High-Tide Flooding On The Rise, Especially Along The East Coast, Forecasters Warn
As sea levels rise, coastal flooding that used to happen only during storms is increasingly occurring on sunny days. That has local officials reconsidering everything from zoning to police budgets.
Sea levels are rising, and that is sending more ocean water into streets, sewers and homes. For people who live and work in coastal communities, that means more otherwise-sunny days disrupted by flooding.
"Really the future is now in terms of sea level rise impacts," says William Sweet, an oceanographer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Average sea levels have already started rising as a result of global climate change. "The ocean is at the brim. It's clogging storm water systems and it's spilling into streets."
For the last five years, Sweet and a team of forecasters at NOAA have been tracking the number of so-called
