LISTEN: The money will be used to help build a natural levee along Tybee's interior marshland. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Tybee Island is the recipient of a $380,000 federal grant for new flood protection infrastructure along the island's marshlands.
Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff on Friday announced the funding, which will help pay for a “living shoreline” — a type of levee made primarily of stone, sand, plants and other natural materials, which limits flooding and also aids in habitat restoration.
The levee will cover 1,200 feet of marsh, benefiting 185 acres of tidal salt marsh and replacing a culvert that is impeding water flow and causing erosion across the marsh, according to Ossoff's office.
Made available through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's National Coastal Resilience Fund, the grant will be supplemented by $320,000 from the City of Tybee Island's general fund.
“Tybee's leading the way — not patching and reacting,” Tybee Island Mayor Shirley Sessions said. “We are being proactive and putting time, money, energy, and effort and looking at the future, because the future is here.”
Flooding events on Tybee Island increased by 30% between 2016 and 2021, largely due to sea-level rise, according to a 2023 natural infrastructure master plan prepared by researchers at the University of Georgia.
Sea levels around Tybee Island may rise an additional 1.39 feet by 2050, which “could very likely result” in at least 50 days of flooding per year by 2040, according to a federal task force cited in the plan.
Sessions said that planning for the new levee will begin in January, with opportunities for local residents to give input.
