Atlantic City is in trouble and it's not just because of the declining casino revenue population. Its residents and businesses face a flooding crisis that has largely been ignored by the state and federal government. Though many Republicans refuse to believe that climate change is real, scientists have evidence that rising seas have had a specific and detrimental impact on lower-income neighborhoods and local governments have little money to help residents brace for continuing impact.
But the federal government has done little to protect the residents of Arizona Avenue, or the millions of other working class and poor Americans who live near bays up and down the East Coast, from a worsening flooding crisis. Seas are rising as pollution from fossil fuel burning, forest losses and farming fuels global warming, melting ice and expanding ocean water. With municipal budgets stretched thin, lower-income neighborhoods built on low-lying land are enduring some of the worst impacts.
Climate Central scientists analyzed hundreds of coastal American cities and, in 90 of them, projected rapid escalation in the number of roads and homes facing routine inundation. The flooding can destroy vehicles, damage homes, block roads and freeways, hamper emergency operations, foster disease spread by mosquitoes, and cause profound inconveniences for coastal communities.
Though the most at-risk areas are in poor neighborhoods, the areas that the Army Corps of Engineers are working to protect are the high value property areas in higher elevations that face less and frequent flooding. Areas, of course, where people are gainfully employed and are not living in poverty.
New Jersey has done little to address the problem, aside from administering federal grants that have helped a limited number of residents abandon or elevate vulnerable houses. “We expect each town to focus on planning and budgeting for mitigating flooding,” said New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob Considine. Atlantic City can nary afford the kinds of capital improvements needed to provide meaningful relief.
This kind of strategy basically means that the state essentially helps a handful of people leave homes that are at-risk while they expect really cash-strapped cities like Atlantic City to fend for themselves—which leaves most of the poor and vulnerable residents exactly where they started, with no resources and just waiting for the worst to happen. This can also trigger severe emotional anxiety in residents who have been through other major storms like Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
The rising floodwaters can be emotional triggers — reminders of the upheaving effects of floods wrought by major storms like Sandy in late 2012 and Winter Storm Jonas in early 2016. Some of the residents have spent months living in hotels while their homes were repaired following storms. [...]
Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental studies professor who researches psychological responses to climate change at the College of Wooster, a liberal arts college in Ohio, said such triggers can lead to sleeping difficulties, “profound anxiety” and other symptoms. The frequent risk of flooding may also make people constantly fear for their homes and for the security their homes provide.
“It tends to be very important to everybody that they have some place that they feel they can relax, where they can be in control,” Clayton said. “Your home is your castle. When your home is threatened, that can really undermine a sense of stability and security. It’s not just the flooding, it’s the idea that it’s your home itself that’s being threatened.”
Once again, the working class are being forgotten as those in Washington debate weather or not climate science is real. Jobs are not returning to Atlantic City, people are struggling to make ends meet and climate change is having an incredibly real impact on the most vulnerable residents in the area who cannot afford to move. The state and national government are reluctant to do anything about this—preferring to cater to the wealthiest residents. Someone has got to do something about this. It’s really unfortunate that they don’t have a champion and someone who will fund climate change science research in the White House.
