ANGIE MILES: How's the weather?
Or more precisely, how's the climate?
That's the question we're asking.
As the Earth's temperature increases, the weather we experience is changing rather drastically.
We're going to show you how adverse weather events and changing climate impact Virginians throughout the Commonwealth, and talk about what may be coming as the earth gets hotter.
What does climate change mean for Virginia?
We'll address that in this episode of VPM News Focal Point.
Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown.
And by... ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: Welcome to VPM News Focal Point.
I'm Angie Miles.
Virginia is one of 33 states with a climate change action plan, and we're about to see why that matters.
By the end of this century, Virginia will likely be four degrees warmer, with 95-plus-degree weather for as many as 40 days a year instead of the 10 days we currently experience.
That's according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which says that global warming can be mitigated by changes in human behavior.
The EPA is urging more people to switch to electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions.
The Biden administration proposes requiring two-thirds of all new cars be electric by 2032.
Can Virginia's electric cooperatives supply enough power for that?
Producer Adrienne McGibbon asked them.
ADRIENNE MCGIBBON: Employees at Rappahannock Electric Cooperative can park and plug in when they arrive, filling up on electricity while they work.
Powering electric vehicles is one part of an effort to emphasize clean, environmentally-friendly energy for its membership.
They say the future is in electric and they expect many more EVs to hit the road in their service area.
JOHN HEWA: And our projections for the year 2030 indicate that on the low, we could have around 16,000 electric vehicles.
On the high end of that scale, it could be over 93,000 electric vehicles.
ADRIENNE MCGIBBON: EVs can save drivers money on fuel, but will carry a heavy upfront cost for electric providers.
JOHN HEWA: On the one hand, there's tremendous opportunity for our member-owners, the ability for them to lower their fuel cost and to save money at their household or business.
On the other hand, we're also very careful and somewhat concerned about the impacts to the grid.
ADRIENNE MCGIBBON: To decrease pressures on the electric grid, the Rappahannock Electric Co-op launched Virginia's first EV specific rate to encourage off-peak hour charging.
On the more rural roads of Virginia's northern neck, they're also preparing for EVs.
KYLE ALLWINE: Our membership is made up of watermen and farmers and families and they have very unique and different requirements for driving than someone in a city or suburban area.
We're going to design an EV infrastructure and charging network that meets those unique needs.
ADRIENNE MCGIBBON: The Northern Neck Electric Cooperative worries its current infrastructure can't support a massive increase of electricity usage.
KYLE ALLWINE: There is a risk of rolling outages here in Virginia and what I would say is the cause of that risk is that we have an increasing amount of demand, of need for electricity.
ANGIE MILES: Virginia will receive about 106 million federal dollars as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to support the expansion of electric vehicle charging in the state.
Both co-ops we spoke with say there is a need to develop more dependable energy sources.
ANGIE MILES: The topic of climate change has often turned political as people debate whether or not humans are causing it.
Putting politics aside, we asked people of Virginia whether there are things we can and should do to lessen negative impacts.
SUSAN BAILEY: There's a lot of things you can do.
You can watch your emissions, you can stop your pollutions, you know, don't litter, everything helps, every little bit.
ARTON WILLIAMS: I think everybody play a role because if people that making profit off destroying the climate and we supporting them, then we could get out and demonstrate all day long, but if we stop supporting them economically and they feel the impact of that, that could make a change by individual.
I'll say, ‘Well, if you not respecting the ozone layer and how it's affecting us as human, then we not gonna promote you monetarily.
ADRIENNE ALLEN: I definitely think there are things that we as a community can do to lessen our impact on the climate.
For example, we can invest in goods that put out less emissions in the atmosphere.
We can walk, we can- there's so many great things, and we can definitely explore and enjoy nature and do everything we can to protect it and keep it clean.
PAT DEAR: Using things that are recyclable and repurposing any kind of material and paying attention.
