Floods have continued to hit Norfolk, Virginia, which is ranked as second just behind New Orleans, Louisiana as the largest population most threatened by rising sea levels according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There are already some protection measures in place, but major flooding is affecting residents and institutions in the area.

Floods have continued to hit Norfolk, Virginia, which is ranked as second just behind New Orleans, Louisiana as the largest population most threatened by rising sea levels according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

There are already some protection measures in place, but major flooding is affecting residents and institutions in the area.

Tides have reportedly risen by a foot and half over the past hundred years, and is rising faster than anywhere else on the East Coast of the United States.

In addition to the rising sea levels, a combination of factors are causing the floods, including the city’s proximity to several rivers and coastal creeks, increasing storms, and its land slowly sinking into the 35 million year old meteor crater in the Chesapeake Bay.

Reportedly Norfolk’s inlet, known as the Hague, hadn’t flooded for more than a hundred hours annually before 1980, but was often flooded between 200 and 300 hours a year by 2009.

Estimates from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science say that the sea level in Norfolk might rise by five and half feet or more by the end of the century, which would threaten local residents and businesses to an even greater extent.

A new lightrail system was just built, costing 318 million dollars, but it was constructed at sea level, so if flooding gets worse, the entire rail system could be destroyed.