018.
Cobbling together $1.8 billion is no easy ask, and not something Norfolk could do by itself. So release of the plan preceded an all-out effort to secure funding for building levees, expanded floodwalls barriers, tidal gates, pump stations and living shorelines, which aren’t hardened structures but can help mitigate flooding as well.
Last year, the Army Corps announced it would put $250 million toward the project, and that has been followed by other federal contributions thanks to the work of the region’s congressional delegation. Norfolk has also pledged at least $25 million for the work.
Yet, still today, nearly 12 years since the launch of the post-Sandy study, Norfolk residents will notice precious little progress on any of the above. The downtown seawall is as it was, no living shorelines have been built and things such as tidal gauges are a dream for the future. Low-lying areas remain at risk and the critical protections the city needs is still theoretical, not tangible.
That’s not to lay blame at the feet of public officials, but rather to illustrate the need for urgency on flood projects throughout the region. When taking on a massive project such as this, each step can take an achingly long time — a worrisome prospect when time is against us — and the prospect looms that the defenses communities such as Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Hampton and Portsmouth need will come too late for our most vulnerable residents.
That’s why anything that reduces flood-related funding, such as the wrongheaded plan to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, should be staunchly resisted. Virginia’s coastal residents cannot afford endless delays when it comes to these invaluable protective measures. Those same residents will pay a steep price for inaction and further dawdling.