Bob Brooks, a retired manufacturer’s representative who resides on Sanibel year-round, recently shared with me, “Our mangrove buffers, sea grapes, and buttonwood trees have safeguarded numerous homes. They have been protecting our coastline for centuries.” Brooks and his wife, Nancy, used to live on the Jersey Shore (“Sandy’s surge was incomparable to this”) and the Outer Banks (“frequent severe weather conditions”). A city council member in Sanibel estimates that up to one in ten structures on the island were either completely destroyed or damaged beyond repair, although it will take several months to accurately evaluate the extent of the devastation.
Should the government instead leave it to people to help? And should the federal government help if so? How much will insurance cost going forward and how much will insurance cover? Some essential questions are still unanswered and residents are currently figuring out how to pay for rebuilding and repairs.
Many environmentalists believe that “candidates are inhabited barrier islands that are managed by the Ocean Defense Initiative and defined as ‘retreat,’ which is a purposeful and planned relocation supported by the government. It’s a controversial and complicated process that can take years, as seen in the village of Newtok on the southwest coast of Alaska and Isle de Jean Charles on the coast of Louisiana. In addition to offering financial incentives to individuals who voluntarily leave areas prone to natural disasters, such as the Army Corps of Engineers began doing in 2015, the government must also start buying out properties and offering grants for relocation in new Indigenous communities. Earlier this month, the Biden Administration announced the first grants in this program to assist Indigenous communities threatened by climate change, a move that the Times reported has been resisted by most places but adopted by others.”
She said, “The increasing severity of storms and rising sea levels due to climate change make it necessary to rebuild in areas where we know it doesn’t make sense.” I asked, “Should we think about whether rebuilding is even a good idea?” The local decision-maker wants nobody to say “maybe.” Flemma told me, “We’re going to rebuild,” which is the first response of any local politician after a hurricane. Federal money helps, but the challenge is greater locally.
He and Nancy are willing to stay and live with the issues we’ve had before the hurricane, even if it’s not immediate. He said he had never heard of the term before I asked him about it, and he didn’t seem to care about the term before.