[Music]
Catrina is most of you know has become a
monster of a hurricane a category five
storm an Army National Guard helicopter
today rescued people from rooftops
fragile islands in the floodwaters
hurricane sandy crashing on shore winds
now at 90 miles per hour
we've got a significant problem on our
hands so we have a lot of work to do the
United States is no stranger to
devastating hurricanes but few people
spend their time thinking about the next
one here in Tampa Bay it's easy to just
live in the moment but this is one of
the most vulnerable areas in the country
too extreme weather and rising sea
levels
global warming is likely to bring more
of both Tampa Bay hasn't been hit by a
major hurricane since 1921 but there's
been no lack of near misses some
scientists point to location others to
luck most agree that the city is overdue
for the next big storm there's a storm
anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean I keep a
watchful eye upon it Marc Luther studies
the effects of climate change and lives
with the risks a professor of marine
science he's seen water from the Bayou
steadily encroach on his low-lying
neighborhood in Saint Petersburg a major
hurricane if it came right up Tampa Bay
in just the right direction could
completely cover this house and most of
the houses in this neighborhood
in 2010 Tampa Bay's Planning Council
released a simulation of what could
happen if a category 5 hurricane hit it
was called Project Phoenix the report
found that nearly half a million
buildings could be destroyed 41 million
tons of debris could pile up and more
than 2,000 people could lose their lives
Jessica Lopez lives in with the county
calls an emergency management hotspot
her mobile home floods regularly last
summer during a tropical storm the
septic tank in her backyard
overflowed she was 6 months pregnant it
wasn't safe we couldn't really go
outside the house because the feces
covered the yard and everything was so
gross
pretty much the people that are here we
are stuck here because we don't have the
money even in a category 3 hurricane
Jessica's home could end up underwater
that's according to models by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration or NOAA across Tampa Bay
analysts estimate more than 1.5 million
buildings could be destroyed in a
category 5 storm costing the city up to
a hundred and seventy five billion
dollars all of this you know
infrastructure is very old I mean this
is one of the older parts of Tampa parts
of Tampa that developed first this was
you know decades and decades and decades
ago before we even gave any thought to
sea level rise and so no one was
thinking whom gee maybe we shouldn't
build homes at sea level because it
really was not subject to hazards all
that often vital infrastructure is also
at risk in a major storm NOAA predicts
the bridges leading to the tampa
hospital could be compromised making it
nearly inaccessible despite these
drastic warnings developers are betting
on a bright future the city sport is
getting an upgrade and there's a
building boom on the waterfront Maya
Burke sits on the Planning Council
she says complacency about climate
change is hard to overcome because it's
not urgent in the everyday worried sense
that people are thinking about there
might be a tendency to put it off and
think that we can act later but we can't
really the time to act is now if we want
to make this place
resilient so that we can still be
comfortable and enjoy the way of life
that we have here in Tampa Bay mark
knows that life here is tenuous but he
doesn't dwell on it
every morning when I walk out to get the
paper I see dolphins frolicking in the
bayou and Roseate spoonbills walking
around the edge of the Bayou so tends to
make you forget about all those sorts of
things