(Editor’s note: This is the final installment in a three-part series exploring Rhode Island’s vulnerability to coastal flooding and what businesses, property owners and local communities can do to better prepare. Read part one here. Read part two here.)
John Bellone’s agility bounding up a ladder inside The Hotel Maria suggests it’s not his first time climbing atop his three-story hotel.
“The view gets better as you go up,” he says with a smile and nod toward the Atlantic Ocean.
The 31-room boutique hotel on Atlantic Avenue, under construction alongside Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, is scheduled for completion in June. Bellone’s upbeat mood is a sharp contrast to how he felt nearly six years ago when the remnants of Hurricane Sandy left his property – then a restaurant – in shambles.
“I was in shock,” Bellone says. “Everything was destroyed.”
The 2012 storm hit Misquamicut with such devastation it drove others to sell homes and businesses, and move elsewhere. The Westerly native decided to stay and rebuild, but in a way that would make the property less susceptible to the next major storm.
“It quickly became clear we had to build up higher,” he says.
[caption id="attachment_200538" align="alignright" width="251"]
STEADFAST: The Hotel Maria under construction in Westerly. Owner John Bellone used to have a restaurant in the area, but it was destroyed by the remnants of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Rather than move away, as many homeowners and businesses did after the storm, Bellone decided to stay and rebuild, this time much higher. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD[/caption]
Once finished, the first floor will sit atop steel beams more than 16 feet above sea level. The structure is supported by steel pilings driven dozens of feet into the ground.
Eighteen homeowners in the seaside village have taken similar actions. Local officials expect another four to five to participate this year.
Such property owners are proof Rhode Islanders are beginning to reconcile with the growing threat of rising seas and coastal storms. But they are a decided minority in a state still largely unprepared.
“People act surprised when disaster strikes, like ‘Oh, we didn’t know this would happen,’ ” said Grover J. Fugate, executive director of the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council. “Yes, you did. You just didn’t want to listen.”
LEARNING LESSONS?
The Ocean State, with its 400-plus miles of shoreline, is uniquely vulnerable to sea-level rise, which scientists project could increase nearly 10 feet by the end of the century. At the same time,
extreme weather events – both coastal and inland – are increasing in frequency and strength.
Eight years ago this month, record rainfall resulted in the Pawtuxet River cresting at nearly 21 feet, and great swaths of central Rhode Island were flooded. The Blackstone River in northern Rhode Island wreaked similar havoc.
Although not a coastal storm, the March 2010 floods were nonetheless devastating. The flooding closed roads, ruined homes and shuttered businesses, impacting hundreds of jobs. The Red Cross estimated the flooding affected roughly 200,000 Rhode Islanders.
Then-Gov. Donald L. Carcieri characterized it as “a kick in the teeth,” as the state was then still sputtering in its recovery from the Great Recession.
Fast-forward to 2018, however, and there’s little to suggest most businesses impacted by that flooding have taken steps to safeguard against future storms.
[caption id="attachment_200542" align="alignleft" width="300"]
2010: Dennis Martin, executive general adjuster at William Kramer & Associates Property and Casualty Adjusters, assesses water damage at the NYLO Providence Warwick hotel in Warwick after the March 2010 floods. / PBN FILE PHOTO/FRANK MULLIN[/caption]
“Nothing really,” said Jackson Donoyan, general manager at NYLO Providence Warwick, when asked what the hotel had done differently after the flood. “It needed a deep clean and acid wash to prevent mold. The owners also renovated the meeting space, the restaurant, the offices and the [information technology] systems.”
The 163-room hotel was inundated with water and forced to shut down for nearly a year and a half. The impact came as a blow to its owners, Texas-based NYLO Hotel LLC, which had opened the hotel alongside the Pawtuxet only a few months earlier.
The repairs cost millions of dollars, Donoyan said, and the owners are counting on such flooding not happening again.
“From what I’m told, [officials] feel that this will not happen again,” Donoyan said.
[caption id="attachment_200543" align="alignright" width="208"]
INUNDATED: The March 2010 floods left many businesses with millions of dollars in damages, including the Warwick Mall. / PBN FILE PHOTO/RYAN T. CONATY[/caption]
The sentiment is shared by many others in the area. Across the street, the Warwick Mall was shuttered for 144 days. Like the NYLO hotel, the mall reopened after a multimillion-dollar facelift, but not much was done in terms of mitigating for future risks.
