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No, my town is not sinking yet!
2 years ago
General
In recent days, I have been asked by at least three different people if it’s true Miami is sinking into the sea. I’m not sure if it’s a new meme or poorly worded news reports, but I keep hearing it.
In case anyone cares, nope. I’m not drowning.
Flooded streets are common here after heaving rains and hurricanes. Areas of South Florida are reclaimed swamp land so drainage is not very good. There are some logistic problems there that were in the news and could have been misinterpreted. But that’s a temporary situation. It’s also rainwater, not the sea rising, and some of the most flood-prone areas are miles inland.
After hurricanes, sometimes coastal areas get flooded by sea. I have posted pictures and videos of boats in the middle of the streets. But this is not a permanent thing and goes away after a few days.
Those temporary flood situations are a different thing than the city going underwater because of the sea rising or the land sinking.
I have lived here for more than 30 years, within walking distance of the ocean. I have a few favorite spots I visit where you can see the level of the water on stone walls and other features, and there has not been any noticeable rising in these decades.
Of course, I’m not a climate scientist and I don’t have precise instruments. If someone tells me the sea level, in general, has gone up a couple of inches over these years, I have no way to confirm or deny that.
But the kind of flooding these people are talking about, with streets permanently under sea level, that’s utter bullshit. At least for the moment.
In case anyone cares, nope. I’m not drowning.
Flooded streets are common here after heaving rains and hurricanes. Areas of South Florida are reclaimed swamp land so drainage is not very good. There are some logistic problems there that were in the news and could have been misinterpreted. But that’s a temporary situation. It’s also rainwater, not the sea rising, and some of the most flood-prone areas are miles inland.
After hurricanes, sometimes coastal areas get flooded by sea. I have posted pictures and videos of boats in the middle of the streets. But this is not a permanent thing and goes away after a few days.
Those temporary flood situations are a different thing than the city going underwater because of the sea rising or the land sinking.
I have lived here for more than 30 years, within walking distance of the ocean. I have a few favorite spots I visit where you can see the level of the water on stone walls and other features, and there has not been any noticeable rising in these decades.
Of course, I’m not a climate scientist and I don’t have precise instruments. If someone tells me the sea level, in general, has gone up a couple of inches over these years, I have no way to confirm or deny that.
But the kind of flooding these people are talking about, with streets permanently under sea level, that’s utter bullshit. At least for the moment.
As if we're a floating slab over water...*sighs*
( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )
This Spring, an intense young man at MALL*WART informed me that the Green was going to fall into a massive sinkhole. "It gets deeper and deeper every year!"
"Right?"
"Well, in a year or two it will just be gone!"
"I see. How old are you?"
"What? 28."
"Are you a trained geologist?"
"Uh, no?"
"Then how do you know about the sinkhole?"
"My friend told me."
"Is your friend a geologist?"
"No..."
"Look. I've lived there for 45 years. That little seasonal pond is caused by snow melt. It appears for two or three weeks every Spring. It never changes except to get a little bigger or smaller depending on the amount of snow melt."
"But... but..."
He turned away calling me an idiot and other unprintable adjectives. (* pfft *)
All that would happen by the future year of..... 2000!
EXPERT: As we all know, x is an unknown quantity and spurt is a drip under pressure.
In the late 1980s, I used to work as a security guard in New London, Connecticut. We had a '50-year rain storm' and the client would not allow the guards to park on site. I had to leave my car on the street -- the street that always flooded even in moderate storms. Of course, the foot-wells of my car filled up with brackish water.
When I got out to the car at !!:00 PM. I was surprised that it even started and ran. Then I remembered that my prehistoric tablet was under my passenger seat -- in three inches of mixed rain and sea water. I got home as quick as I could and took the 'tablet' apart, pouring out the water and rinsing the machine circuits as best as I could with de-ionized water for the steam iron. My brother, an electronics technician, and I dried it off with a cheap hair drier and put it aside for the morning.
I found the WorkSlate in my room last year, plugged it in and tried it out. It started up and worked perfectly. I loaded a spreadsheet that had resided on the cassette tape for over 30 years and it operated like nothing ever happened. Try that with a 'modern' tablet!
So, yeah, Miami has nothing special going on. Welcome to the real world, people.
Because I saw a video about something similar in Seattle, where they built the streets higher, and the fronts of buildings that used to face the street are now underground.
( ᐢ (oo) ᐢ )