Two feet by 2060 is the middle ground projection from a scientist on how much sea level rise South Florida will face in less than 50 years. Already there are signs of what is to come, and now there’s a new app to help gauge possible impact where many of you live in Palm Beach County, Broward County, and Miami-Dade County.
It is done with help from Florida International University, Google Maps, and scientific projections.
Chris Mosca and his wife live along North Flagler in West Palm Beach.
“We are at water level zero,” he said.
They wake up to the Intracoastal. They’re happy to, but they know the risk.
“Flooding. It can flood pretty easy,” Mosca said.
Last October, annual King Tide’s crept close to their home.
“We got so lucky last year if that happened during a hurricane, the tide was out instead of in, my house would have been under water,” he said.
On the new Florida International University, Eyes on the Rise map, their neighborhood is one of the first to be impacted if the sea were to rise permanently two feet. The projections of sea-level on a 2015 study of the southeast Florida coastline.
“We’re not going to push the ocean back so what are we going to do to raise the shoreline? What are we going to protect it? Because if not, not my generation, probably not yours even though you’re younger than me. Something is going to have to happen. Somebody is going to have to be ahead of it,” Mosca said.
Holly Meyer Lucas from Meyer Lucas Real Estate says the user-friendly maps are one more tool that can be useful when it comes time to decide on a home.
“The more that we as homeowners and buyers know about what might happen what could happen is something that I think is powerful.
This app is a point of reference, not to be used to replace a professional to come out and inspect your property.