Mayor: Miami Shores must address its street flooding problem. I’m here to lead | Opinion

For my community, flooding isn’t something that happens on a map — it happens in the backyard of our homes. With our daily afternoon summertime thunderstorms, the near miss of Hurricane Isaias and tropical systems constantly brewing in the Atlantic this year, the threat of flooding feels ever present.

For one Miami Shores Village family, that feeling was fear. The mom of a new family in our community shared a story with me that shortly after moving in, a strong rainstorm filled her backyard and the street in front of her home, and floodwaters quickly rose threatening her home and her family. She was home alone; her spouse was traveling.

She told me that she didn’t know how to comfort her newborn, let alone herself and did not know how to make sure her home didn’t flood in the future. She had no road map or plan as to how to combat this impending threat. She didn’t even know where to begin. That time, her home did not flood, but you could hear the fear in her voice. Her home, her assets, and her family were at risk.

The story impacted me, as the mayor and as a mother.

It was challenging to provide any real comfort when I didn’t have actionable solutions. I walked away with more questions than answers. What are the best solutions to fix flooding? How do we communicate the risk? How do we adapt our community? How do we appropriately consider equity and inclusion in the implementation of solutions?

Miami Shores, like much of South Florida, has a flood-prone coastline at risk from tidal flooding and storm surge, and inland areas at greater risk due to flooding caused by rainfall. Flooding is more than just a life safety issue. Long-term sea level rise could disrupt our way of life if we do nothing but doing nothing is not an option. We are already seeing the effects of our reality of more frequent flooding, and fixing flooding must be a top priority for the Village.

A recent study by the First Street Foundation, for example, found that 70 percent more properties in the United States may be at risk of flooding than are currently identified on FEMA flood maps.

In Florida, where real estate accounts for 22 percent of the state’s $1 trillion GDP, home ownership and our state’s economic health go hand in hand. And for our community, our tax base is what provides government services and allows us to improve infrastructure to say the effects of flooding. We must preserve property value to ensure we have the funds to improve infrastructure and reduce flooding.

Tackling a long-term challenge in the face of immediate needs requires persistence and leadership. But we cannot mortgage our future on the immediate needs of today alone. The challenges we’ve recently faced with COVID-19 are a reminder of the importance of planning for both the expected and unexpected future. Although the lessons have been hard, we can take what we have learned during the pandemic about resilience and apply it to challenges like sea level rise.

While no single solution will fix flooding and sea level rise, I am committed to building a roadmap to a stronger, more equitable and more resilient Miami Shores. The Village is a member of the American Flood Coalition, and I am committed to using their national platform as a way to bring awareness to the issue and learn from other communities facing these issues.

Collectively, we can learn what works best. Proactive infrastructure projects, both large and small, can help communities curb the impacts of flooding and sea level rise.

From advocating for fixing our regional flood control infrastructure to expanding greenspace and drainage systems, local leaders can protect community members — and their home values — from flooding. But water does not care about political boundaries.

As communities like mine acknowledge the challenge and stake our claim in the solutions, we need to be met with state and federal policy and funding that support community efforts and help us adapt, survive and thrive.

I cannot promise perfection, especially when facing a challenge like flooding and sea level rise, we have never faced before. However, I am committed to putting our best foot forward, to working to solve our flooding challenges, and ensure that together we create a more resilient Miami Shores Village.

Crystal Wagar is the Mayor of Miami Shores.