When It Rains, It Pours: Let’s Talk Flooding
Within the last fortnight, the issue of flooding has risen from a lesser-discussed natural disaster to a recognized threat capable of unprecedented damage, exacerbated by both climate factors and aging infrastructure.
Flash floods in Iran resulted in the death of 24 people, torrential rains and landslides in Indonesia have killed 89 people. Meanwhile State-side, heavy rainfall and flood damage in the Midwest has resulted in 3 deaths and many more missing. With a death toll exceeding 700 people, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been particularly hard-hit and are still reeling from floods caused by last week’s Cyclone Idai. Whilst there is ongoing discussion about the causal link between climate change and flooding, which are now almost always linked in some capacity, there is a more immediate question that comes to mind: Could some of the damage have been mitigated if they were better prepared? While the current flooding cases are some of the worst these regions have seen recently, floods are not a new phenomenon and have largely been under-prioritized as a threat in terms of national or community preparation.
The tragedy in southern Africa is still unfolding, but as the water subsides, there are many who are quick to point fingers at national governments for not developing and maintaining infrastructure to build resilience to such disasters. For example, Mozambique has been pumping public money into offshore gas prospects and largely ignored the maintenance of flood defenses, while rampant over-cultivation and deforestation across all the affected countries resulted in poor soil drainage, rapid run-off and minimal vegetation to slow the flood waters. The worst affected region of Zimbabwe, the Chimanimani Mountains, is a hot spot for illegal diamond and gold mining, leaving stripped hillsides rife for landslides. The sad reality is that Cyclone Idai will be remembered as a minor weather event due to the largely rural, under-populated areas affected. Nevertheless, it demonstrates the harsh consequences of poor environmental control, unregulated development and under-investment in climate resilient infrastructure (or in many cases, infrastructure at all). Although foreign aid is now “flooding in” as fast as the destroyed roads will permit, local banks, hospitals and shops are either closed or completely inundated.
This multitude of concerns is not unique to the Cyclone Idai floods. In the Midwest, hundreds of farms are under water, and floodwaters have also reached eight contaminated chemical clean-up sites (designated Superfunds by the EPA who is responsible for the remediation), which pose a huge threat to public health.
The Flat World team, as pragmatic optimists, likes to find the silver lining and provide solutions to the world’s problems and are on the lookout for a new wave of climate resilient infrastructure opportunities, but disasters on this scale do remind us that there is a long (and flood-damaged) road ahead.
Hayley Mole, Associate
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has outlined a $10 billion plan to push out Manhattan’s coastline by two blocks, or about 500 feet, to protect against flood risk caused by the rise in sea levels predicted in the coming decade. This idea is the latest in an ongoing series of sea wall plans for Lower Manhattan and will essentially build flood defenses on “new land” which is higher than the current coastline. With federal funding for this kind of climate resiliency measure unlikely under the current administration, it will be interesting to see what kind of flood protection eventually comes to fruition.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA — I bet you’ve never heard of it) released a map last week through their National Water Center research, showing an scary prediction of what flooding in the U.S. could look like for the rest of 2019. If you live near a large body of water anywhere east of the Rockies, you might want to check it out.
Leonardo DiCaprio alluded to everything we’re trying to say in this newsletter with the release of “Before the Flood” in 2016. Presented by National Geographic, the documentary seeks to highlight the single greatest threat to our future — climate change.
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