Environment
In Charleston, the Real Flooding Crisis Is Only Beginning
The historic South Carolina city escaped the worst of the latest storm, but rising seas and an aging drainage system may soon bring chronic inundation.
When Hurricane Dorian grazed the coast of South Carolina on Wednesday and Thursday, the hurricane packed winds of more than 100 miles per hour, triggering massive power outages throughout the state. Mayor John Tecklenburg of Charleston issued a mandatory evacuation order for that city ahead of the storm, warning of a “triple threat”: heavy rain, a deadly storm surge, and an above-average high tide.
Though the storm pummeled Charleston with heavy rainfall and threatened a 10-foot storm surge along Charleston Harbor, the city escaped that worst-case scenario—Dorian weakened to a Category 2 while traveling up the East Coast. Streets in low-lying parts of Charleston flooded. But these days, it doesn’t take a hurricane to do that.