FLORIDA RISKS MORE IRMA DEVASTATION BECAUSE GOV. RICK SCOTT LIFTED WETLAND PROTECTIONS

[Judi Lynn]

Eoin Higgins
September 9 2017, 6:55 a.m.

AS HURRICANE IRMA, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, bears down on South Florida, the state is bracing for the worst. “We can rebuild your home, but we cannot rebuild your life,” Republican Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday. Mandatory evacuations are in place in a number of Florida communities. The state is preparing for extraordinary damage at the hands of the 400-mile-wide hurricane.

Scott, however, took action six years ago that means preparation for the storm must be all the more intense: The Republican governor prioritized development over ecological restoration of wetlands. Scott cut funding for the state’s water management districts in 2011, leading to staff reductions and less funding for ecosystem restoration projects. Around the same time, Scott signed the state legislature’s repeal of the state’s 1985 growth management law, leading to a spike in development. Scott would tell the Palm Beach Post in 2016 that the economic benefits from more building meant Florida was “on a roll.”

As Hurricane Harvey demonstrated in Houston, however, development from depleted wetlands can exacerbate the effects of storms: Water from rain and storm surges will have fewer places to go when the storm makes landfall, creating a greater potential for catastrophic flooding.

“Our wetlands help absorb and hold water,” said Dr. Angelique Bochnak, past president of the South Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Wetland Scientists and a former scientist with the St. Johns River Water Management District in the northeast of Florida. “The more developed the landscape is, the more runoff from rain. And there’s nowhere else to go but flooding without wetlands.”

More:
https://theintercept.com/2017/09/09/florida-risks-more-irma-devastation-because-gov-rick-scott-lifted-wetland-protections/

[RKP5637]

1. And eventually the Florida will be lost as a vacation land. Filled with sprawling gross condos,

flooding and over population. Eventually, the tourist trade will be lost and the economic engine gone.

[RKP5637]

2. Scott is and always has been an asshole and a criminal that got off the hook. n/t

[BigmanPigman]

3. As long as there is money to be made and deposited into foreign bank accounts,

greedy people will sell/buy whatever they can and someone else will have to deal with the repercussions later.

[FarPoint]

4. Yes. .

I was thinking just this very serious issue with the Everglades this morning...... Problem is...the causality will NEVER be appropriately assigned to depleted protection laws.

[beachbum bob]

5. after HArvey and Irma and the 100's of Billions in cost, some people will probably

be changing their minds...and others won't. Vilifying science and climate change has been a plank of the GOP doctrine for years. Won't change overnight

[murielm99]

6. It is a shame that you could not have found

a more credible source than The Intercept.

[Skittles]

7. when will people learn repukes ALWAYS end up costing us SO MUCH MORE