Pirate's Cove

Of course, the Warmists blame earthquakes on you driving a fossil fueled vehicle

Climate change is ramping up flood risk in the Pacific Northwest: Study

A powerful future earthquake, coupled with climate-driven surges in sea levels, could significantly increase flood risks in the Pacific Northwest, a study has found.

These conditions could impact thousands of residents and their properties in Northern California, Oregon and Washington state, according to the study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A major earthquake could ultimately cause coastal regions to sink up to 6 1/2 feet, expanding the federal-designated coastal floodplain by between 35 square miles and 116 square miles, the study’s authors determined.

They defined the coastal floodplain as the area that exhibits a 1 in 100 chance of flooding each year.

Dura and her colleagues created tens of thousands of models to assess the amount of land sinkage that could occur after the next big Cascadia earthquake. They then used geospatial analysis to quantify earthquake-fueled expansion of the floodplain at 24 adjacent communities and estuaries.

Since earthquake timing remains uncertain, the team modeled the effects of such an event happening both now and in 2100, when climate-driven sea-level rise would exacerbate the impacts of any land sinkage.

There aren’t many really long term tide gauges for Washington and Oregon, but, here’s Astoria, which has “The relative sea level trend is -0.14 millimeters/year with a 95% confidence interval of +/- 0.29 mm/yr based on monthly mean sea level data from 1925 to 2024 which is equivalent to a change of -0.05 feet in 100 years.” Three of the other 4 gauges show a decline for Oregon. Neah Bay, Washington, shows “-0.56 feet in 100 years.” Seattle shows “0.69 feet in 100 years.” Friday Harbor has “0.39 feet in 100 years.” Seattle is the outlier for the long term, and short term, stations.

There is no anthropogenic, or natural, sea rise doom in the future.

If a major earthquake occurred now, the scientists determined an additional 14,350 residents, 22,500 structures and 777 miles of roadway would fall within the postevent floodplain zone — more than doubling flood exposure.

Potential flooding would affect five airports; 18 “critical” care, rescue and education facilities; eight wastewater treatment plants; one electricity substation; and 57 possible contamination sources, such as animal feeding operations, gas stations and solid waste sites.

“Today, and more so in 2100 as background sea levels rise, the immediate effect of earthquake-driven subsidence will be a delay in response and recovery from the earthquake due to compromised assets,” Dura said.

It’s like they felt it was their cult duty to throw ‘climate change’ into the mix, when it’s really about the danger of earthquakes.