ANGIE MILES: For those who've been paying attention, the political nature of climate change has been painfully apparent.
It was 2007 when Virginia's Democratic Governor Tim Kaine created the Governor's Commission on Climate Change.
His successor, Republican Bob McDonnell, dropped it.
Governors McAuliffe and Northam, both Democrats, reintroduced climate change planning, and now, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin cites consumer cost as a reason to withdraw the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort to reduce carbon emissions.
Turning away from politics and moving towards partnership and progress, thousands of colleges and universities, including many in Virginia, have adopted policies, pledges, and practical approaches to help communities prepare.
George Mason University is the latest, launching the Virginia Climate Center.
ANGIE MILES: Penny Matthews says she and her husband have labored with love to restore and maintain their Accomack County home of nearly 50 years.
But now there are problems like more backyard flooding and... PENNY MATTHEWS: The hard surface road 48 years ago was fine.
Now in the last number of years continually it has flooded to the point I can't even drive down it I can't have company.
I get to church some days and can't get back home.
ANGIE MILES: She wants the county to address it.
PENNY MATTHEWS: I stay in, upset over it, all the time.
When I hear a storm's coming, or we're going to have high tides.
And people can't come to visit me.
I feel locked in, back here.
JESSICA STEELMAN: Miss Matthew's situation is very common on the shore.
As a matter of fact, there's about 33 miles of roads just like that.
So hers is just a small snippet of a very much larger regional problem.
ANGIE MILES: Jessica Steelman is the coastal planner for the quasi-governmental Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission.
She has her eye on what residents need to safeguard against the effects of climate change.
JESSICA STEELMAN: My goal is to develop the community resilience and sustainability plan to be project-focused and identify critical needs for the shore.
ANGIE MILES: Eastern Shore residents have long worked with nonprofits like the Nature Conservancy, and with various university partners, Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, William and Mary, to create workable solutions for sea level rise, flooding, erosion, and habitat protection.
Now they have another academic resource available in George Mason's new Virginia Climate Center, a set of faculty from across disciplines working together to offer protections for the whole state.
JIM KINTER: People have become accustomed to the climate that we've had for the many decades that we've been alive.
And the problem is, that that's not the climate we're going to have.
In fact, it's not the climate we have today.
We're trying to help people prepare for what we're calling the inevitable changes associated with global warming.
And that means building resilience to more severe weather.
It means understanding what the threats are, where the most vulnerable communities are, and helping them understand their threats, as well as come up with solutions.
ANGIE MILES: Kinter says all of Virginia is vulnerable because of climate change, but that the threats vary by region.
JIM KINTER: So for example, if you look at Eastern Shore, if you look at Norfolk and Virginia Beach, the Tidewater area of the Potomac, James and York Rivers, those are all being threatened by sea level rise.
Sea level rise is a consequence of global warming.
ANGIE MILES: This center exists to assist professionals like Steelman, as they create and implement climate resilience plans.
The Northern Virginia Regional Commission is already partnering with GMU's new center as northern localities deal with issues like flash flooding.
JIM KINTER: The rainfall in this area has already become considerably more intense than it was even 30 or 40 years ago, and we project that it's going to continue to get more intense for the next 30 or 40 years.
So that the flash floods that we might have considered to be a hundred-year event back in the 1960s, will now be a 20-year event or even maybe a 10-year event.
ANGIE MILES: Urban areas of the state also contend with trapped heat that intensifies as the world gets hotter.
JIM KINTER: As the whole planet warms up as a result of carbon dioxide concentration, the cities are warming up even faster.
We have elderly populations and disadvantaged communities where heat is a big issue, not to mention the fact that people who have to work outdoors are susceptible to heat.
In the more rural parts, the western part of the state, there the issue is drought, where we, even though it's going to be raining more intensely when it rains, we will have more prolonged periods without rainfall and that will lead to drought.
And in our agricultural areas, that's a very serious threat.
