FORT MYERS, Fla. — No matter where you live, climate and weather will affect you somehow. Now there’s an online tool that can show you how vulnerable an area is to climate disaster.
Pick any neighborhood, and the U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index scores the area from zero to 100. Most parts of Florida, including Southwest Florida, score pretty high.
But it’s not just about flooding, tornadoes, or even hurricanes.
Florida Gulf Coast University professor Brian Bovard said it’s about the ability of an area to bounce back from a climate disaster.
“It’s a function of how much do you have in terms of resources available to tackle the issue that would make yourself less vulnerable to those impacts,” Bovard said. “To mitigate against consequences of climate change.”
Experts said economic factors in a neighborhood can play a role too.
“There are things that make communities more or less vulnerable, and a lot of times that’s tied to the socioeconomic status of that community,” Bovard said. “So if a community doesn’t have, say, a tax base or monetary fund to invest in infrastructure to make it more resilient to climate change.”
Realtor Kayinah Destine said Florida’s weather patterns are already having an impact on the market.
“It’s definitely been recently because we had the hurricane, so everybody’s taking that into consideration,” she said. “Especially with inflation and insurance rates. Does it make sense to move to, at least, Southwest Florida?”
According to the U.S. Census, Florida was the fastest-growing state in 2022, with an annual population increase of one point nine percent.
Destine says more families are starting to consider inland areas like Clewiston and Labelle. The risk of flooding and storm surge is lower there, but there are other risks further inland.
“If you’re gonna be in a rural area, you’re gonna have a lot of trees and a lot of wind to be able to flow through those areas,” Destine says. “So definitely depends on the area that you’re in. And depending on that, that’s what people are concerned about.”
it may be cheaper to move inland, but the cost for a piece of paradise is rising year over year regardless of how close you are to the coast. Destine says it’s important to be prepared, know the risks and do your research.
“You have to select what is gonna be good for you,” Destine said.
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