Last winter, Aram Garabedian told Providence Business News he looks at the March 2010 floods as an opportunity, because it allowed him to improve and update the mall. But like NYLO, rather than trying to mitigate risk of reoccurrence, he hopes it doesn’t happen again.
“I don’t want to be a negative guy,” he said. “It’s very stressful … to get caught in this type of thing.”
Unfortunately for property owners in flood-prone areas, the growing frequency of extreme weather events makes short-term fixes a potentially costly gamble if they are not tied to long-term mitigation plans.
In March alone, the region has felt the brunt of four nor’easters that caused widespread power outages, flooding and property damage.
“People are not well-informed,” said Malcolm Spaulding, professor emeritus in the department of ocean engineering at the University of Rhode Island. “A better understanding … of what could potentially happen in the future could help people plan better.”
Janet L. Coit, director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, agrees.
“We have to tell people solutions at the same time we talk about the problem. That’s one of the areas where we need to do better,” she said. “If you tell people that they’re at risk and in danger but you don’t also say, ‘Here’s a way to address it,’ there’s a tendency to feel like it’s too overwhelming.”
SAVING BY PREPARING
Last year, federal regulators estimated the cost of extreme weather events exceeded $306 billion, marking the worst year on record.
Tropical cyclones, severe storms, floods and wildfires were directly responsible for killing 362 people nationwide, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Natural disasters are horrible for many reasons. But a large part of the subsequent pain stems from ubiquitous unpreparedness. Local governments, homeowners and businesses – for the most part – just don’t spend upfront dollars to mitigate the risk of natural disasters.
The risk is high in Rhode Island, which is uniquely prone to flooding, both coastal and inland. The latter, however, is in some ways more difficult to plan for because unlike coastal storms, which often can be tracked days in advance, inland flooding “is not predictable,” Coit said.
Flooding also comes with expensive subsequent costs. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimated flooding is “the costliest and fastest-growing disaster threat in the nation.”
From 1980 to 2013, flooding alone cost the United States $260 billion in damages.
[caption id="attachment_200539" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
RISE UP: Hope Global in Cumberland was flooded once in 2005 and again during the March 2010 floods. The company has spent upward of $1 million since on flood mitigation. Chief of Staff Leslie Taito, left, with maintenance workers Hector Valentin and Maria Fulns. All the motors of these wire knitter machines were raised about 3 feet. Fulns is standing next to the motor. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Hope Global, an international manufacturer based in Cumberland, learned firsthand the costly expense of flooding damage. In 2005, a flooding event cost the business – located alongside the Blackstone River – more than $5 million. The March 2010 floods cost about $3 million, after which company executives decided enough was enough.
“Crossing our fingers and hoping is what we decided we couldn’t do after flood No. 2,” said Leslie Taito, chief of staff. “That methodology just isn’t going to give you any comfort when it’s pouring rain and there’s melting snow.”
The manufacturer applied for and was
awarded a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant from Cumberland for disaster relief. The company spent the funds on such mitigation efforts as modifying 170 pieces of equipment to be raiseable more than 2 feet off the ground in the event of a flood.
The funding helped the company, which has 1,574 employees globally and 270 workers in Cumberland, stay put.
“It’s been a true private-public partnership,” Taito said. “We want to be here. We’ve got great employees.”
[caption id="attachment_200537" align="alignleft" width="238"]
MITIGATION EFFORTS: Hope Global CEO Cheryl Merchant, right, speaks with Maria Paz, machine operator. The international manufacturer based in Cumberland was awarded a $1.5 million Community Development Block Grant for disaster relief after sustaining millions of dollars in flood damage in 2005 and 2010. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
Taito said there’s no doubt the mitigation efforts will help in the long term, which is a calculation backed by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Repairing and rebuilding after a natural disaster costs far more than proactive measures. Every $1 spent on disaster mitigation saves $4 on post-disaster aid, according to Pew.
Federal priorities, however, remain geared to disaster aid.
From 2005 to 2014, the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent $600 million on its Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program. During the same time, it spent $277.6 billion on disaster assistance.
The opportunity to build more resiliently is easier and less costly when building something new, according to Dave Caldwell, owner of Caldwell & Johnson Inc. and head of the Rhode Island Builders Association.
“It costs little to nothing if you’re building now,” Caldwell said. “But it gets harder if the structure is already there and you have to move it up.”
