NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Norfolk is second only to New Orleans for risk from coastal storms and has one of the highest rates of relative sea level rise among Atlantic coastal communities, but there are plans in place to mitigate flooding risks.
“Norfolk, surrounded by water the way we are, we are living with water at all times,” said Justin Shafer, Norfolk’s coastal resilience manager.
That comes with good and bad news. The good: it shapes the economy. The bad: it brings flooding.
“We’ve been working on it for many years,” Shafer said. “It’s important to understand when you think about the projects and the type of flooding we want to address.”
Nor’easters, storms and climate change drive coastal floods, and the city’s project to minimize the flooding risk will address those factors.
“Like our coastal storm risk management project that were working on with the Army Corps of Engineers, … the idea behind that is that it’s going to protect the entire city from these large storm events,” Shafer said.
The $2.6 billion Coastal Storm Risk Management Project features storm-surge barriers, nearly nine miles of floodwalls and levees, 11 tide gates, and 10 pump stations, along with a series of nonstructural projects that include home elevations, basement fills, commercial floodproofing, oyster reefs and living shorelines.
While the project’s main purpose is to mitigate flooding from major coastal storms, many of the project’s features will provide some welcome added benefits that the city’s resilience team said will help address concerns from residents.
“It’s impacting their driveways, their walkways into their house, their garages, so we have to work on different solutions,” Shafer said.
Residents can help the city with the effort too.
“So the residents, if they see an area that’s flooding, particularly an area they are not used to seeing flooding, they need to let Norfolk know,” Shafer said.
If you come across a flooded road or neighborhood or see an area with the potential to flood you can call Norfolk Cares at 757-664-6510 weekdays from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. or use MyNorfolkOnline or the MyNorfolk mobile app. You can also use the Tidal Tracking App TITAN. Residents can also use the Waze app to see what roads are flooded and alert others. It’s teamwork that the city’s resilience team will further help the city’s efforts.
“Trying to plan out the current projects, the next projects, and well into the future of what we’re going to do to again maximize the co-benefits, reduce flooding ,improve water quality, improve livability here in the city,” Shafer said.
For a full look at the Coastal Storm Risk Management Project, click here.