{"id":131093,"date":"2025-09-12T00:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131093\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T00:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T00:47:15","slug":"entire-neighborhoods-will-have-to-move-growth-collides-with-rising-seas-in-charleston-sea-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/131093\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Entire neighborhoods will have to move\u2019: growth collides with rising seas in Charleston | Sea level"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story<\/a> is from Floodlight<\/a>, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action<\/p>\n

On a quiet street near the marsh in Charleston, South Carolina\u2019s Rosemont neighborhood, Luvenia Brown watches the weather reports more than she used to. She\u2019s lost lawn mowers, bikes and outdoor furniture to the rising waters that have repeatedly crept into her yard.<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s home is elevated, so the water hasn\u2019t reached the interior. Not yet. But she\u2019s deeply worried about what the future will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the water continues rising the way it is, I don\u2019t want to be here,\u201d said Brown, 58, who works as a medical driver. \u201cI love my area. But I think my life is more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just a half mile to the south, a massive new development \u2013 expected to bring stores, offices and 4,000 homes \u2013 is springing up. Brown worries that all the new concrete and pavement will only make flooding where she lives worse.<\/p>\n

Charleston is one of the nation\u2019s fastest-growing cities <\/a>\u2013 and one of the most flood-prone. As climate change prompts sea levels to rise and storms to grow more intense, this historic city has become a warning bell for what\u2019s to come along America\u2019s coasts: Some neighborhoods will retreat and others will be protected, and still others \u2013 often lower-income communities \u2013 may be left behind.<\/p>\n

In Charleston, those futures are colliding. The city and the federal government are planning a $1.3bn sea wall to defend the iconic downtown peninsula with its regal, pre-civil-war mansions and majestic moss-covered live oak trees.<\/p>\n

Luvenia Brown, a resident of Rosemont in Charleston, discusses regular flooding in her neighborhood. Photograph: Jeffrey Basinger\/Floodlight<\/p>\n

But under the current plans, the wall would not extend to lower-income neighborhoods like Rosemont, a historically Black community bordered by a freeway and hemmed in by industrial sites. That could leave those families more exposed to rising waters than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen how all those floodwaters demolish people\u2019s houses,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I want to be part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of coastal cities from New York to California face similar threats. Driven largely by sea level rise, flooding in the coastal United States is projected to occur 10 times more often<\/a> over the next 25 years, according to a recent analysis by the non-profit Climate Central. An estimated 2.5 million Americans could be forced to relocate over the next 25 years, the group found.<\/p>\n

Nationally, poor communities are disproportionately affected by hurricanes <\/a>and flooding<\/a>, research shows.<\/p>\n

The increasing floods are prompting insurance companies to raise premiums and decline policy renewals, creating incentives for residents to leave their homes. In fact, zip codes in coastal South Carolina are among those with the highest insurance non-renewal rates, according to a Brookings Institution analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rising water, growing crisis<\/p>\n

Charleston was built along the confluence of three rivers and the Atlantic Ocean, on marshland and mud flats. Flooding there was once far less frequent.<\/p>\n

But now, even an afternoon thunderstorm or an unusually high tide can overwhelm drainage systems and submerge streets. The sea level in Charleston rose about 13in over the past century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and by 2100 it\u2019s expected to rise about 4ft more.<\/p>\n

An aerial picture of marshland near downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Photograph: Jeffrey Basinger\/Floodlight<\/p>\n

Charleston is also one of the most rapidly sinking cities <\/a>in the United States, mainly because of groundwater pumping and the settling of natural sediments and filled marsh areas. That double threat \u2013 rising seas and sinking land \u2013 leaves the city increasingly exposed to flooding.<\/p>\n

According to Climate Central\u2019s Coastal Risk Finder<\/a>, more than 8,000 people and 4,700 homes in Charleston county will be at risk of annual flooding by 2050, even under moderate climate action scenarios. By 2100, more than 60,000 people could be affected.<\/p>\n

Rapid development, meanwhile, is paving over forests and wetlands that once soaked up stormwater. Every new subdivision and strip mall replaces absorbent ground with impervious surfaces \u2013 asphalt, rooftops, parking lots \u2013 that send rainwater rushing into neighborhoods such as Rosemont.<\/p>\n

The uneven fight against the sea<\/p>\n

After Hurricane Matthew sent water surging over Charleston\u2019s Battery wall in 2016, city officials consulted with Dutch flood experts and developed a comprehensive plan<\/a> to protect the city against flooding. Federal officials proposed an eight-mile-long, $1.3bn sea wall to shield the city\u2019s historic peninsula from future storm surges and sea level rise.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s share will probably be $455m, Charleston\u2019s mayor, William Cogswell, recently told<\/a> a city committee.<\/p>\n

But neighborhoods like Rosemont \u2013 just beyond the wall\u2019s reach \u2013 would remain exposed<\/a>. Parts of the neighborhood are projected to be underwater by the end of the century. And some have voiced concerns<\/a> that the wall could actually make flooding worse in unprotected areas.<\/p>\n

