Egmont Key makes historic preservation list because it is threatened by climate change
ST. PETERSBURG — Every year the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation picks 11 properties to highlight as the most threatened historic properties in the state.
This year, three of those sites are in the Tampa Bay area.
And one of them — Egmont Key — made the list because it is threatened by climate change.
"This is the first time a site has made the list due to the threat of sea level rise," said Clay Henderson, the president of the trust's board of trustees. "We see this as a new threat."
The loss of historic properties to a rising sea became a top concern for the trust, Henderson explained, after seeing the damage that Hurricane Matthew inflicted on St. Augustine last year.
As the October storm's eyewall skirted the oldest continuously occupied city in America, it sent a 7-foot storm surge swirling through the streets. Flooding affected all seven of its federally designated historic districts, damaging about half of the 2,000 properties in those areas.