Stronger hurricanes challenge housing recovery plans
By Carl Smith
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season broke the record for the number of storms big enough to be given a name, exhausting the 2020 name list from the National Hurricane Center and requiring nine letters of the Greek alphabet.
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A long period of reduced hurricane activity in the 1970s and 80s led to complacency, says Kossin. The perception that there was no immediate risk, combined with the advent of air conditioning, spurred migration to coastal areas – but storm frequency began to pick up after 1995.
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A fair amount of adaptation will be required to deal with this, Kossin says, and the time scale for accomplishing it will vary according to sector. For emergency managers, it might be seasonal or multi-year. City planners will need to look much further into the future.
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The program developed by the city, ReHouse Bay, incorporates five key strategies. Assistance was offered to offset the rising costs of rent and deposits in a market where demand far exceeded supply. Funds were made available to homeowners whose insurance settlements were insufficient to fully cover the costs of rebuilding to current, safer, code standards.
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