The Third National Climate Assessment released this week singled out Charleston and the Myrtle Beach area in the Southeast as being particularly in danger from sea level rise.
Large numbers of cities, roads, railways, ports, airports, oil and gas facilities, and water supplies are at low elevations and potentially vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise. New Orleans (with roughly half of its population living below sea level), Miami, Tampa, Charleston, and Virginia Beach are among those most at risk.
The region has two of the most populous metropolitan areas in the country (Miami and Atlanta) and four of the ten fastest-growing metropolitan areas. Three of these (Palm Coast, FL, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL, and Myrtle Beach area, SC) are along the coast and are vulnerable to sea level rise and storm surge.
This report was issued by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and involved more than 250 authors. For more information go to Southeast and the Caribbean. To learn more about our sea level rise education project, go to SCBARS.org.