On October 29, 2012, exactly four years ago, Superstorm Sandy hit New York City, flooding many coastal areas and claiming the lives of 44 New Yorkers. City officials estimate that the storm cost $19 billion in damages and lost economic activity.
Though Sandy is now considered a 260-year-storm, meaning there’s just a 1 in 260 chance of it happening in a given year, storms like it are expected to become more common as climate change causes weather to become more extreme. To make matters worse, damage caused by future storms will be exacerbated by sea level rise — estimates suggest that by 2050, Sandy-sized storms could flood nearly 25% of New York City.
Though cities like New Orleans currently have more land area in their floodplains, New York’s density makes it the US city with the most people — nearly 400,000 — living in the 100-year flood zone.
That reality means it’s imperative for the city to start preparing now to protect its residents, businesses, coasts, and infrastructure from those future storms. Though some experts suggest little can be done to fully prevent damage in many parts of the city, efforts are already underway to mitigate the future impacts of flooding and extreme weather events.
Here are a few of the big projects underway.
SEE ALSO: By 2050, storms like Hurricane Sandy could flood nearly a quarter of New York City
The New York City Panel on Climate Change has brought together leading scientists to assess risks and make projections.
In 2008, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gathered a group of climate and social scientists to form New York's first NPCC. The panel was charged with developing projections to help city officials understand the risks of climate change and rising sea levels. The panel’s report was released in 2010, and it projected that the city could see sea levels rise by up to a foot, causing what we consider a 100-year storm (meaning that the chances of it are one in 100 in any given year) to be two to three times more common.
Though that research began well before Sandy, the city has continued to get panels together to update climate projections and and advise the city about where to focus its resiliency efforts. The third panel’s report came out in 2015, and provides projections through 2100 for the first time.
The city is building more emergency shelters.
In 2014, the capacity of New York’s emergency shelters was just 10,000. Though more haven’t been built yet, the city has created plans to bring that number up to 120,000.
These shelters are meant for New Yorkers with disabilities who are unable to evacuate their homes without support. Existing shelters are also slated to be retrofitted to have accessible entrances, restrooms, and other upgrades.
A program called RISE:NYC is funding technology projects that will enable small businesses to bounce back after the next storm.
The New York City Economic Development Corporation is distributing $30 million of federal grant money to fund tech projects that will help small businesses survive the next storm.
The money is being divided among 11 initiatives, including goTenna — a startup that allows users to send text messages and create a mesh network between their cell phones when internet or phone networks go down — and the Red Hook Initiative, which created a free local wifi network in Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood that stayed live after Sandy.
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