Skip Mikell, a longtime community leader in Union Heights, a historically Black neighborhood near Rosemont, stood at the end of Peace Street in Rosemont, looking out over the marsh.<\/p>\n

Skip Mikell, a community leader in Charleston. Photograph: Jeffrey Basinger\/Floodlight<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 70 years, where we\u2019re standing, if nothing\u2019s done, it\u2019s going to be water,\u201d Mikell said, adding: \u201cThe gentry of Charleston have connections, they have money, they have a voice. These communities are voiceless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long road to retreat<\/p>\n

Retreat has already started to happen in Charleston. About 11 miles west of Rosemont, a tranquil expanse of weeds, marsh grasses and black-eyed Susans is all that\u2019s left of Bridge Pointe, once a compact community of 32 townhomes. Beginning in 2015, the neighborhood experienced a succession of floods, and in 2017, Fema authorized $10m to buy out Bridge Pointe\u2019s residents and some of their neighbors.<\/p>\n

The neighborhood had experienced four major floods by then, making homes \u201creally unsellable\u201d, said John Knipper, one of the displaced residents.<\/p>\n

It took nearly four years after buyout discussions began for residents to get money for relocation. A typical buyout can take more than five years, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.<\/a> The US Government Accountability Office<\/a>, meanwhile, found that there\u2019s no national strategy for relocating people from flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n

As wetlands disappear, risks grow<\/p>\n

As former Bridge Pointe residents piece their lives back together, new homes will soon go up in another flood-prone area just a mile away.<\/p>\n

A 2016 flood turned much of Charleston\u2019s Bridge Pointe community into a lake. Photograph: Photo courtesy of John Knipper<\/p>\n

Long Savannah<\/a> is expected to bring up to 4,500 homes. It\u2019s one of several massive projects rising across Charleston county, including Magnolia Landing <\/a>and Cainhoy<\/a>, 4,000- and 9,000-home developments. The developers of Long Savannah have received approval to fill and excavate wetlands, which environmentalists say are crucial to soaking up rain and keeping flooding in check.<\/p>\n

The developers of Long Savannah and Magnolia Landing did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Cainhoy noted that the project was on higher ground than other flood-prone areas, and that 3,500 acres of wetlands will be preserved.<\/p>\n

In the Cainhoy case, a federal judge in 2022 dismissed flooding concerns<\/a>, citing a US army corps of engineers report, which concluded the development has a \u201chigh percentage of wetlands and \u2026 numerous direct outfalls to tidal waters that will minimize the potential for heavy rains to overwhelm its infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCharleston has a history of building in repetitively flooded areas,\u201d said Robby Maynor, a climate campaign associate with the Southern Environmental Law Center, which, along with other environmental groups, contested a decision by state environmental officials to allow new development on wetlands in the Long Savannah project. \u201cWe absolutely must stop building in low-lying and flood-prone areas to avoid making an already difficult situation even worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

City floodplain officials didn\u2019t respond to requests for an interview. But in a brief email to Floodlight, the city floodplain manager, Caroline Schnell, pointed to flood protections <\/a>\u2013 such as higher elevation standards and better stormwater systems \u2013 for new buildings in flood-prone areas.<\/p>\n

\u2018Canary in a coalmine\u2019<\/p>\n

Ana Zimmerman has also been vocal about the dangers of letting developers fill creek-beds and build on low-lying areas.<\/p>\n

In 2005, she and her husband bought their modest one-story home in a close-knit James Island neighborhood, just south of downtown. Like much of the area outside the city\u2019s historic core, it falls beyond the protection of Charleston\u2019s planned sea wall.<\/p>\n

The first sign of trouble came early one morning in October 2015. It was still dark when she put her feet to the bedroom floor, water lapping at her ankles. A powerful storm had overwhelmed the street. Zimmerman rushed to save photo albums and the family cats, but the house suffered more than $80,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

With the insurance payout and their own labor, the Zimmermans repaired the home.<\/p>\n

But when Tropical Storm Irma hit two years later, Zimmerman remembers hearing neighbors screaming as 7in of floodwaters poured into her home \u2013 causing it to be declared a total loss.<\/p>\n

Ultimately the couple abandoned the flood-damaged home and let it go into foreclosure, walking away from 12 years of equity. They now live nearby in a house on an elevated foundation. Zimmerman, who calls herself an \u201cunintentional flood activist\u201d, has pressed public officials for stricter building rules and clearer flood-risk disclosures.<\/p>\n

She says her experience is a \u201ccanary in a coalmine\u201d for other low-lying coastal communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cEntire neighborhoods will have to move,\u201d said Zimmerman, a college biology professor. \u201cBut the vulnerable among us, there will be no one there to help them, save them, and they will not be able to save themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is from Floodlight, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action On a quiet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-131093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}