Understand SC

Flooding

Episode Summary

Will Charleston be under water one day? We talk about all the factors at play in the coast's increasingly worsening flooding problem.

Episode Notes

For this week’s episode, we thought it was high time to talk about the specific challenges Charleston and the coast as a whole face as climate change continues to affect how many flooding events impact the area.

In what we think might just be our best episode yet, here are some of the questions we tackle:

• How quickly is sea level rise accelarating?
• What factors are contributing to flooding?
• When it floods, what exactly is in the water? (Spoiler: It’s poop.)
• What actions are being taken to fix the problem?
• What solutions are working and which ones aren’t and why?
• Why do new developments in certain areas cause more floods?
• How did flooding contribute to Emory’s recent epic fall? (Because we know you want to hear more about that.)
• And so many more things. This episode is pretty comprehensive.

Further reading:

• Charleston residents are raising their homes to fight flooding, but many can’t afford it
• Coastal flooding is accelerating in Charleston and around the US, NOAA reports
• A powerful current just miles from SC is changing. It could devastate the East Coast.
• A fix to flood-proof Charleston could top $2 billion and take a generation to complete