GIFF JOHNSON
Shorelines around Majuro Atoll were repeatedly inundated this past week during high tides that approached all-time records. Flooding began early morning Sunday September 29 and continued at each high tide through Tuesday, when the tide levels began dropping with the new moon phase.
“Water level was 20cm (7.8 inches) higher than predicted at times,” said climate researcher Dr. Murray Ford, who studies climate and wave activity in RMI and other Pacific atoll nations. “Not far off all-time record highs,” he said Wednesday in response to a social media post of video of one of the incoming inundation events earlier in the week.
High tide levels had been in the three-to-four-foot range, but began to pass the five-foot level last weekend. At least five high tide inundations were experienced from Sunday through Tuesday.
The high tides tossed rocks, garbage and other debris onto the roads along the causeways from the Peace Park to the airport, requiring the Ministry of Works, Infrastructure and Utilities to dispatch bulldozers to clear the roads. Back yards and some homes around Majuro were flooded by the encroaching tides.
Heaviest hit were south and east lagoon shorelines.
Read more about this in the October 4, 2019 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.