Reporting Aside: Preparing for the inevitable

Oct. 3—I used to laugh when an old colleague of mine talked about being prepared for emergencies by having a water spigot, lots of canned food and plenty of clothing and blankets in his basement.

Not any more.

As I watch news footage of destruction caused by floods, hurricanes, fires and other disasters prompted by climate change, I think it's just a matter of time before it happens here. I've always felt secure in knowing I live a safe distance from rivers and streams and at a high enough elevation, but no place is forever immune.

We feel sympathy for those who have worked their whole lives to build a home and raise family in a community they love, only to have it disappear in the blink of an eye.

And it is happening in places we never imagined it could, such as in the hills of western North Carolina, where one would think deadly flooding unlikely.

Climate expert Alex Steffen drew a stark picture of what we are facing in an interview with journalist William Brangham on Wednesday's edition of the PBS News Hour.

Steffen, who writes the newsletter "The Snap Forward," talked about how, in the next 20 years, millions of people in the U.S. will be moving to places that pose less risk than others, instead of rebuilding and starting over in high-risk areas where it could happen again.

Nowhere is totally safe, he said, but people should be thinking about moving away from high-risk areas.

Imagine leaving the place where you grew up, where all your reality lies, after seeing it wiped off the face of the earth. It is heartbreaking to watch, and scary for those of us who have believed we are in a better, safer part of the country.

Steffen recommended we check out the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Risk Index, which includes a map of places in the U.S. that are at various levels of risk.

I did just that, seeking information about Kennebec County, where I live. The risk is, thankfully, relatively low here compared to the rest of the U.S., according to the map. Kennebec scores "relatively low" for events such as drought, earthquakes, hail, heat waves, wildfires, strong wind and riverine flooding; relatively moderate for hurricane, landslide and winter weather; relatively high for ice storms and lightning; and very low for tornado.

Kennebec County also is rated relatively low for social vulnerability and very high for community resilience.

As the climate changes, we can expect changes in our risk assessment (consider the prolonged high heat we have experienced the last few summers). Here we are in October, for instance, with summer-like weather, flowers blooming and green grass. When I was a child growing up in the nearby Somerset County town of Skowhegan, October truly felt and looked like fall.

While the prognosis is frightening, we can take some comfort in knowing there are people in Waterville who have our backs. A special Community Resilience Committee is actively working to strengthen our resilience in various ways, including by applying for grants to install high-efficiency lighting in city buildings, for instance, and siting an electric vehicle charging station for public use.

The committee was created to explore opportunities for the city to develop programs and take actions to provide a resilient future in the face of climate change. Efforts are afoot to shift the community's reliance to renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels. Committee members are working to prepare locally for the effects of climate change. They also are seeking environmentally friendly ways to reduce and-or repurpose the community's waste stream.

Committee member Thomas Klepach, who also is a Waterville city councilor and professor in Colby College's biology department, told officials at Tuesday's council meeting that the committee at its Sept. 18 meeting hosted an engineer and energy consultant who moved recently to Maine from Idaho. The consultant offered, at no cost, to analyze and audit city buildings for their energy efficiency, according to Klepach.

"We are pretty excited about that," he said.

As Steffen, the climate expert, said, it is critical for communities and governments to be involved. What we have learned from these severe weather events is that they are not somewhere off in the distant future. They are here, now — and we all must be part of the solution.

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 35 years. Her columns appear here Saturdays. She is the author of the book, "Comfort is an Old Barn," a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at . For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com

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