Hurricanes Milton and Helene slammed Florida, leading to widespread damage.
The state has swelled with a rapidly growing population, and the state’s Office of Economic and Demographic Research has recorded more than 350,000
“That landscape is no longer a buffer protecting other communities,” Jeffrey A. Carney, the director and associate professor at the Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience, said in an interview. “It not only puts that new community at risk, but it also exacerbates the risk that the surrounding communities have. It may have relied on that wetland or that forest for protection.”
A downed tree lies across a road after the passage of Hurricane Milton, in downtown Tampa, Fla., Oct. 10, 2024.Cinnamon P. Carlarne, an expert in environmental and climate change law policy, said our ecosystems protect human health and well-being -- and it's important for the public and policymakers to remain informed about how they do so.
"Everything from, you see, the collapse of bridges during Katrina and the ones in Florida most more recently as well -- we have this backdrop of aging infrastructure which is creating a lot of danger for us," Carlarne said. Nunn pointed to key decadesold building requirements that he believes have led to more sustainable developments: requiring homes to be built above FEMA's flood elevation levels, the development of stormwater management districts, and ongoing building code updates concerning concrete block framing, steel reinforcement, and impact-resistant window requirements in certain areas of the state.
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