The Shining Future Islands of South Florida
The year is 2150. Most of the South Florida area is under
10-50 feet of water from climate change. Miami is inundated. High rise
condominiums and office buildings poke up out of the water like a surreal scene
from a movie. Further up the coast you can see Ft. Lauderdale roof tops and
other tall buildings half submerged. The water extends all the way to I-95
making the area look like the Louisiana bayou as I-10 crosses over and through
it. Everything south of lake Okeechobee and up through West Palm Beach along
the east coast is flooded or half underwater. It is the most flooding in
heavily populated areas the world has ever seen. 4.5 million people have been
displaced. Many years ago in the 2050’s,
the flooding gained momentum and became increasingly worse as time went on.
Mitigation efforts included raising homes, canal diversion programs and
increased stormwater retention however none of it worked. Interstates like
I-95, I-595 and the Turnpike have been raised at various high water points to still provide a modicum of
travel and commerce. Some areas of these roads are permanently shut down as
alternate routes have been built over the years. The Everglades is now
connected to the Atlantic Ocean which has changed the Florida aquifer and made
large swaths of land uninhabitable and remote.
Prior to 2050, the King Tides of South Florida were an
ominous warning of how bad it could get in the Southeast Florida region. Miami,
Ft, Lauderdale and Palm Beach residents suffered through innumerable high tides
that blanketed the roads and flooded yards continually. The tides were an
annual event for a couple of months and soon became a permanent fixture of the
area. Everyone was under water pretty much all of the time. Driving became more
difficult. The tides ruled your day and your life. Residents had to gauge how high the tide was
before leaving the house, hoping they would be able to get back. This also
presented a major problem for the thousands of homeless living on the beach, at
bus stop overhangs and loitering in front of drug stores. Many were seen in
makeshift boast at semi dry intersections going about their day panhandling and
holding up signs, unabated by the water. Oar attacks at intersections became
the norm. The homeless had oars from their rowing activity and used them to bash
windshields and innocent people. The rising water brought with it a rising
anger on the streets and amongst the general public. South Florida was already
bursting at the seams with transplants from out of state, vacationers and
industry. A saving grace to the area was
that most of the new construction along Sunrise Blvd and other areas had to go
vertical to account for overpopulation. As the waters rose, the high density 10
to 20 story buildings provided refuge for existing residents. Small boat sales
spiked exponentially. Parking was no longer an issue, light, maneuverable water
craft was. The larger boats and yachts were in the process of being re-located
to North and Central Florida. There was no use for them and they became a
dangerous liability to own or operate. The same held true for cars, trucks and
all manner of vehicle within the area. There was a slow and steady sell off of
all land based vehicles in South Florida from 2050 to 2100. Everyone saw the
water coming in and had to adapt or leave the area. The upside of it was
decreased traffic and less congested roads in an already over burdened and
poorly managed highway and interstate system. Restaurants and hotels were also
forced to change their business models and adapt to the incoming tides. Ft.
Lauderdale, once the glittering jewel of Venice like waterways, famous bars and
restaurants and tropical ambiance was sinking onto the ocean at an ever
increasingly rapid pace. Street names like Rio Vista were mockingly called Rio
Underwaterah as the population looked for levity in the disaster. Ft. Lauderdale airport was shut down in 2087
as a precaution to the sudden and violent flooding experienced during
hurricanes and heavy rain storms. The airport was relocated to Loxahatchee, one
of the few remaining high and dry pieces of land, several miles west of I-95.
The area is rural and underdeveloped, however suitable for an airport.
An engineering survey of the land stretching from Ft. Pierce to Miami, along I-95 and the
Turnpike showed several areas in South Florida that still remained high, dry
and potentially viable for existing residents. Much to the surprise of the
survey engineers, the landfills of South Florida remained at least 55 feet
above water. Throughout the years, the landfills increased in size to eight
times their stature in 2045. The massive uptick of solid waste mountains
created in South Florida over the years now looked like a viable alternative
for housing and a refuge for what was left of the population. A leading edge construction and building tech
firm invented a process to solidify the waste within the landfills to make it
impervious to decay while maintaining the tensile strength of concrete block. Known
as “Waste Blocks”, they had the ability to be formed and utilized for future
construction on the islands that remained. Applications also included sealing
the existing trash island ground with a perma-freeze solution that provided for a more permanent foundation to build
housing and light commercial buildings. As with any new and unproven
technology, there were drawbacks. The most prescient of these was the fact that
the waste blocks were de-gassing methane
and carbon dioxide, just as the trash heaps from the past. Work arounds to this
included micro-piping within the blocks for efficient de-gassing and re-piping
into the ground and surrounding waters for the foundations to be built. The
future was bright for the existing Trash Islands as people began to consider
living in the new island paradises of South Florida.
The new Trash Islands were now known as the “TI’s”, similar
to the “DR” for the Dominican Republic and the “VI” for the Virgin Islands. The
TI’s stretched from Ft. Pierce to Palm Beach then to Lake Worth with Palm Beach
having the largest TI of them all, just
off the now submerged Jog Rd. The Covanta Waste Facility generously granted all
future usage of their mountainous trash heap to the State of Florida, for the
benefit of the people of South Florida. Covanta and their subsidiaries received
an enormous tax break for their donation, Their only stipulation was that the State
of Florida name their particular TI
“Covanta Island”, which the state quickly ratified. The rest of the new found
island chain bordered the Turnpike just south of Hollywood and then down to
Homestead and Florida City. These were in fact the new Keys, leading into the
existing Florida Keys. Since Miami was now completely under water, the downtown
area of Miami was relocated to Florida City, the new bustling metropolis of
South Florida. The elevation at Florida City and Homestead was high enough to
remain habitable to accommodate the new residents, infrastructure and buildings
required to approximate the former Miami. Most of the electric infrastructure
of Homestead and the surrounding areas was underground pad mount transformers
which helped greatly for the new residents and businesses.
Tourism in South Florida still flourished. Hotels and
residences were built on the TI’s. Real Estate was sold quickly. Caveats in
closing documents included “..De-gassing may occur within the structure of your
home or business. It typically goes unnoticed however a slight odor may occur
from time to time. Vortex’s and whirlpools may occur within the surrounding
waters of the TI’s however engineers have assured us that this is a rare event
and will quickly pass”. While consumers and potential land owners were made
aware of this, they still bought up the existing land on the islands quickly
and soon moved to their new island paradises. Travel between the TI’s was
mainly by small or mid-sized boats. Small marinas were built to accommodate
limited boat travel. Vertical Take Off and Landing craft were very popular as
there was no way to build runways for air travel. These craft took off and
landed on all of the TI’s and added to the mystique of the new islands. The
Coast Guard utilized the VTOL’s to confirm rogue whirlpools and vortices in the
water in between the islands.
The Trash Islands of South Florida provided a unique glimpse
into the ingenuity of humanity and triumph of man over environment. It is a
bright and shining reminder of the ability of our species to overcome any
obstacle and to succeed where the odds are stacked against us. Long live the Shining
New Trash Islands of South Florida!
