On October 11, the First Street Foundation, the science and technology nonprofit that developed the First Street Foundation Flood Model and created Flood Factor, has released the first ever nationwide community level flood resilience report titled “The 3rd National Risk Assessment: Infrastructure on the Brink,” highlighting the flood risk over a 30 year period for every city and county across the conterminous United States.

The report calculates the risk of five key dimensions of community risk: residential properties, roads, commercial properties, critical infrastructure, and social infrastructure.

Using the operational flood threshold for each building or piece of infrastructure, the Foundation was able to calculate each dimension’s specific risk of failure and aggregate those findings for every neighborhood, zip code, city and county, making it the most thorough and far reaching publicly available report of its kind.

The report found there are 588,804 properties in Pennsylvania that have greater than a 26 percent chance of being severely affected by flooding over the next 30 years and flood risk will increase 4 percent over the next 30 years due to changes in the environment.

This represents 10 percent of all properties in the state.

The most recent flood damage in Pennsylvania saw $117 million in damage to public infrastructure alone in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Fulton, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and York counties from late August flooding due to Hurricane Ida. [Read more here]

Nearly 400 homes across the southeastern corner of the state were reported to have been destroyed or sustained major damage and 400 more had minor damage — and that assessment did not yet include all of Bucks, Chester, or Delaware Counties.  [Read more here]

Click Here for the flood risk overview in Pennsylvania.

Nationally, the report found 25 percent, or 1 in 4 of all critical infrastructure in the country are at risk of becoming inoperable today, which represents roughly 36,000 facilities.

Further to this, 23 percent of all road segments in the country (nearly 2 million miles of road), are at risk of becoming impassable.

Additionally, 20 percent of all commercial properties (919,000), 17 percent of all social infrastructure facilities (72,000), and 14 percent of all residential properties (12.4 million) also have operational risk.

To find your flood risk factor, visit First Street Foundation’s Flood Factor webpage and enter your address, ZIP Code, city or state to learn more.

Click Here for the complete announcement.

PA Climate Impact Assessment

Pennsylvania’s average temperature will be 5.9° F higher by midcentury, with significant consequences for the health and safety of Pennsylvanians, especially those living in Environmental Justice communities, and for ecosystems, agriculture and other areas, according to Pennsylvania Climate Impacts Assessment 2021, released May 5 by the Wolf Administration.  [Read more here]

The Pennsylvania report also found an 8 percent increase in precipitation by midcentury is projected, primarily in the form of more frequent heavy and extreme rainfall events.

Average annual precipitation was 44 inches in 1971-2000.  This is projected to increase to 47 inches by mid-century, with winter and spring seasons becoming warmer and wetter.

Other reports looking at past precipitation trends found a 71 percent increase in very heavy precipitation events in the last 54 years in Pennsylvania.  [Read more here.]

While overall it may rain less frequently, it’ll rain more often than snow and it’ll rain more intensely causing localized flooding events, landslides, and impacts to infrastructure.

Inland flooding and coastal sea level rise will result. Water levels on the 56-mile coastline along the Delaware estuary are expected to rise 2.1 feet by mid-century.

PA Coastal Impact Assessment

The Coastal Effects Of Climate Change in Southeast PA study completed by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission in late 2020 shows $430 million in property value is at risk in coastal areas along the Delaware Estuary in Southeast Pennsylvania through 2050. [Read more here]

Visit DEP’s Climate Change webpage to learn more.

Related Article - Funding PA Flood Prevention:

-- Senate Committee Reports Out Bipartisan Bill Allocating $500 Million In American Rescue Fund Monies For Local Environmental Improvement, Recreation Projects

Related Articles:

-- Gov. Wolf: 2021 Climate Impacts Report Projects Pennsylvania Will Be 5.9° F Warmer by Midcentury, Precipitation To Increase, Targets Areas to Reduce Risk

-- DEP Previews New Climate Impact Assessment: More Extreme Precipitation, More Livestock, More Manure, Less Effective BMPs; And SE Coastal Impact Assessment

-- 71% Increase In Very Heavy Precipitation Events In Last 54 Years In PA: Learn How To Prepare For Emergencies - 30 Days/30 Ways

[Posted: October 11, 2021]

10/18/2021