the near-term goals from the workshop is to move emergency services such as fire and public safety to that higher ground and to build a crisis center there to accommodate people from lower-lying areas during disasters.
One exercise in the workshop took a detailed look at how flooding affected different parts of Princeville. Though people assumed the whole town was equally at risk during flooding, Boone says some neighborhoods need to only raise their houses up about 3 or 4 feet to avoid major flood damage.
Of course, new and retrofitted infrastructure costs a lot of money, something the town of Princeville does not have much of. The population has shrunk in recent years as young people have left to seek jobs in more robust parts of the region.
Capitalizing on the town’s history and heritage could make a difference. There is a place on the Tar River just outside of town called Shiloh Landing where enslaved people from Virginia were delivered to North Carolina. Remnants of Princeville’s predecessor, an early settlement called Freedom Hill, are located nearby, also along the river. There are plans coming together to create a historic river walk with signage and infrastructure with the hope that it will spark a tourism economy.
That Princeville is so flood prone is also linked to racist history. “It’s the idea of racialized topography,” Boone explains. “A lot of researchers have confirmed that you can almost track race to altitude. In the South, the lowest-lying areas are predominantly African-American. The highest areas in many Southeast cities are predominantly white.”
As if to put a fine point on the necessity of the planning event in August, Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean on the final day of the workshop. Given its low elevation and the likelihood of increasingly severe hurricanes and storms due to climate change, Princeville will almost certainly face more flooding. The resilience model forming there could not only protect residents there, but also help other cities.
“As we start to have to deal with climate adaptation more, one of the easy answers is ‘why don’t people just move?’” says Boone. “For one, if you had a map showing all the places affected by sea level rise or flooding from a 100-year storm, people would be amazed and horrified by how many millions would have to relocate. But also, place attachment is important. Specific, local cultural context is important. It’s not just a technical exercise of deploying the latest infrastructure. It’s about people being able to express why places matter to them and designers being creative to adapt not just the physical place, but adapt in a way that fits the way people see their community.”
Josh Cohen is a freelance writer in Seattle. His work has also appeared in The Guardian, The Nation, Pacific Standard and Vice.