Storm Surge

As a native Floridian, Chantel Acevedo has firsthand experience of our increasingly violent weather patterns. Post Harvey, Irma, and Maria, she asks, what will it take to stem the tide?

I WAS SEVENTEEN WHEN HURRICANE ANDREW ROLLED through South Florida, taking down block after block of houses. I lived in Hialeah, a city of immigrants in Miami Dade County, with my mother, stepfather, and grandparents. We could not have evacuated even if we’d wanted to. My stepfather was a manager at a utility company that needed him back on the job immediately. Hotel rooms weren’t cheap, and neither was gas. We slapped plywood on the windows and huddled together in the hallway. We were spared the worst. Just 20 miles south, children my age were homeless.

These days, such events have come to seem less like aberrations. Maps prognosticating future sea-level rise show an obliterated Florida, a future Atlantis. In 2015 the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact compiled data predicting the rise of sea levels according to various greenhouse gas–emission scenarios. In all likelihood, we will see 2030 levels between six and ten inches higher than 1992’s average.

In Miami Beach, high tides known as king tides often flood the streets, sending sea creatures floating surreally down roads. An octopus was seen wriggling about in a parking garage, and one can imagine sharks in deeper waters at intersections. The tides are seasonal but have been compounded by climate change, with melting ice sheets making the waters rise higher and faster than in previous years. According to a report published last year on Nature.com, the diminishing ice sheet in Antarctica has the potential to increase the sea level by up to 15 inches by 2100 if man-made emissions continue apace.