Houma Courier
The Water Institute's Senior Research Scientist Scott Hemmerling has studied coastal population migration trends from the 1950s through to present caused by economic and environmental factors, and has co-written two scientific papers on the subject.
He agreed with Moss and Henry, and said people within a community almost never move away for one factor; rather, communities are formed around a number of pillars that create the identity and root people to the area. As each pillar is removed, people are increasingly likely to drift away.
"You can have your storm effects, you can have all of these impacts that affect these communities, and they will rebuild," he said. "But when you start losing these key essential facilities, and libraries, schools, and the Rec. Districts, these are essential. They might not be critical facilities, like hospitals and police stations and fire stations, but these are really the things that give you a sense of community and a sense of place. So consolidating those all in to one could have some negative impacts on the ability of these communities to remain in that place." Read the full article here.