in New York, billions of dollars spent to protect against rising sea levels and flooding

Miami is one of the Western cities most exposed to climate change. However, Americans’ habits are struggling to change, and homes that already have their feet in the water even continue to sell, although no insurance will take the risk of covering them.

Today, there are nearly 284,000 people to evacuate in Miami in the event of a flood or hurricane. A significant number that could explode in the coming decades if sea levels continue to rise. THE teams of “1:15 p.m. Sunday” (X, #1:15 p.m.) went to New York where, since the passage of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, solutions have been found to protect the eight million inhabitants.

Very short-term solutions that struggle to convince

Sometimes, a dramatic event allows you to realize your weaknesses. This is the case in New York where Hurricane Sandy violently hit the city in October 2012. Since then, the municipality has sought to protect New Yorkers.

Jordan Salinger is responsible for climate adaptations within the municipal team. “There are 837 kilometers of coastline in New York. That’s more than Chicago, Miami and Los Angeles combined. With such an extensive coastline, the risk is serious“, he explains. To deal with this risk, one of the solutions developed is the installation of sand dikes, placed as a priority to protect hospitals, factories and strategic sites. But this remains a response to very short term.

The “paradise port”, a 7 billion dollar project

One of the municipality’s flagship projects is the “paradise port”. A program which should be completed in 2030 and which will cost nearly seven billion dollars. The idea is to “gain on the bay by 27 to 60 meters in order to protect the neighborhood without sacrificing the beauty of the site“, explains Jordan Salinger.

A project that took a long time to implement and was extremely expensive, to protect a small part of southern Manhattan. As effective as it is, it should be difficult to extend across New York’s 837 kilometers of coastline. Other ideas will then have to be found in the years to come to protect the eight million inhabitants of the Big Apple when sea levels could rise by almost a meter by the end of the century.

A series signed Florent Muller, Benjamine Jeunehomme and Gaël Pouvreau.

Excerpt from “The Ice Struggle”, a report broadcast in “1:15 p.m. on Sunday” on December 10, 2023.

> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the Franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), section “Magazines“.