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One morning last October, Miami’s municipal government issued a warning to drivers in the area: they should avoid much of the city’s center, because it had been inundated. “Today, Miami is flooding as if a hurricane went through it,” the city’s mayor wrote on Twitter.

No hurricane had hit Miami that week. The flooding was the result of a “king tide” — an especially intense high tide brought about by a particular alignment of the moon and sun that usually occurs in the fall and winter. Rain and wind had amplified the tide’s effects.

Many minor floods are a matter of inches rather than feet, but some — like last October’s in Miami — are deep enough to disrupt traffic and other systems. Even a few inches of water in the basements or ground floors of homes and businesses can ruin floors, furnishings, and other possessions, requiring extensive cleanup.

Over time, the damage adds up. Standing water can weaken infrastructure. The sea level rise that underlays flooding can increase the salinity of coastal soils, degrade water quality, and make it harder for crops to grow.

https://www.climatecentral.org/report/rising-tides-how-near-daily-flooding-of-americas-shorelines-could-become-the-norm