Climate Change Means All Cities Are in the Water-Rescue Business Now
Floods are growing more frequent and intense due to global warming. Experts say rising to the challenge won’t be easy.
Flooding in Ohatchee, Alabama — about 50 miles northeast of Birmingham — in March 2021.
Photographer: Julie Bennett/Getty Images
Since January, the city of Birmingham, Alabama, has had to conduct 86 water rescues. That’s significant for a city that isn’t on a coast or riverbank: Birmingham is landlocked. “That’s extreme when you think about it, for firemen and firewomen who sign up for jobs to put out fires, but they’re doing water rescues,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who spoke at the CityLab conference on Monday.
Woodfin outlined the challenges of investing in infrastructure to prevent flooding in Birmingham (which sits in a basin in the foothills of the Appalachians — hence the flooding). While it would cost the city $50 million to repave every street in town, it would take more than $500 million to build adequate stormwater infrastructure.