The future of Aquidneck Island may be underwater, and community leaders are asking how to protect the three-municipality island and the rest of Rhode Island’s East Bay from sea-level rise. The remnants of late-summer’s Hurricane Ida and other more frequent and severe storms are causing increased flooding in the nine low-lying communities on the east side of Narragansett Bay.
The Aquidneck Island Climate Caucus, a environmentally conscious community group founded by Reps. Terri Cortvriend, D-Portsmouth, and Lauren Carson, D-Newport, hosted an Oct. 17 discussion with three experts working on climate-crisis issues. Sea-level rise is 2.6 inches above what it was in 1993, and continues to rise at one-eighth of an inch annually, according to the lawmakers.