09/06/2026
Organizing is key in a Community Driven Relocation Plan --
The problem of sea level rise is not drowning from the level of the water, but that it brings the storm that much closer to the land/flood protection systems. Imagine that this includes surge as well. Think about the vulnerable spots in the federal and local flood protection systems. Lake Pontchartrain, the levees that are not high enough and are instead sinking
1. One problem with sea level rise is the closer sea levels approach the top of a coastal defense the greater the risk of a storm surge breaching the defense and the damage occurs as in New Orleans. As a result many of our large coastal cities won’t go slowly with sea level rise, but quickly in catastrophic storms.
2. Mostly unknown to folks, there's a new category that has been added to Rapidly Intensifying Hurricanes, we now have EXTREME Rapid Intensification.
Rapid intensification (RI): maximum sustained winds increase by at least 30 knots (35 mph) in 24 hours.
Extreme rapid intensification (ERI): commonly used for an increase of at least 50 knots (about 58 mph) in 24 hours.
Reader's comment -- From a few years ago: “Today, we’re struggling with 3 millimeters [0.1 inch] per year [of sea level rise],” says Robert DeConto at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, co-author of one of the more sobering new studies. “We’re talking about centimeters per year. That’s really tough. At that point your engineering can’t keep up; you’re down to demolition and rebuilding.” It’s time we started planning a managed retreat from vulnerable coastal areas rather than wasting billions on coastal defenses under the mistaken impression that we can hold back the ocean. https://e360.yale.edu/features/abrupt_sea_level_rise_realistic_greenland_antarctica
This is why A Community Voice continues to work with Climigration Network, Buy-In, their partners, Harvard School of Design, ICLESI, A2 - Anthropocene Alliance and others to construct not only a Relocation Plan, but the actual housing to move, temporarily or long-term, New Orleans low to average income members to a safer community.
So, the problem of sea level rise is not drowning from the level of the water, but that it brings the storm that much closer to the land/flood protection systems. Imagine that this includes surge as well. Think about the vulnerable spots in the federal and local flood protection systems. Lake Pontchartrain, the levees that are not high enough and are instead sinking
1. One problem with sea level rise is the closer sea levels approach the top of a coastal defense the greater the risk of a storm surge breaching the defense and the damage occurs as in New Orleans. As a result many of our large coastal cities won’t go slowly with sea level rise, but quickly in catastrophic storms.
2. Mostly unknown to folks, there's a new category that has been added to Rapidly Intensifying Hurricanes, we now have EXTREME Rapid Intensification.
Rapid intensification (RI): maximum sustained winds increase by at least 30 knots (35 mph) in 24 hours.
Extreme rapid intensification (ERI): commonly used for an increase of at least 50 knots (about 58 mph) in 24 hours.
Reader's comment -- From a few years ago: “Today, we’re struggling with 3 millimeters [0.1 inch] per year [of sea level rise],” says Robert DeConto at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, co-author of one of the more sobering new studies. “We’re talking about centimeters per year. That’s really tough. At that point your engineering can’t keep up; you’re down to demolition and rebuilding.” It’s time we started planning a managed retreat from vulnerable coastal areas rather than wasting billions on coastal defenses under the mistaken impression that we can hold back the ocean. https://e360.yale.edu/features/abrupt_sea_level_rise_realistic_greenland_antarctica
This is why A Community Voice continues to work with Climigration Network, Buy-In, their partners, Harvard School of Design, ICLESI, A2 - Anthropocene Alliance and others to construct not only a Relocation Plan, but the actual housing to move, temporarily or long-term, New Orleans low to average income members to a safer community.
This includes a reader's comment on today's NYT article: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/magazine/climate-change-disaster-rebuilding.html?smid=url-share
But every crisis is an opportunity.
