Climate Ready: Historic flooding destroys Long Island communities

LONG ISLAND (WABC) -- Over the last few months, we have been keeping views Climate Ready as a way to help when Mother Nature throws us all she's got.

Today we are taking you to Long Island where communities were hit with historic flooding last month.

"A 100-year storm is coming every few years," Ed Romaine of Suffolk County said.

It's not uncommon to hear as destructive weather events become seemingly more frequent.

Earlier this month, up to 10 inches of rain inundated parts of Long Island in just one severe storm.

It tore up trees, destroyed roads and homes, and completely blew out walls inside the Smithtown library.

"This is our super storm sandy on the north shore," a resident said.

The same storm also demolished a dam in Smithtown.

Highways were flooded, railroads were left impassible and an entire pond was drained.

"The Nissequogue River was dammed up in 1798 by Isaac Blydenburgh, Joshua Smith II and Caleb Smith II, and they cut down the trees and left the stumps. That's why this is called Stump Pond. We haven't seen these stumps for 226 years," Ed Romaine of Suffolk County said.

But are significant weather events actually happening at a higher frequency?

The strong nature of our storms has a lot to do with Climate Change.

For every 1 degree Fahrenheit of warming, our air can hold an additional four percent of moisture, increasing the chance of heavy downpours.

"That means even if we get the same types of storms with the same amount of wind and the same low pressure as in the past - the reservoir if you will, the amount of available moisture that can fall at any one time is increasing due to climate change," said Dr. Radley Horton, Professor of Climate, Columbia Climate School.

There are ways we can adapt to our ever-changing climate and prepare for the next time severe weather strikes.

"Upgrading our infrastructure so that we have storm sewer systems that can handle a bigger volume of water, culverts under our roads that can handle a bigger volume of water, but we also need to think about elevating critical infrastructure," Dr. Horton said.

"70% of this county is on cesspools and septics. We don't have sewers. I am an advocate for sewers. We should be installing them in our more densely populated areas," Romaine said.

For some of the hardest-hit residents on the North Shore, there's a long road to recovery.

But authorities hope a recently approved Federal Emergency Declaration will make direct assistance more readily available.

"This is a challenge that we face and we have to start addressing it," Romaine said.