The Guardian : Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise

[DBoon]

Long famed for its spectacular fishing, sprawling coral reefs and literary residents such as Ernest Hemingway, the Florida Keys is now acknowledging a previously unthinkable reality: it faces being overwhelmed by the rising seas and not every home can be saved.
...
Once people are unable to secure mortgages and insurance for soaked homes, the Keys will cease to be a livable place long before it’s fully underwater, according to Harold Wanless, a geographer at the University of Miami. “People don’t have a concept of what sea level rise will do to them. They just can’t conceive it,” he said.

On Monday, the county gave details of its plan to spend $1.8bn over the next 25 years to raise 150 miles of roads in the Keys, deploying a mixture of new drains, pump stations and vegetation to prevent the streets becoming inundated with seawater. The heightened roadways are eagerly anticipated by residents who told the meeting of cars being ruined by the salt water and of donning boots to wade to front doors.
...
Another resident, Robert Schaller of Twin Lakes, an area further along in the planning process, muttered that he “should’ve done my due diligence” when buying his house last year. “I literally stand on my balcony and watch the water come up through my street,” he said. “It’s coming up right through the pavement.”
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But Monroe county’s budget will not cover the raising of all the roads, nor any mass buyout of homes, and an appeal to Florida state lawmakers to levy a new tax to cover these mounting costs has been rebuffed. Further costs will pile up as the county grapples with how – and who pays - to keep critical infrastructure such as sewers and power substations, as well as people’s homes, from being flooded along with the roads.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/24/florida-keys-climate-change-sea-level-rise

[PortTack]

1. Sadly any road raising is only a temporary fix..

[PSPS]

2. Many (maybe most) people reading this will still be alive when Greenland's ice is all gone.

That alone will raise the sea level by about 30 feet, which is about twice the highest point in all the keys.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

3. We actually looked at a little house on one of the keys

We quickly decided it wasn’t a good idea, much as we love the area. We worried about hurricanes and rising sea water and this was 10 years ago.

[Deep State Witch]

4. Florida Lawmakers

Are putting their fingers in their ears and going "la-la-la we can't hear you" when it comes to climate change and rising sea levels.

[sop]

5. The average height above sea level throughout the Florida Keys is 3.2 feet.

Raising the roads or trying to pump the water out during high tides won't solve the problem. I spent many years fishing, diving and exploring the waters from Key Largo down to Key West. It's a vanishing paradise.

[bahboo]

6. gonna be tough...our move to Key West was interrupted by Covid....

but we're still planning on next year. We've got 20 years left max, so we're willing to roll the dice to live in a place we've wanted to live in since the 80's.