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Hunter Cutting

Rising waters, stronger storm surge inundating Virgina coast - 0 views

www2.timesdispatch.com/...352254

climate change impact sea level rise flooding inundation Virginia USA Hampton Roads

shared by Hunter Cutting on 20 Jun 10 - Cached
  • POQUOSON -- Hurricane Isabel flooded Sandy Firman's house in 2003, and now routine storms drive water into the roads and marshes close by. Several homes in this low-lying city, including Firman's, have been elevated about 10 feet to keep them above the ever-closer waters. "We used to not have it like that," said Firman, who has lived in Poquoson all of his 46 years. "But something has changed around here." One big thing that has changed is the sea level, which is rising -- an increase blamed on global warming.
  • In southeastern Virginia, the rising sea is a problem now, and scientists expect it to get much, much worse.
  • During the last ice age thousands of years ago, the weight of glaciers pushed down land in what is now the northern U.S. When those glaciers receded, that northern land began to rise, and land here started sinking, as if Virginia were on the end of a see-saw after the other rider got off. Throughout most of the 20th century, the sea level in southeastern Virginia rose about twelve-hundredths of an inch a year -- or 12 inches per century. But over the past two decades or so, the rate appears to have doubled in places. About half of that increase seems to be due to the sinking of land, and half to global warming, said Carl Hershner, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. "And the forecast -- this is the scary part -- is for that acceleration to rise," Hershner said. Scientists say the future increases will be caused almost entirely by climate change. "We will still be sinking," Hershner said, "but that will be a smaller and smaller fraction of the change we experience."
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  • Hampton Roads in southeastern Virginia is unusually vulnerable. It is flat, and its land is sinking. It has nearly 2 million residents. It is home to popular beaches, waterfront homes, military bases, a huge tourism industry and ecologically valuable marshes.
  • "Hampton Roads is one of the most vulnerable regions in the United States to sea-level rise, in terms of population and assets at risk," said Eric J. Walberg, a former staff member for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission.
  • Rising sea levels around the world are attributed to warming. When water warms, it expands. Melting polar ice sheets also raise the waters. In Virginia, sea levels are rising faster than the global average because the land is sinking
  • The sea level in this region has been rising about a foot a century -- the highest rate on the East Coast. Scientists project a potentially devastating rise of 2 to 7 feet by 2100.
  • Many of the piers at the Norfolk Naval Station were built around World War II. During storms or even higher-than-normal tides in recent years, the water began to rise so high that it flooded low-lying areas of the base and covered utility lines, including high-voltage electrical cables, suspended beneath the old piers. That meant frequent losses of power and other services to the base's ships. "Sea-level rise was having a negative impact on the readiness of the combat forces at the base," said Joe Bouchard, the base's commander from 2000 to 2003.
  • The Navy was already planning a multimillion-dollar project to replace the aging piers at Norfolk, the world's largest naval base. To cope with the rising waters, Navy engineers designed double-deck piers with the utility lines suspended from the main, upper deck, about 20 feet above sea level.
  • Cmdr. Wendy L. Snyder, a Defense Department spokeswoman, acknowledged that flooding occurs at the Norfolk and Langley bases. The department is concerned and is studying the problem, she said. "We are going to assess the impacts of climate change for all of our installations." As for possible base closings in Hampton Roads, Snyder said she did not want to speculate.
  • A powerful storm hit Virginia's coast in 1933. But the less-powerful Hurricane Isabel in 2003 -- which became a tropical storm about the time it entered Virginia -- caused similar flooding because the sea level by then had risen 9 to 10 inches. Isabel gained extra destructive power by sending its storm surge inland on higher waters, Hershner said. Isabel caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. On top of all that, scientists predict global warming will cause more-powerful storms in coming decades. And in Hampton Roads, more and more people are building near the shore, putting themselves and their property at risk.
  • Low-lying parts of Hampton Roads flood now from fairly routine storms and tides, said Skip Stiles, director of Wetlands Watch, a Norfolk environmental group. "Anywhere you go, people have stories" about how the water comes up higher than it used to.
  • Hunter Cutting on 20 Jun 10
     
    First in a series of feature stories by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
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