NORFOLK, Va. — Have you dried out from yesterday's rain?
News 3's meteorologists tell us that in Norfolk, we've already had more rain this month than we typically see in all of March. As of Thursday morning, Norfolk (ORF) has seen 4.37 inches of rain in March. The average for March is typically 3.69 inches of rain.
The moisture means folks across Hampton Roads are certainly taking note of areas that flood and areas that keep flooding.
News
Norfolk could receive millions more to help fund flooding mitigation program
"The state did a study a couple of years ago that shows the intensity of rainfall in Virginia has increased over the years," said Skip Stiles, senior advisor at Wetlands Watch. "So, we're getting more rain."
"And our normal rain amounts each month they might overall stay the same, but the way rain comes might shift dramatically," said Jay Ford, Virginia policy manager for Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "And we have seen that where it is not a drizzle that maybe is spread out over the month. It's coming hard and fast in what scientists call intensity, duration, and frequency. In shorthand we sometimes refer to these as rain bombs."
A lot of precipitation in a short amount of time, Ford explained, can tax the area.
"Our land's ability to absorb it is dramatically being reduced," said Ford.
And, Stiles said, it can tax aging infrastructure.
Watch related coverage: Norfolk could receive millions more to help fund flooding mitigation program
"When you're in an older city like Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton, whatever, where storm water infrastructure was laid out 100 years ago or more, when this kind of rain hits, it makes an outdated system behave even worse," said Stiles.
"So what is the broader impact of seeing flooding in our area aside from just property damage? Is there a human impact?" asked News 3 reporter Erika Craven.
"Oh absolutely," explained Ford. "I got a call yesterday afternoon that said they were closing my children's school because the roads were flooded. We are seeing more and more the every day life being impacted."
Most agree that flooding in Hampton Roads is an issue, but how, when there's so much water, are flood mitigation projects prioritized?
"Basically, it's a matter of figuring out where traffic is the heaviest, where flooding is the worst," said Stiles.
"How we prioritize those is historically based on the amount of people that are impacted and the cost of property that is damaged," said Ford. "We are realizing that that system is overly simplistic. And so there have been major shifts at the federal and state level to get them more equitable."
Norfolk
Norfolk gets hundreds of millions of dollars to fight flooding
Some of that shift?
"Social vulnerability is something newer that we're using," said Kyle Spencer, chief resilience officer for Norfolk.
Spencer said Norfolk formulates project priority in a holistic way by considering socially vulnerable areas where people may be older or have fewer resources, and also metrics like drainage capacity, age of the system and citizen complaints.
He added that a good example of the city's approach to flooding concerns is the Ohio Creek Watershed Project that was completed last year. Find details on that project here.
Groups are also working to address the issue include involving more community members.
"Going into these communities with student expertise, with academic expertise, getting students the training they'll need in the future and giving the residents a community a plan, that's to me the exciting stuff," said Stiles.
News
A look at flood mitigation efforts in Hampton Roads after big storms
What about at the federal level?
Last month the Army Corps of Engineers announced it's looking to include more social and environmental benefits along with the standard cost-benefit analysis when considering flooding projects. The proposed change can be found here. It's open to public comment until April.
The Army Corps of Engineers works closely with Virginia to provide technical assistance and feasibility studies for flooding projects. Additionally, last June Norfolk and the Corps signed an agreementon a ten-year flooding mitigation project, with the federal government chipping in.
There's no question that flooding in our area will continue to happen.
"It's a special challenge here," said Stiles. "But that's where the citizens need to weigh in."
"[Across Hampton Roads] we're going to have to see scores of different localized solutions to address these issues across each area and won't be able to rely on just one big project," said Ford.
"We're taking the approach of not ignoring it but hitting it head on," said Spencer.
Norfolk's hosting several flood strategy open houses this month. Details can be found here. The city's next open house is March 14.
