One-Fourth of US Infrastructure Is At Risk Of Flooding

One-fourth of the United States' "critical" infrastructure is at risk of flooding, a report released Monday warns. The report pinpoints the nation's flood risk to critical infrastructure, such as utilities, airports, ports and emergency services like police, fire and hospitals, in addition to residential properties, commercial properties, streets and local roads and S such as schools and government buildings. First Street Foundation is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit research and technology group that works to define America’s flood risk. "Our work aims to determine the amount of flooding that would render infrastructure either inoperable or inaccessible," said Jeremy Porter of the First Street Foundation, which prepared the report. In fact, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, flooding is the most expensive natural disaster in the United States and has cost the nation more than $1 trillion in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1980. The report, titled "The Third National Flood Risk Assessment: Infrastructure on the Brink," took into account all types of floods, including slow-motion river flooding, fast-moving flash flooding, coastal flooding and storm surge from the ocean.  With an increasing number of flood events making headlines across the nation, there's now a greater awareness of the economic and human cost that flood-damaged infrastructure can create, report authors say. The highest concentration of community flood risk is in Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky and West Virginia: 17 of the top 20 most at-risk counties in the U.S. reside in these four states, according to the report. Louisiana alone accounts for six of the top 20 most at-risk counties (parishes) and is home to the most at risk-county in the U.S., Cameron Parish. When shifting focus from counties to cites, a large percentage of the cities in the top 20 list is made up of cities from the states of Louisiana (three cities) and Florida (six cities). Among those cities, the major population centers of New Orleans (ranked 2nd); Miami (8th); St. Petersburg, Florida (12th); and Tampa (14th) all rank highly in the “most at risk” cities list. The report also found that risk to residential properties across the nation is expected to increase by 10% over the next 30 years; 12.4 million properties are at risk today and 13.6 million will be at risk of flooding in 2051. Over the next 30 years, because of the impacts of climate change, an additional 1.2 million residential properties, 66,000 commercial properties, 63,000 miles of roads, 6,100 pieces of social infrastructure and 2,000 pieces of critical infrastructure will also have flood risk that would render them inoperable, inaccessible or impassable.