"In Hampton Roads, rising tides have started to turn some of the region’s stormwater systems — which are meant to usher rainwater into ponds, lakes and rivers via underground pipes — against this coastal community.
The result has become a familiar sight for some residents, said Kyle Spencer, a deputy resilience officer with the city of Norfolk. Sometimes, a modest storm will have just started and water will immediately start pooling around a street’s storm drain.
And for the first time, the city now has data to support the anecdotes. StormSensor, a start-up based in Seattle that was drawn to Hampton Roads by a grant from a local resilience-focused nonprofit, placed about 25 sensors inside pipes in Norfolk to collect data on tidal backflows into the system and measure storm drain capacities.
The data shows that in some of Norfolk’s most flooded neighborhoods, the city’s stormwater system is running at about half capacity due to sea level rise, significantly hampering its ability to handle heavy rainfalls."
Peter Coutu reports for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot January 3, 2021.
