Scientists regularly warn drastic changes associated with climate change in regional demographics and cultural psychographics will be seen in our lifetime. Climate disasters in recent years have caused exponentially more damage to communities, both in loss of life and economic destruction. This project encompasses the long-term effects multiple and continual disasters have had on communities throughout the United States.

On October 10th, Hurricane Michael made landfall in Mexico Beach, Florida, killing dozens of people and destroying nearly 60 miles of Gulf Coast communities. The aftermath of the storm left tens of thousands of people homeless and was the most intense U.S. hurricane to make landfall since Camille in 1969.

Months after the storm, residents continued to live in homes without roofs, walls or electricity, while others were just able to return to find their homes and neighborhoods destroyed. The permanent displacement due to the storm is not yet known, but more than 4 percent of the Florida Keys’ population never returned after Hurricane Irma, forcing thousands of people to find homes

elsewhere.

Hurricane Florence produced record rainfall and flooding which caused the sustained evacuation of communities throughout the Carolinas for weeks after the storm passed. The American Red Cross estimates thousands have been left without permanent housing due to Florence and are currently displaced. The town of Lumberton, North Carolina was destroyed by both Hurricanes Matthew and Florence just two years apart after the Lumber River crested and flooded low-lying communities. Both floods were considered 500-year flood events according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood zone designations. Hurricane Harvey contributed to Houston’s third 500-year flood event in just three years.

As climate disasters intensify in the coming decades, will communities continue to rebuild with an outlook of uncertainty or will these regions of the country be forgotten by the anguish associated with their continued destruction?