according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Northwest Climate Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\nNational Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration researchers say there\u2019s an 80% chance of a very strong El Ni\u00f1o weather pattern by autumn.<\/p>\n
Most global climate models, operated by scientists at different institutions, are forecasting an El Ni\u00f1o of unprecedented strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vast majority of models, about 90% of the runs now, expect a record-setting El Ni\u00f1o event, stronger than anything that we have observed since records began in the mid-1800s,\u201d Berkeley Earth climate scientist Zeke Hausfather said.<\/p>\n
El Ni\u00f1os originate in the tropical Pacific yet affect weather around the world. For the Pacific Northwest, El Ni\u00f1o boosts the odds of a warm, dry winter and a bad wildfire season afterward due to a meager mountain snowpack.<\/p>\n
Aberdeen and Hoquiam will have to face this winter\u2019s El Ni\u00f1o without protective levees the cities have been hoping to build since 2015, when floods devastated the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a combination of high tides and 11 inches of rain in a 24-hour period,\u201d said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay.<\/p>\n
Rep. Emily Randall (D-Bremerton) is urging the Trump administration to speed up its long-delayed funding to help the cities near Grays Harbor improve their flood defenses.<\/p>\n
Aberdeen and Hoquiam have been planning to build 11 miles of levee along the north shore of Grays Harbor, protecting more than 5,000 properties. The cities have been anticipating nearly $100 million of federal funding for the pair of levee projects.<\/p>\n
FEMA terminated its disaster-prevention grants program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, in April 2025. The agency called the program wasteful, ineffective, and politicized.<\/p>\n
A federal judge in December ordered the administration to restore the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the program hadn’t been canceled, we would have signed the grant agreement last spring,\u201d Shay said. \u201cAnd here we are now, you know, 18 months later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shay said the levee will not get built if the federal funding doesn\u2019t materialize.<\/p>\n
\u201cHoquiam is a city of 8,800 people,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s no way we could bear the burden of an additional $35 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
An unnamed FEMA spokesperson said by email that FEMA is currently reviewing $34.65 million in funding for the Hoquiam levee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to work with our state and local partners on this project,\u201d the FEMA official said.<\/p>\n
But Rep. Randall said the community has waited long enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is unacceptable and it is dangerous,\u201d she wrote in a July 22 letter to FEMA Acting Administrator Robert Fenton.<\/p>\n
The Washington Military Department coordinates federal funding for emergency-preparedness projects in Washington state. Spokesperson Karina Shagren said the department has received none of the $150 million in grants it is awaiting from FEMA\u2019s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program.<\/p>\n
If FEMA does provide the mandated funding in September as Shay now expects, levee construction would start in spring of 2027, after the season of El Ni\u00f1o-influenced king tides has passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a record-breaking El Ni\u00f1o in the forecast, it could be a rough winter for low-lying communities on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-792844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}