ANGIE MILES: For local governments in coastal, urban, and rural areas of the commonwealth, The Virginia Climate Center intends over time to become a useful partner for as many communities as possible.
ANGIE MILES: Currently, the center is funded with federal money from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, to implement a co-production model with individual localities.
Kinter says the center's work will be hyper-local and project-based.
ANGIE MILES: VPM News Focal Point is interested in the points of view of Virginians.
To hear more from your Virginia neighbors, and to share your own thoughts and story ideas, find us online at vpm.org/focalpoint.
ANGIE MILES: Flooding is the most common and costly natural disaster.
It's also extremely dangerous.
The national 30-year average for flood deaths surpasses those from tornadoes, hurricanes, and lightning.
In Virginia, communities are deeply affected by flooding, and recently, the state has seen an increased risk for flash flooding and landslides.
Multimedia journalist Keyris Manzanares shows us what flooding has done and can do.
KEYRIS MANZANARES This is the aftermath of Hurricane Camille in Nelson County.
Camille is one of only four category five hurricanes to ever make landfall in the United States.
JEREMY HOFFMAN: You have rainfall falling, an intense amount of rainfall falling on very steep topography.
So it's already going to be running off very quickly, happening overnight so everybody was taken by surprise.
And unfortunately, over the course of the whole storm, I think it's over 120 people wound up losing their lives in Virginia alone.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: On August 19th, 1969, Hurricane Camille dropped 30 inches of rain.
Virginians were unprepared for the destruction.
Forecasters had no idea it was coming.
And Virginians went to bed thinking that the hurricane that had destroyed southern states had died down to nothing.
They were wrong.
JEREMY HOFFMAN: We actually don't know the top sustained wind speeds from Hurricane Camille, simply because it destroyed all of the wind recording equipment in the landfall area.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: Dr. Jeremy Hoffman, the David and Jane Cohn Scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia says, "Hurricane Camille was the first time that the United States recognized that it wasn't just coastal communities impacted by hurricanes."
JEREMY HOFFMAN: Everyone in Virginia that I know that's lived here their whole lives, know a few names by heart.
You know?
"Agnes, Juan, Camille, Gaston."
Some of those are just seared into the collective, cultural memory of Virginia because of their devastating impacts.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: Hurricane Camille was thought to be a once-in-a-century storm, but then came Hurricane Agnes, which caused record flooding of the James River.
Both hurricanes, Camille and Agnes, left an everlasting mark on Virginia communities.
JEREMY HOFFMAN: In historical discussions of flooding, we tend to focus on hurricanes, but now the story is more, in recent memory, it's these really intense, short, nontropical storms causing this same level, well maybe not the exact same level, but certainly a comparable level of devastation in communities around Virginia.
GOLDIE LOONEY: Actually, I had a cousin that was missing.
And she, her house, her car actually had gotten mud-slided.
And the family was worried, didn't know where she was at, but we found out she had went to a neighbor's house.
So she was found good.
But there's other people that were gone missing, that it took days to find.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: On July 12th, 2022, flash flooding in Buchanan County washed away houses and damaged more than a hundred homes.
On top of this destruction, 44 people went missing, swept away by floodwaters and mudslides.
Surrounding areas also felt the impact, but additional help arrived when Virginia Governor, Glenn Youngkin, declared a state of emergency.
KATIE CARTER: All disasters are going to have the first responders from that specific locality respond to that disaster.
And then when the state steps in, that's really when those localities have identified the need that they say, "Hey, we've exceeded our capabilities and what we can offer to this disaster.
We need state help."
KEYRIS MANZANARES: As rescue teams from across Southwest and Central Virginia pitched in, they were able to make contact with all of the missing people and bring them to safety.
Emergency efforts continued, helping those who had lost everything.
GOLDIE LOONEY: And it's still, they're not cleaned up there.
Their houses are gone, their homes are lost, their things.
