In my twenties, during extended visits on Sanibel Island just off of the west coast of Florida, I got to know many of the young people who’d grown up there.
There weren’t very many of them so they all knew each other. They were mainly working class kids. At gatherings, over beers and marijuana, a common fantasy was how to blow up the causeway that connected the barrier island with the mainland.
None of them were ever going to do such a thing, of course, but the collective sense they voiced was that the constant flow of traffic over that bridge was going to ruin the idyllic life they had known up until then.
They were right about that. The influx of outsiders soon drove up property values to the point that few if any of those kids could afford to stay there. Property taxes went through the roof, forcing their parents to sell the family house, if they owned one, and move away.
Decades later, when I again visited the island, almost all of them were gone.
Well, I thought about those people this week when the causeway finally did get blown up. Hurricane Ian finally took out that bridge in three places and it will no doubt be a long time before it is back in action.
I’m no expert in real estate values but I’m sure the damage wrought by the storm will have a huge impact on property values on Sanibel and other low-lying coastal areas vulnerable to super storms.
The cost of flood insurance alone is now higher than the value of some of the modest cottages and beach properties those kids grew up in. It not only takes great wealth to afford homes on the island; it will require owners willing to incur the risks that the next big storm could be the one that sweeps their home away for good.
Climate change is a fact of life. Hurricanes like Ian are no longer “once in a century” events.
LATEST LINKS:
Hurricane Ian: Cities flooded and power cut as storm crosses Florida (BBC)
Hurricane Ian starts lashing South Carolina after leaving at least 21 reported dead and millions without power across Florida (CNN)
Massive rescue efforts underway as Ian floods Florida (Politico)
New warning as hurricane to hit US for second time (BBC)
Many trapped in Florida as Ian heads toward South Carolina (AP)
Ian will likely hit South Carolina as a hurricane, forecasters say (NPR)
VIDEO: Powerful Category 4 Hurricane Ian Slams Florida (NYT)
Twenty Cuban migrants missing after boat sinks during Hurricane Ian (Guardian)
At least 2 dead on Sanibel Island, which is cut off from Florida’s mainland after Ian’s storm surge severs causeway (CNN)
Hurricane Ian: Time-lapse shows storm surge in Sanibel (WFLA)
Ian was one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. (WP)
While climate scientists are careful not to attribute any single hurricane solely to climate change, Ian is shaping up to be everything that experts have warned is becoming increasingly common in a warming world. The devastating storm went through a "rapid intensification" this week, as the warm water in the Gulf of Mexico supercharges an already deadly weather event. “Ian is operating in a warmer ocean and warmer atmosphere than we’ve had before. Physically, there are very straightforward things that you can unfortunately expect from that,” a scientist told HuffPost's Chris D'Angelo. [HuffPost]
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