October 5, 2026
San Rafael City Council
1400 Fifth Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
RE: Flooding Risks from El Nino & Sea Level Rise
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
With a super El Nino threatening this winter, it appears that San Rafael is about to receive a major wake-up call alerting us to the increasing dangers of flooding in a world dominated by accelerating climate change.
We've previewed this strengthening of storms in the periodic El Nino events of the past, and we've seen how King Tides show us the increasing coastal flooding we can expect to be the new normal on a warming planet.
The underlying amplifier of these threats is sea level rise, or as the eighth 'whereas' of your resolution calls it, the "elevated baseline coastal water levels, [that] combined with high tides and coastal storms, can increase risks of flooding, bayside erosion, transportation disruption, and damage to public and private infrastructure."
The second 'whereas' of the State's emergency resolution names the cause of the threat: "climate change is intensifying these weather and hydrological extremes . . . heightening the risks that extreme storms pose to communities,
infrastructure, natural resources, and the economy."
In short, the emergency we are addressing tonight is nested within the broader emergency that you declared in 2021 to be the "Climate Emergency." So our question is when will the topic originally scheduled for this evening be rescheduled? That is, how to address the long-term solutions to sea level rise, including reducing the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change and its impacts?
Thank you for your continuing response to the climate crisis.
Sincerely,
Miles Smith
Secretary, Sustainable San Rafael
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Annika Osborn, Co-President
Ben Snyder, Co-President
William Carney, Vice President
Miles Smith, Secretary
Greg Brockbank
Kay Karchevski
Phil Muller
Marisa Nordstrom
Stuart Siegel
415.302.0110