States Told to Factor Rising Sea Levels in Post-Storm Rebuilding
February 26, 2018
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has notified states receiving federal funding for recovery efforts from last year’s disastrous hurricanes to take into account the rising sea level when rebuilding in flood-prone areas. The directive appears to follow Obama-era mandates requiring federally funded infrastructure projects to factor climate change and rising sea level when building in areas that could be vulnerable to flooding. However, six months ago, before Hurricane Harvey ravaged Texas, President Trump, a non-believer in climate change, rescinded the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard established by President Obama in 2015. There was concern that things would revert to the pre-hurricane days when federal funds were wasted on bad infrastructure, said Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “But HUD is doing the ...