Seven Million at Extreme Flood Risk

0:00It's April 22, I'm Corey with The Story, and this is Canada News Today, your AI-powered local news. A new study out of the University of Alabama drops some heavy truth on flood risks along the Atlantic and Gulf Coast. Over 17,500,000 people face very high risk, with another 17 million at high risk, stretching from Texas to Maine. They crunch 16 factors like geography, population density, infrastructure, and social vulnerabilities using federal data, and three AI tools. For the worst floods, the top 1% events, 4,300,000 are at extreme very high risk, and 20,500, 1,000 at high risk. New York City tops the list with 4,750,000 folks in the two highest danger zones, plus over 200,000. Buildings on the line, New Orleans, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, and others like Norfolk and Charleston are right behind. Ideas are straight shook by these numbers, even knowing climate change amps up the threats.

1:04Researcher Shao calls it shocking, especially for vulnerable groups like the poor, elderly, kids, and those with less education. A Columbia Geographer notes New York's exposure dwarfs every other city by nearly an order of magnitude. With Cessna's study apart is his full scope, factoring in sinking land, sealed pavement, and human elements like poverty and age. Had prosay can map risks worldwide, from Manila to Beyond, and floods are only getting fiercer from human-driven warming. Local planners and emergency crews can use this blueprint to build smarter, pushing wetlands, rain gardens, and natural barriers over just dams, and walls cutting real damage before the next big one hits.