If members of Charleston County Council were to sit in a room with their feet in 12 inches of water, we bet it wouldn’t take too long for them to have a better understanding of the real need for dealing now with storm flooding.
As it is, they ignore it. Just like they generally ignored a reporter who tried to reach them for three weeks to discuss the impact of federal flood and storm surge maps in their individual districts.
It’s crystal clear two things are good bets in the future. First, the seas will continue to rise slowly, which represents an emerging threat. But with increasingly worsening storms every year, storm surge poses an immediate inundation risk.
Only two of nine members of council responded — and they understand what’s going on. Sullivan’s Island member Larry Kobrovsky and North Charleston’s Rob Wehrman know it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish for the county to spend more than $2.3 billion of locally-raised tax revenue on extending Interstate 526 when real needs for flooding abatement remain unmet. There’s a special kind of inanity involved in building the ground-level interstate, which is only going to open up more development, create more traffic congestion and reduce the land’s capacity to absorb and store water.
Kobrovsky told reporter Skyler Baldwin that the county was working on a climate action plan. But compared to the billion-dollar road sinkhole, there won’t be any money to fund any climate plan because the road will suck away tax revenues to pay for anything real on flooding or other big county needs.
“We’re seeing the effects of rising tides and rising temperatures right now,” Kobrovsky said. “Rather than spending all of our money on 526, I would rather be focusing on flooding.”
The 2021 maps drafted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency illustrate the looming wet threat. They show predictions of 6-foot and 10-foot storm surges in major storms as well as gradual sea-level rise projections through 2100. It doesn’t take a cartographer to see that voters in every county council district will face major storm surge impacts. In several districts, such as Kobrovsky’s and Wehrman’s, surge water is projected to be six feet deep in half or more of each district.
Bottom line: We already can see where there’s going to be a lot of suffering, but county officials generally have their eyes shut and fingers in their ears. Instead, they want to build a road that will become obsolete quickly.
Wehrman, whose district stretches from North Charleston through Charleston to Mount Pleasant, said trying to flood-proof the county for the future is like turning a big ship. It will take time.
“Sea level rise, of course, is something we don’t entirely have control over, but we do have control over how we interact with it and how we prepare for it,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy to change the basic infrastructure of a city, a county, a region, within a five-year or even a 10-15-year time span.”
So Earth to the other seven council members (that’s you, Herb Sass, Henry Darby, Teddie Pryor, Kylon Middleton, Brantley Moody, Joe Boykin and Jenny Honeycutt):
It’s time to wake up, get started and take all of the eggs out of the “build the road” basket.
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