And you wonder, if that's you, what would you do?
And every flood comes in and you got that fear left.
KEYRIS MANAZANARES: Goldie Looney says, flash flooding has caused significant damage to her home and she's lost irreplaceable items.
GOLDIE LOONEY: It's an everyday thing.
When it floods in our basement we had to replace it, hot water tank.
We've had a pond that I've had for over years; it's gone.
And my car; it's gone.
It's just not there no more.
And you just, you fear you have to get your car out before it gets to your driveway or you don't have a car.
You have no way out, then.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: On what they call, their "blue-sky" days, VDEM is focused on helping Virginians stay alert, aware, and prepared so they know what to do when heavy rain falls.
KATIE CARTER: First and foremost, know the forecast of what's coming and the impacts of that forecast.
You may hear one inch of rain, two inches of rain, but how does that translate?
What does that mean to me?
And sometimes you might have the ability to, one inch of rain means nothing, but maybe that one inch of rain falls over the course of 30 minutes, really fast, and over an area with poor drainage.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: What Looney and her neighbors endured is an example of sudden, catastrophic flooding, but more Virginia cities are dealing with flash flooding of varied intensity, as storms become more frequent and more powerful.
Experts tell us, "Flash flooding is the most dramatic and the deadliest."
JEREMY HOFFMAN: So this is usually confined to a pretty small area getting an intense amount of precipitation in a very short amount of time.
And that can be a place like a city street or a canyon in a mountain.
And so, those surfaces can't absorb that water fast enough.
KEYRIS MANAZANARES: In Old Town Alexandria, the Potomac River is rising more frequently.
DAN MEDINA: If we were standing here during what is called a "king tide," which is one of those extreme events in the year, we'll probably be pretty much underwater in this spot right here.
And the water would go as far up on the street probably, maybe the next block over, halfway.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: Dan Medina is the Storm Water Project Manager of Alexandria.
He says, "With nothing to block the water, it's getting into the drainage system and flooding the streets, creating a chronic problem."
DAN MEDINA: Streets are affected, of course.
Houses are affected, of course.
Water makes it into people's basements and whatever is there essentially useless.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: The city is considering a variety of solutions, from barriers to upgrades to their drainage system, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.
The Hampton Roads area has endured a similar street flooding issue, but southeastern coastal communities are also dealing with the challenges of sea level rise.
Climate experts say, part of the problem is the land is also sinking.
At Old Dominion University in Norfolk, researchers are building a digital twin of Hampton Roads, using Geographical Information Systems, or GIS, which is a digital version of maps.
Professor Tom Allen says, the digital twin is like having a time machine.
TOM ALLEN: So in our digital twin we can simulate flooding in the future, assess the impacts and redesign to reduce the effects or the hazards, the economic costs for example, of those.
So it's a way of using it to look into the future.
Then we're going to develop a prototype.
Think of it as a demonstration, and that will be tackling very common issues.
A flood event... How does emergency response prepare and respond to a flood event?
Well, we would rather train and simulate that than wait and see and do our experiments in real time.
KEYRIS MANZANARES: The digital twin is for the benefit of Hampton Roads and for localities across Virginia who know too well what flooding can do.
GOLDIE LOONEY: At this time, there's so many floods.
I just, no, I just want it to stop.
Just let 'em go.
It just, I'm tired of losing so much.
ANGIE MILES: Hoffman says now is the time to make decisions that will impact the future of Virginia communities.
Whether that's using the digital twin, changing a roof to a green roof, building more parks, or even de-paving parking lots, the goal is to find innovative ways to curb floodwaters before they reach drainage systems.
ANGIE MILES: The nation's largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay runs through Virginia, and touches its shoreline on the mainland and eastern shore.
The Bay is a rich source of wildlife and seafood, but efforts to clean and restore it are failing to meet goals set by civic and government leaders.
Joining us is Jay Ford with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a nonprofit that works to protect the waterway.
