In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the residents of Oakwood Beach, on the south shore of Staten Island, made a momentous decision. The neighborhood, in New York’s least dense borough, had experienced flooding before, but this hurricane had all but wiped it off the map, and many residents weren’t sure they wanted to risk rebuilding. A group of locals petitioned the state government to buy out and demolish their houses, using money from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and within three years almost the whole community had signed on—around 180 homeowners in all. A decade after the storm, the land has begun to revert to nature, transforming back into the untrammeled wetland it once was. By the time the next storm comes, there will be no homes left to destroy.
As climate disasters grow more severe with each passing year, and as the federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars to help adapt to these disasters, some communities in the United States have begun to consider the notion of “managed retreat,” or the coordinated movement away from the most vulnerable areas. Instead of armoring themselves against storms and fires, these communities are choosing to get out of the way altogether, surrendering their old homes to nature and relocating elsewhere.
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