Map shows every Rhode Islander lives in a county affected by weather-related disasters

ENVIRONMENT RHODE ISLAND RESEARCH & POLICY Center created a map showing that every county in Rhode Island has been affected by a weather-related disaster in the last five years. / COURTESY ENVIRONMENT RHODE ISLAND RESEARCH & POLICY CENTER
ENVIRONMENT RHODE ISLAND RESEARCH & POLICY Center created a map showing that every county in Rhode Island has been affected by a weather-related disaster in the last five years. / COURTESY ENVIRONMENT RHODE ISLAND RESEARCH & POLICY CENTER

PROVIDENCE – An interactive map shows that every Rhode Islander lives in a county affected by weather-related disasters, according to the Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center.
The statewide advocacy organization, which developed the map using data from the federal government, cited recent weather-related disasters, such as the January blizzard, winter storm Nemo in February 2013, Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
“We used to think of climate change as a problem that would happen someday, somewhere,” Travis Madsen, climate campaign director for Environment Rhode Island, said in a statement. “But as this map helps demonstrate, global warming is happening now, and it’s already hitting close to home.”
Environment Rhode Island researchers, who created the online map, said that the Northeast has been impacted by a large increase in the frequency and severity of heavy downpours and snowstorms.
Since the middle of the last century, major storms have nearly doubled in frequency in Rhode Island, according to a press release from the center. The release cited the January snowstorm that dumped 2 feet of snow on the state, and an August rain storm that knocked power out to a quarter of the homes in Rhode Island. And, it cited the major rain storm in spring 2010 that caused the Pawtuxet River to overflow at more than 11 feet higher than flood stage, creating widespread damage to homes, property and infrastructure.

Nationwide, more than 40 million Americans live in counties affected by more than five weather disasters over the last five years, while counties housing 96 percent of the population experienced declared disasters at least once, the release said.

The analysis comes as Rhode Island and eight other Northeastern states are preparing to discuss improvements to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program that has helped to cut global warming pollution from power plants in Rhode Island and across the region over the last five years, the release said. It also comes just weeks before world leaders convene in Paris to reach an international agreement to cut global warming emissions.

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