After Miami Beach’s Sunset Harbour neighborhood experienced extreme foot-deep “sunny-day flooding” because of a king tide, city engineer Bruce Mowry and public-works director Eric Carpenter realized the city’s injection-well drainage system didn’t work.
Flooding from rising sea levels is nothing new to South Carolina’s largest city. In the 1830s, the mayor offered a $100 gold medal to anyone who could come up with a solution. No one ever did.
Maintaining Route 12, the main highway serving the barrier island of Hatteras Island, N.C., is a near-constant battle against the elements. Now, instead of continuing the battle, the state has decided to move the road.
For years, the city of Miami Beach had approached the concept of sea-level rise much like that of other coastal communities: with a lot of “talk talk talk” but not much action, says Bruce Mowry, city engineer.