Sand castles on Jersey Shore: property boom defies US flood risk

Five years after Hurricane Sandy, plush new homes dot the state’s coastline. But is it safe to build in storm-prone areas? On the Jersey shore the rate of sea level rise has been faster than the global average because the land is subsiding. “Nuisance flooding”, when high tides gurgle up through sewer drains and on to streets, is more frequent. In Atlantic City it increased eightfold to 25 days a year between 1963 and 2013, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report. Bob Kopp, director of the Institute of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at Rutgers University and Lab co-director, says there is more to come. Changes could come long before 2100. Research published last week by Prof Kopp and others in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences projected that in New York City — just north of the Jersey shore — floods more than 7ft above sea level could arrive an average of every five years as early as 2030.