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Comment by steve19 | Hacker News Reader

At what point do we first see mass floodings from unusually high tides, such as during proxigean spring tide? Surely it must be soon if Veitnam will be underwater in just 30 years time?

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Hurricane Sandy hit NYC during a spring tide, flooding downtown and knocking out power and a lot of subway tunnels. It cost 53 lives and about $19 billion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Sandy_in_...

Apparently it's already happened.

> The findings don’t have to spell the end of those areas. The new data shows that 110 million people already live in places that are below the high tide line, which Mr. Strauss attributes to protective measures like seawalls and other barriers.

So basically we have 110 millions of people living in "dangerous" areas so far yet nobody was impacted?

We've had cities and towns built in regular flood plains for thousands and thousands of years. Every single year there's a few weeks in the spring when the news is full of stories about snowmelt and ice dams or heavy spring rains causing massive flooding on the Mississippi and its tributaries.

If you include areas that are protected by seawalls and other barriers, I assume that number could include most parts of the Netherlands. Not exactly a helpful number. We should give priority to people who are currently unprotected.

Essentially, yes. The Dutch have been living with this for hundreds of years; it will cost, but it is certainly possible to construct mitigatory measures.

So the way it affects them is by requiring the expensive construction of seawalls, drainage and other defensive mechanisms.

They're affected by floods.

More than before? Where are the stats for that?

I don't know where you're getting no impact from, countries like Bangladesh are often being flooded (https://edition.cnn.com/2017/09/01/asia/bangladesh-south-asi...), in 1998 they had 68% of the country under water (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_Bangladesh). They are gradually getting more frequent and more severe, sooner or later they will be catastrophic.

There's plenty of places that are experiencing all sorts of problems with flooding. Look into Miami and Venice for starters; their problems are well-documented in English media. Less-developed cities are experiencing it worse, but aren't as well-documented in English.

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