(When Idalia jackknifed its way into the Florida coast Wednesday morning, it was destructive but thankfully avoided the most populous areas, unlike Hurricane Ian last year, among others. I’ve been involved with a number of hurricanes over the decades — as a resident of Florida, a tourist in Bermuda, and a reporter in Mississippi. I first published the following essay last September.)
In my twenties, during extended visits to 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 and 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 minute or two 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 I knew 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. They are becoming once a year events.
Today’s top story: Hurricane Idalia hits Florida with 125 mph winds, flooding streets, snapping trees and cutting power (AP)
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