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As Sea Levels Rise, Homes Sprout in US Flood Zones

Reuters

   NEW YORK - New homes are going up fastest in high-flood-risk areas in
   many U.S. coastal states, scientists said Wednesday, despite increasing
   awareness that global warming has made living in such areas even more
   risky.

   Science and communication nonprofit Climate Central found that
   one-third of coastline states that will run a 10% risk of ocean
   inundation each year by 2050 saw new housing sprouting at rates higher
   than on safer ground.

   "The attraction of living by the water is obvious," said Ben Strauss, a
   climate scientist at Climate Central who led the research, told the
   Thomson Reuters Foundation.

   In the northeastern state of Connecticut from 2010 to 2017, housing
   valued at $880 million went up more than three times faster in
   high-flood-risk zones than on safer ground.

   Another East Coast state, New Jersey, outpaced all other states at
   building homes in high-risk zones, with about 4,500 new homes worth
   $4.6 billion erected in such areas from 2010 to 2017, the researchers
   reported.

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