Florida’s military installations face more flooding and hurricane damage as the seas rise.
That’s the finding of a new study out Wednesday analyzing the risks at 18 military installations on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States.
The Union of Concerned Scientists study focused on these military installations as representative installations nationwide.
In Florida it looked at installations in Key West, Jacksonville and the Panhandle. Kristina Dahl, the study’s lead scientist, says the Key West installation is most at risk.
“At that installation, at Naval Air Station Key West, we found that between 70 and 95 percent of the base’s land could be lost to sea level rise by the end of the century.”
The study found by 2050 half of the military installations analyzed along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts face at least 270 flood events annually, up from 10 today. And that puts vital infrastructure at risk.
The Department of Defense did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
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