This browser does not support the Video element.
NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is announcing a plan to protect lower Manhattan from rising sea levels by surrounding it with earthen berms and extending its shoreline by as much as 500 feet into the East River. That would be the equivalent of two city blocks.
"Hurricane Sandy showed us how vulnerable areas like Lower Manhattan are to climate change," said Mayor de Blasio. "That’s why we not only have to reduce emissions to prevent the most cataclysmic potential effects of global warming, we have to prepare for the ones that are already inevitable."
Officials have been developing schemes to fortify New York City's waterfront ever since Superstorm Sandy destroyed thousands of homes and businesses in 2012.
The mayor claims that by the 2050s, 37 percent of properties in Lower Manhattan will be at risk from storm surge. He says that by 2100, with over 6 feet of projected sea level rise, almost 50 percent of properties will be at risk from a surge.
De Blasio says the city could fortify most of lower Manhattan with grassy berms and removable barriers for around $500 million.
But protecting the very lowest-lying areas in the old Seaport District, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Battery, will require adding more land over several years at a cost of up to $10 billion.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.