After seeing the tragic and shocking destruction from Hurrican Helene in areas normally considered safe, is it smart or responsible to destroy the city's historic bluff, build an art museum in a seismic zone, and plan to store art below street level adjacent to the FEMA floodplain on the largest river in North America? Has TDEC considered these issues? Has the City Division of Planning? Has the City Council? Who'll insure it? Who pays? The Administration that made the deal is no longer in office, so who's responsible?
An Oct. 13th article in the Washington Post by Kevin Crowe, Shannon Osaka, and John Muyskens (behind a paywall) points out that FEMA's maps rely on past floods and ... "can fall short when assessing current risks in a wetter, hotter world."
"Flood experts say the maps need to be urgently updated to inform... of their actual risk. We are now in an environment of constantly escalating risk," said Carolyn Kousky, a flood insurance expert and the associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Devense Fund. "And the maps aren't keeping up."