Costal cities across the country are being warned of rising sea levels are projected to rise an additional foot by 2050 due to climate change.
In response, the Ike Dike plan is now part of the Army Corps of Engineers $29 billion plan that calls for massive gates designed to block storm surges and hurricanes from reaching up the Houston Ship Channel.
If Congress funds the project, the feds will pick up 65 percent of the cost with Texas picking up the rest.
In February, a 111-page report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and six other federal agencies said that the U.S. shore will be 10 to 12 inches (0.25 to 0.3 meters) higher, with parts of Louisiana and Texas projected to see waters a foot and a half (0.45 meters) higher.
The eastern Gulf of Mexico should expect 14 to 16 inches (0.35 to 0.4 meters) of sea level rise by 2050 and three moderate sunny-day floods a year.
By mid-century, the Southeast coast should get a foot to 14 inches (0.3 to 0.35 meters) of sea level rise and four sunny-day moderate floods a year, while the Northeast coast should get 10 inches to a foot (0.25 to 0.3 meters) of sea level rise and six moderate sunny-day floods a year.
And that’s just until 2050. The report is projecting an average of about 2 feet of sea level rise in the United States — more in the East, less in the West — by the end of the century.