Rising tides and powerful storms turbocharged by climate change are poised to hobble federal facilities worth at least $387 billion in coming decades, disrupting everything from veterans’ medical care to military operations and space exploration, according to a Bloomberg Government analysis.
By 2050, sites such as the Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval installation in the world, and the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, where 12,000 employees work, are likely to face one major flood a year and minor floods every week, the projections show.
Most of the costliest at-risk facilities are military installations such as the Marine Corps bases Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and Quantico in Virginia, together worth more than $30 billion, according to 2023 valuations by the Defense Department.
Other programs on the high-risk list include a $558 million firearms training range managed by the Department of Homeland Security, an aquatic research facility the Environmental Protection Agency runs in Rhode Island, and an Agriculture Department lab that studies sugarcane in coastal Louisiana.
The offices, bases, and campuses that could get swamped with water […]
387 Billion. So if it’s a choice between your schools, libraries, and healthcare or the Empire which do you think will win given our legislative and executive branch priorities? The Empire will win hands down. Empires in decline require sacrifice. When that sacrifice cannot be extracted externally it is imposed internally.