It's time for Northeast to prep for floods like those that hit this winter. Climate change is why

After back-to-back storms lashed the Northeast in January, rental properties Haim Levy owns in coastal Hampton, New Hampshire, were hammered by nearly two feet of water, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and causing him to evacuate tenants to safer ground.

“Put them in hotels and everything. So it was brutal, for everybody. And at the apartment I have no floors; I have nothing,” Levy said. “It's really crazy. Not fun.”

Many scientists who study the intersection of climate change, flooding, winter storms and sea level rise agree the kind of damage Levy experienced was more of a sign of things to come than an anomaly. They say last month's storms that destroyed wharfs in Maine, eroded sand dunes in New Hampshire and flooded parts of New Jersey still coping with hurricane damage from years ago are becoming more the norm than the exception, and the time to prepare for them is now.

Climate change is forecast to bring more hurricanes to the Northeast as waters warm, some scientists say. Worldwide, sea levels have risen faster since 1900, putting hundreds of millions of people at risk, the United Nations has said. Erosion from the changing conditions jeopardizes beaches the world over, according to European Union researchers.

Another storm brought flooding to Massachusetts and New Hampshire on Tuesday. In the Northeast, the problem of climate change is especially acute because of forecasted sea level rise here, said Hannah Baranes, a coastal scientist with the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's Climate Center in Portland, Maine. The state has already experienced 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) of rise since 1910 and is projected to have to manage 4 feet (1.2 meters) of sea level rise by 2100, she said.

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