What is endangering the Bay?
JAY FORD: We really like to think of it in three main areas that are impacting the Bay, and that's stormwater, wastewater, and runoff from agriculture as well.
In addition to that, climate change is having a significant impact on the Chesapeake Bay, and that's because things like rainfall increasing, temperatures increasing, and waterway, sea level rise, making its way further into our communities and pulling back potential pollutants, are all making it harder to restore our Bay.
ANGIE MILES: Why should other people be concerned about what's happening on the Bay?
JAY FORD: The work that is happening on the Bay has direct relevance to people because we focus on things like reducing emissions, which helps lead to better air quality across the entire state, and making sure that there are forested buffers and nature-based design upstream as well as downstream.
So the work that happens on the Chesapeake to restore the Chesapeake Bay really has compounding effects across the entire state.
ANGIE MILES: You can watch the full interview on our website.
ANGIE MILES: An Arlington church is getting national recognition for its efforts to cut carbon emissions.
Rock Spring Congregational Church reduced utility costs by about $33,000 a year, and it's been named a winner of the annual Interfaith Cool Congregations Challenge.
Our Adrienne McGibbon visited to take a look at these energy-saving efforts.
JERRY HARTZ: I love the fact that this church is always at the front of the line.
From civil rights in the 1950s, the first desegregated library to helping found the first homeless shelter, the first food bank, social mission is embedded in this church.
I began to struggle with this personally for several years.
And what can you do with something like climate change?
It's so big.
It's so, I mean, as an individual, it's just so overwhelming and so you have to break it down.
You have to start, here's the steps I take before I can run and that's kind of the way we looked at this whole thing.
LAURA MARTIN: We started with an evaluation of our energy consumption and we got that through an audit that really let us see how much we were using and where the energy was going.
JERRY HARTZ: Roughly 100-year old campus in some places, there was literally nothing between the inside and the outside except the drop ceiling.
So we were heating and cooling the outdoors and you can imagine the tremendous waste not only waste in terms of climate impact but waste in terms of what it cost.
We did as much insulation as we could.
We have cut by 80% the amount of natural gas usage in terms of HVAC within one year.
LAURA MARTIN: We also discovered that there was a lot we could do with windows, with ventilation.
There was a lot that we could do of course, with putting solar on our building which we've also done.
So our commitment to working on lights and lighting is one that we've been working on for more than 10 years now led by John Overholt.
John really did the study when people in the choir were complaining that they were getting hot under the lights and so John saw that as an opportunity to change out the lights and to replace them with LEDs.
He has then gone on to create over 450 different lighting elements here in the church.
JOHN OVERHOLT: Looking at reducing your lighting budget, the first thing you should look at is lights that are always on.
Things like exit lights, it would be simple to just replace those.
In six months, you could practically repay the cost of the exit lights.
LAURA MARTIN: We realize that over the long term and we're talking like 20 years, we actually save money and are better stewards for the earth and the climate by making these changes.
JOHN OVERHOLT: I've had a satisfaction of getting things done here.
I want to tell people how they can reduce their carbon footprint without having to change their lifestyle in a major way.
LAURA MARTIN: Fundamentally, if we are called to love one another as God has loved us, then we recognize the way that everything and everyone we love is at stake in climate change.
JERRY HARTZ: I think people tend to look the other way on big subjects that are difficult sometimes, there doesn't need to be that difficulty now.
It's a much easier pathway than we had before and you can have a wonderful life and not emit carbon.
ANGIE MILES: Rock Spring says other churches from around the country have reached out to learn how they too can become carbon neutral.
From roadways to waterways, with science and with prayer, Virginians are finding a variety of ways to address issues caused by climate change.
To see more of these stories and our interview in full about the Chesapeake Bay, visit vpm.org/focalpoint.
Tell us what you think and share your story ideas.
Thanks for joining us.
We hope to see you next time.
Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown.
And by... ♪ ♪