(reverent music) - I'm Starla Sampaco in the Crosscut KCTS 9 newsroom.
Aberdeen and Hoquiam have flooded at least once a year for the past five years.
The existential threat of flooding has already reshaped building codes in the coastal cities and spiked insurance rates that make it hard for residents to renovate homes and attract business.
- [Man] While we've always had a lot of annual rain, with climate change, the intensity of the rain is a lot worse, and so it makes those flooding events a lot more likely now.
If we don't do anything about it, I mean, it's gonna just get worse in the future.
- The Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Protection Project includes two levees and a pump station.
It aims to keep future waves at bay and reduce the cost of living and doing business near the coast.
- We're looking at about maybe a three-foot wall.
It would be this high on the backside of the sidewalk here.
We'll no longer be in the flood zone.
- I'm Starla Sampaco.
To learn more, visit Washington Recovery Watch on crosscut.com.