Last month, Hurricane Ian demolished the coastline in many parts of Florida and South Carolina, wreaking an estimated $40 billion in damages. With aggressive natural disasters pummeling U.S. coastlines nearly every year, homeowners whose properties have been flooded or destroyed are seeking immediate assistance in the rebuilding and recovery of their communities.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded $150 million to those affected by Hurricane Ian in hopes of aiding with this recovery. But with billions of dollars continuously being spent to repair vulnerable communities after recurring natural disasters caused by climate change, some experts have begun to wonder if there isn’t a more efficient and less expensive option. Researchers are now looking to "managed retreat," a strategy that involves helping members of vulnerable communities move to areas where flooding and fires do not consistently occur.
“The sheer scale of the climate crisis necessitates considering moving away,” says Max Besbris, an assistant professor of sociology. “There are miles and miles of coastline that are going to be lost in the next couple of years to rising sea levels. These disasters like [Hurricane] Ian or wildfires in the West are not going to stop anytime soon.”
Experts like Besbris believe saving lives while strategically distributing funds to relocate individuals, as opposed to rebuilding communities on vulnerable coastlines, is a more effective way to respond to environmental disasters.
More than $145 billion was spent on rebuilding and recovery in 2021. Depending on the size of the city in question, some statistics suggest that figure far surpasses the cost of managed retreat, not to mention the potential lives saved. Many of the victims lack flood insurance, leaving them dipping into savings and retirement funds to remain afloat. A lack of communication with homeowners about the risks they’re facing generates a whirlwind of confusion, grief and financial devastation. According to Besbris, creating a system to alert homeowners of their potential risk in these at-risk areas so alternative steps can be taken to prepare for extreme weather could help forestall these problems.
It won’t be an easy task. Currently, neither the federal nor local governments are advocating for managed retreat. Municipalities rely on their tax bases, and encouraging members of their communities to move away is generally of no interest to them. In addition, the role and responsibility of developers in these areas to stop rebuilding housing, knowing the potential exposure to disasters, isn't clear. All of these factors perpetuate inequality within vulnerable communities, a topic Besbris discusses at length in his book, “Soaking the Middle Class: Suburban Inequality and Recovery from Disaster.”
“Recovery dollars do not get distributed evenly,” says Besbris. “Communities that are whiter, communities that have higher property values, those are the ones that tend to be better off after a disaster. The recovery process itself ends up being an engine of inequality.”
President Joe Biden recently passed a climate law that looks to cut carbon emissions at least in half by the year 2030, giving the United States an opportunity to create environmentally conscious cities. Solutions for communities like New Orleans, a city of one million people that suffered serious damage after Hurricane Katrina, present a difficult challenge. The federal government invested $14.5 billion in new levees and drainage systems, but researchers question how long these short-term solutions will hold up against the effects of climate change. Besbris discusses how plans for managed retreat must be developed and prepared for larger cities like New Orleans.
“One thing that we could absolutely do, that would be relatively cheap, is have FEMA invest in housing counselors and people who are knowledgeable about alternative, safer places to live,” he says. “One reason that people stay where they live is because they do not believe alternatives are going to be as good,”
Changing that perception is likely to take time and infrastructure. But with another season of tropical storms and hurricanes only months away, the clock is clearly ticking.
“The problem is not that the solution is not there, it's that we aren't thinking big enough in terms of the solution,” says Besbris.