Historic Chester Courthouse Faces Flooding Risk

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The 1724 Courthouse in Chester, the oldest continuously running courthouse in the U.S.
Image via submitted photo.
The 1724 Courthouse in Chester, the oldest continuously running courthouse in the U.S.

With climate change comes more severe weather and devastating floods that tend to go along with it.

The nation’s floodplains are expected to grow by 45% by the end of the century from more severe weather.

 Particularly vulnerable are historical buildings already fragile because of their age.

One of those buildings is the 1724 Chester Courthouse, which has a relatively high risk of increased flooding, according to Stacker.com.

The data comes from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk index and the National Register of Historic Places.

FEMA combined geospatial and historic flood-event data to determine the risk to nationally significant historic properties in each state.

In Pennsylvania, there are three buildings with risk of coastal flooding: the 1724 Chester Courthouse, Fort Mifflin Hospital in Philadelphia, and the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church National Historic Site in Philadelphia.

There are 19 buildings at risk of river flooding, including the John Harris Mansion in Harrisburg, the Harrisburg Central Railroad Station and Train shed in Harrisburg and the Parsons-Taylor House in Easton.  

States with the most historic sites at risk of flooding are Florida, at 32, New York at 28, Arizona, at 24,

Read more at stacker.com about historic sites most vulnerable to flooding.

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