Rising sea levels and fierce storms have failed to stop relentless population growth along U.S. coasts in recent years.
The latest punishing hurricanes scored bull’s-eyes on two of the country’s fastest growing regions: coastal Texas around Houston and resort areas of southwest Florida. Nothing seems to curb America’s appetite for life near the sea, especially in the warmer climates of the South. But coastal development destroys natural barriers like islands and wetlands, promotes erosion and flooding, and positions more buildings and people in the path of future destruction, researchers and policy advisers who study hurricanes say.
“History gives us a lesson, but we don’t always learn from it,” says Graham Tobin, a disaster researcher at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
From 2010-2016, major hurricanes and tropical storms are blamed for more than 280 deaths and $100 billion in damages, according to data from the federal National Centers for Environmental Information.
Harvey flooded sections of Houston in recent weeks. Four counties around Houston, where growth has been buoyed by the oil business, took the full force of the storm. The population of those counties expanded by 12% from 2010 to 2016, to a total of 5.3 million people.
During the same years, two of Florida’s fastest-growing coastline counties—retirement-friendly Lee and Manatee, both south of Tampa—welcomed 16% more people.
