'Streets full of water'

Grand Canal, in Venice.

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com:

As the late great writer and comic actor Robert Benchley telegrammed after arriving in Venice: "Streets full of water. Advise.''

Barrington is one of the richest towns in Rhode Island. So it is particularly interesting to see how much of the town structures are under the threat of being flooded. With no more sea-level rise, 42.9 percent of residential and commercial buildings would be exposed to a  “100-year’’ storm surge in the town, the Providence Business News reports, citing Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council data. A three-foot sea-level rise by 2050 would expose 56 percent of the structures in a 100-year storm. The PBN’s Feb. 16-22 article, headlined “Rising Waters: ‘We’re Pretty Vulnerable,’’ is well worth reading.
 

When you drive through Barrington, you’re struck by how very, very low it is.  Almost Venetian. Of course, its marshy beauty, with ever-changing colors, is much of its appeal. But how far along is the planning to address the coming disaster there, including for the insurance industry?