The severe floods sweeping through the Midwest are a potent example of how extreme weather damages the transportation arteries we all rely on.
On Sunday, water levels rose so high in the Big Sioux River between South Dakota and Iowa that the current overtook a railroad bridge, severing a crucial connection between the two states.
Other modes of transportation have similarly buckled under climate impacts: Over the past few years, flooding submerged subways, heat waves melted rail systems and droughts cracked roads across the U.S.—with consequences for everything from commuting to supply chains.
The federal government is ramping up efforts to fortify transportation systems against climate shocks before they crumble. It won’t be easy.
Watery Disarray: In September 2023, rainfall pounded New York City so intensely that flooding shut down half the city’s subway line, with water pouring from the ceiling in some stations, The New York Times reported. During this event, I stood alongside dozens of disgruntled commuters waiting for a train that would never come—a systemic problem for many major cities’ commuter rails as severe floods increase.
And commuters likely aren’t any better off on roads during storms. A 2021 report found that 2 million miles of road—about a quarter of the roads in the U.S.—are now at risk of becoming impassable during flooding events, which are more common due to climate change. These disruptions can leave residents stranded without access to groceries or medicine, even if their house remains untouched by floods.
Transportation systems along the coasts face dual threats of flooding from hurricanes and sea-level rise. However, research shows that inland communities are also increasingly at risk as climate change fuels more intense storms than ever before in communities that have historically been left relatively unscathed.
“As the climate warms, the air can hold more moisture, meaning tropical cyclones—as well as inland thunderstorms—can deliver more rain,” Craig Colten, a professor emeritus of geography at Louisiana State University, wrote in the Conversation. “This can be particularly troublesome as giant storms move inland and cause streams and rivers to flood. Back-to-back storms can be even more destructive. New development in areas that were once unlikely to flood may be more susceptible as the climate heats up.”
Feeling the Heat: As heat waves blanketed the Northeast last week, tens of thousands of commuters faced widespread delays in Amtrak train services, NBC News reports. While the cause is still being investigated, experts point to a combination of wire malfunctions and extreme heat, which can expand the rails that the trains run on.
“It can cause a derailment,” Curtis Morgan, a senior research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, told NBC News. “Because of the additional stress on the rail, the trains are ordered to go at a slower speed.”
Just like flooding, heat can impact roads. Typically made of asphalt or concrete, roads expand and soften when temperatures rise, which can increase wear and tear. In severe cases, this effect can cause the road to buckle, creating a dangerous bump, such as on Highway 36 in Minnesota in 2016.
Heat might also be to blame for your plane delays. Hot air is thinner, making it harder for planes to get off the ground, explains Bob Thomas, an assistant professor at Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University.
“While this reduces the lift on which planes rely for takeoff, the main impact is felt on engine thrust. Aircraft engines will produce less thrust during takeoff and ascent as a result,” he said in a post on the university’s website.
Together, all these climate-related transportation system disruptions create damaging ripple effects locally, regionally and nationally, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
What is Being Done? On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $1.8 billion in infrastructure grants across the U.S., some of which relate directly to buffering transportation systems against climate change. For example, a project in Fairbanks, Alaska, will receive $25 million to restore approximately 45 miles of the Alaska Highway impacted by thawing permafrost, which is sinking roads in the area.
This follows an $830 million round of grant funding announced in April, designated specifically to help communities make transportation infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather. The funds are part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, intended to address America’s aging infrastructure.
Those grants will bolster a variety of projects across the country, including a $26 million effort in Rhode Island to enhance stormwater drainage around highways and a $24 million project in Davis, California, to install “cool pavement technologies” that will reflect sunlight to help reduce heat impacts on roadways.
“Extreme weather, made worse by climate change, is damaging America’s transportation infrastructure, cutting people off from getting to where they need to go, and threatening to raise the cost of goods by disrupting supply chains,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a statement. Buttigieg has been outspoken about how the effects of climate change are “already upon us” and straining transportation systems, pointing to the link between increased plane turbulence and climate change in an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation in May.
More Top Climate News
The first U.S. presidential debate of election season aired last night on CNN, and political analysts’ reviews have been anything but glowing for both candidates.
Over the hour and a half event, the candidates were asked one question on climate change: “Will you take any action as president to slow the climate crisis?” While Biden pointed to his administration’s work on clean energy and climate funding passed through the Inflation Reduction Act, Trump talked about wanting “immaculate clean water and absolutely clean air,” and did not mention climate change once. The former president also said that his administration saw “the best environmental numbers ever,” though Grist’s Joseph Winters accurately pointed out that Trump rolled back more than 200 environmental policies, and has pledged to expand oil and gas operations if elected again.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court decided today to overrule the “Chevron doctrine,” a 40-year-old legal precedent that required courts to give some deference to federal agencies to implement laws that lack specificity. The now-overturned precedent shaped how courts approached disputes over agency rules across every facet of the U.S. government—from the 1970 Clean Air Act to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. My colleague Marianne Lavelle wrote about what this could mean for environmental policies in the country, if you would like to learn more.
The decision follows another SCOTUS ruling on Thursday to halt enforcement of an EPA rule to restrict air pollution in nearly a dozen states, The Associated Press reports. The “good neighbor” policy would require power plants and other industrial facilities to reduce their smokestack emissions, which can fuel global warming and cause negative health impacts not only for local communities but also in downwind states. Environmentalists and health advocates are dismayed at the decision to pause it.
“Wind blows pollution across the country and doesn’t stop at state lines, which is exactly why we need the EPA’s ‘good neighbor’ rule,” Dominique Browning, the director and co-founder of the nonprofit Moms Clean Air Force, said in a statement. “The ruling sets the clock back for all downwind neighbors; right now the protections are working.”
In other news, a rare white buffalo calf was recently born in Yellowstone National Park. On Wednesday, the Lakota people in the area led a ceremony to celebrate the ghostly bovine’s arrival. A sacred symbol, the white calf fulfills a prophecy “because Mother Earth is sick and has a fever, and she’s going to speak to these white animals for peace and harmony,” said Chief Arvol Looking Horse, the spiritual leader of the Lakota, Dakota and the Nakota Oyate in South Dakota. The Lakota leader urged unity to tackle environmental degradation and avoid more global disasters, The New York Times reports.
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Reporter
Kiley Price is a reporter at Inside Climate News, with a particular interest in wildlife, ocean health, food systems and climate change. She writes ICN’s “Today’s Climate” newsletter, which covers the most pressing environmental news each week.
She earned her master’s degree in science journalism at New York University, and her bachelor’s degree in biology at Wake Forest University. Her work has appeared in National Geographic, Time, Scientific American and more. She is a former Pulitzer Reporting Fellow, during which she spent a month in Thailand covering the intersection between Buddhism and the country’s environmental movement.