There are emerging standards, however, that could benefit existing homes and businesses. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a Florida-based nonprofit, is testing building methods and various products to determine what property owners could use to better prepare for natural disasters.
The nonprofit has tried out these techniques and products in a large facility in South Carolina that allows for testing full-scale one- and two-story homes and commercial buildings in realistic disaster scenarios, including high winds, wind-driven rain, hail and wildfire.
[caption id="attachment_200540" align="alignright" width="300"]
BUILDING BETTER: Dave Caldwell, owner of Caldwell & Johnson Inc. and head of the Rhode Island Builders Association, said the opportunity to build more resiliently is easier and less costly when building something new, as “it gets harder if the structure is already there and you have to move it up.” Caldwell stands in front of one of the homes his company built in North Kingstown. / PBN FILE PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
For property owners mulling their options, however, the issue tends to come down to a matter of cost, making it untenable for many. It’s something even Fugate, arguably the state’s biggest advocate of storm preparedness, has grappled with personally.
“My roof is 5 years old, and I’m wrestling with the issue of whether I should strip it down and put the right roof on now, which is going to cost $20,000 to $25,000 for us, or do I play the odds?” he said. “Right now, I’m playing the odds.”
On the public side, Rhode Island is slowly coming to terms with the math. Coit said it has a lot to do with the March 2010 floods. Her agency is looking for ways to upgrade public infrastructure – particularly wastewater facilities – to become better prepared.
“That flood was a huge eye-opener,” Coit said.
‘GREEN BOND’
Coit has worked on environmental and conservation issues for more than two decades.
In addition to heading the state’s top environmental agency, Coit also co-chairs a working group called the Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council, or EC4, created in 2014 as part of the Resilient Rhode Island Act.
As part of that work, she often invites in members of the business community and asks them all the same question: “What do you want from state government?”
“A lot of time the answer is about major infrastructure,” Coit said. “Business owners want to make sure their people can come to work, turn on the electricity and flush the toilet.”
Access to the bathroom is something most Americans have come to expect without much thought. But wastewater doesn’t magically disappear after a toilet is flushed. More likely, it travels to one of the state’s 19 major wastewater-treatment facilities, which are predominately in flood-prone areas.
[caption id="attachment_200541" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Much of the Warwick wastewater-treatment facility is still underwater a week after the late March rain storms in 2010. / COURTESY R.I. AIRPORT CORP.[/caption]
The March 2010 floods overtopped wastewater-treatment facilities in Warwick and West Warwick. Cranston, Bristol and Westerly sewer facilities likewise suffered inundation.
“When wastewater-treatment centers overtop, you’re getting raw sewage into people’s homes and into the rivers. It becomes a health issue and an environmental issue and there’s nowhere for that water to go,” Coit said. “We knew [after 2010] we had to do a better job at looking at wastewater-treatment centers.”
The state and municipalities have since made some upgrades to facilities and studied the issue, in conjunction with Spaulding at URI. The Warwick system, for instance, suffered $14 million in damages from the flood. In 2014, the state’s second-largest city received $3.6 million in federal funding to raise the facility’s levee, add a toe drain system to keep groundwater below a certain level and improve the previous draining system.
The state has worked toward raising pump stations at other facilities, although Coit admits funding is limited and the costs are high.
“Without sufficient funding – and then you overlay some of these climate-change challenges – and the resource [that’s] available becomes a big challenge,” Coit said.
She’s hopeful a so-called “Green Bond” will be put on the November ballot, proposed as part of Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s fiscal 2019 budget. The $48.5 million bond would include about $20.5 million to – among other things – improve coastal infrastructure, including wastewater-treatment plants.
Coit argues making more long-term investments is imperative to the future resilience of the state during and after natural disasters.
“Making short-term decisions that benefit a long-term scenario is not something political systems are great at,” Coit said. “The biggest challenge is changing habits and mindsets and mobilizing funding, partners and policies to implement actions and decisions that may be uncomfortable in the short-term but are needed for the long-term resiliency of our communities.”
Back in Westerly, Bellone doesn’t even like thinking about the prospect of future storms. His decision to build higher and stronger has given him some peace of mind.
“Whatever God is going to do, he’s going to do,” he said. “I don’t think this [hotel] can get any better unless it was completely built out of steel.”
Eli Sherman is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Sherman@PBN.com, or follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
