New Jersey’s coast is under growing risk of tidal flooding and hurricane-caused floods as the world’s climate continues to change, according to a new report by the Rhodium Group’s Energy & Climate Team and collaborators from the UC Berkeley-based Global Policy Lab and the University of Chicago.
The report finds that frequent flooding risk threatens 23,000 more homes and other buildings worth a total of $13 billion in New Jersey compared to homes and buildings threatened in the state by 1980 sea levels.
Another 62,000 to 86,000 more homes and commercial properties in the state, worth more than $60 billion, sit in areas with a 1-in-30 chance of hurricane flooding, the report finds. That risk extends inland too, with the chance of hurricane-force winds affecting the average New Jersey home outside coastal counties growing from 1 in 200 four decades ago to between 1 in 30 and 1 in 100 in any given year now.
By mid-century, another 33,000 to 58,000 buildings in the state will flood frequently, the report finds.
The report’s authors are Hannah Hess, Michael Delgado, Ali Hamidi and Trevor Houser from the Rhodium Group, Ian Bolliger and Solomon Hsiang of UC Berkeley and Michael Greenstone from the University of Chicago.
