By Katharine Mach and Galen Treuer, Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times, The New York Times, October 20, 2022
Much of the barrier island community of Fort Myers Beach on Florida’s southwest coast, once home to 5,600 people, is unrecognizable. Older buildings not made of concrete were obliterated by Hurricane Ian. With properties that were worth nearly $4.5 billion, collectively, a little more than a month ago, the town almost certainly will rebuild. Federal and state aid and private capital undoubtedly will flow into the region over the next few years in copious amounts.
But how will Fort Myers Beach rebuild? And will this be the last time it does so? The pattern around the country has been to build back bigger, though not necessarily smarter. As an analysis in the journal Nature Sustainability put it a few years ago, “Exposure of residential assets to hurricane damage is increasing — even in places where hurricanes have struck before.”
This propensity to rebuild in ways we know are not safe must change. What if Fort Myers Beach had prepared not just for today’s climate threats — preparation that clearly was inadequate for a hurricane like Ian — but also for threats decades ahead, when seas will be higher, rainfall more torrential and storms rapidly intensifying in unpredictable ways? That’s the question scientists and innovative leaders should be training their sights on, in Florida and elsewhere.
Comments (0)