In this difficult age of climate change and sea level rise, one fact is now very clear: Fewer Floridians are entirely safe from the flooding caused by a hurricane.
Consider the soggy reach of Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that killed at least 127 people during its slow march through Florida last month. Ian’s winds were formidable. But its primary weapon was water, with much of the damage happening far away from where the storm came ashore near Fort Myers.
Parts of the Florida Keys were swamped by seawater that flooded homes and destroyed apartments. Across the state in Orlando, the storm dropped almost 2 feet of rain, overwhelming stormwater and sewage systems. Officials say at least 3,000 buildings were damaged in inland Polk County. Another 4,000 structures were flooded in Volusia County, along Florida’s east coast. St. Augustine took a hit. So did homeowners in Hardee County.
