Climate Change Bigger Threat Than Aging Infrastructure: City Officials

Some $30 billion in sewer upgrades recommended in 2001 but never funded likely wouldn’t have controlled flooding after Monday’s torrential rainfall, say experts who worry climate change could make the area more susceptible to future weather-related disasters.

Some areas of southeast Michigan received up to 6 inches of rain in about four hours, causing streets to flood, sewers to back up and foundations to buckle. In several metro Detroit communities, up to half of residences were affected in the worst flooding in the metro in nearly nine decades.

“I don’t think you could expect our system to handle that amount of water in such a period of time, nor would you make the kind of investment necessary to do so,” said Joan Weidner, a senior planner with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, which recommended the improvements in 2001.

There was so much rain that manholes popped and sewer lines were full Monday, The Detroit News reports. A drain large enough to handle 4 inches of rain in as many hours, Craig Covey, a spokesman for Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash, told the newspaper.

“The system worked exactly like it was supposed to, but we’re seeing these rain events that used to be unusual but just aren’t anymore,” Covey said.

Covey pointed to climate change as the reason for increased rain in Michigan, and said that federal and local governments need to take action and invest in infrastructure.

“This is going to become more normal and we need to understand that ‘100-year-storm’ is an outdated term,” he said.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Midwest will see rainfall three times more often by 2100 because of climate change, which scientists expect to cause intense flooding, straining drainage systems and limiting water availability throughout the region.

The Midwest already has had more precipitation in the last three decades than during any other time this century, resulting in damage to its infrastructure, the EPA said.

For a city that is already struggling economically, the storm could cost the city tens of millions of dollars in damage.

In 2012 taxpayers paid three times more than insurance companies to cover losses due to extreme weather, The Natural Resources Defense Council reports.

Extreme weather occurrences took almost $100 billion from the U.S. Climate Disruption Budget in 2012, causing the government to use more of taxpayers money on weather damages than on education and transportation according to the NRDC.

A 26-page report was released by the U.N. to 200 governments in an effort to urge officials to cut gas emission by 40 to 70 percent, Reuters reports.

“Human influence on the climate system is clear, and is estimated to have been the dominant cause of the warming observed since 1950,” the report states.

A climate change summit is scheduled for 2015 in Paris. The summit will include 200 governments coming together to figure out the best way to combat global warming.

An assessment released in May by the National Climate Assessment showed a 1 percent increase in torrential rainfall between 1958 and 2012, particularly in the Midwest and Northeast.

Covey of Oakland County said that government officials can’t continue to overlook the signs of extreme weather events.

“They can ignore it and we can hobble along with Band-Aids, rubber bands and glue, but if we wish to prepare and not have to go through drama of flooded streets, electrical outages and crumbling bridges, then we need to get smarter about the future,” Covey said.

Related:

– ‘Houses ... Smell Like Sewers,’ Mayor Says in Plea for Federal Help : Floods of 2014

– How Copper Scrappers May Have Caused Freeway to Swallow Cars

– UPDATED: Snyder Declares Flood Emergency in Tri-County Area

– Dearborn Flood of 2014: Special Trash Pickup, Service Interruptions

– City Warns Curbside Scavengers of Litter Laws: Floods of 2014

– City Crews Fanning Out Across Neighborhoods to Assess 2014 Flood Damage

– Wyandotte Flood of 2014: Free Residential Pickup for Flood-Damaged Items; How to File a Claim

– 40 Percent of Residents Report Some Flooding; Mayor Makes Disaster Declaration

– Flooding Affects Some Downriver Hospital Operations

– Oakland County Public Health Working with Restaurants on Flood Safety

- Record Rainfall Forces Michigan Residents Off the Road

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PHOTO: After torrential rain flooded Detroit on Monday, the motor city is beginning to recover but experts say that the midwest will begin to see more of these occurrences due to global warming (Patch File Photo).