Protecting Gullah/Geechee Heritage from Coastal Flood Risk

I am the Florida Representative of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, based in Fernandina Beach, Florida. I help to protect the cultural, spiritual, and environmental balance of my region of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, that extends from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida and 30–35 miles inland. As a community leader, resources from Climate Central help inform my community about risks.

Glenda Simmons Jenkins

THE CHALLENGE

My regional and cultural communities care about saving our ancestral lands from sea level rise, current and future water rights, and climate preparedness. I understand that people and places in my community are at risk of flooding. Having the conversation about climate preparedness with community members is challenging without the proper resources.

APPLYING COASTAL RISK FINDER

As a member of the Gullah/Geechee Nation Sustainability Think Tank, I use resources from Climate Central’s Sea Level Rise program to educate and inform community members. I see Coastal Risk Finder and the FloodVision Risk Viewer as valuable tools in contextualizing the Gullah/Geechee people’s history in Florida. As a visual conduit for conveying the people’s narrative of resilience and adaptation, these Climate Central tools also help our community share solutions that address flood risk.

“From a community standpoint we need to help people on the ground conceptualize what climate change is.”

- Rep. Glenda Jenkins

EXPERIENCE & OUTCOMES

History

Bodies of water are a major part of the Gullah/Geechee community’s cultural narrative. Our relationship with the Saint Marys River stretches from the antebellum period until today. We culturally relate to sustainability as a way of being, with the Saint Marys River having long been a source of subsistence fishing.

Many families live within a mile of the Saint Marys, yet few likely realize what the river is expected to do in the future. This is a potentially dangerous situation where we can work together to reduce risk.

I value Climate Central tools, such as Coastal Risk Finder, because they allow me to illustrate what’s at risk for these significant cultural relationships. Maps and pictures let residents pinpoint and visualize flood risk for places they most care about. These resources help me facilitate discussions about the past, present, and future of the Saint Marys and other marine resources.

Historical photos of Gullah/Geechee communities and culture.

Gullah/Geechee Narratives

Burial grounds are perhaps the most vulnerable cultural resource in the Gullah/Geechee Nation. With downloads from Coastal Risk Finder, I can map and discuss the risk to Gullah/Geechee burial grounds in Florida, including their potential flood risk. Coastal Risk Finder allows me to highlight people and places in danger as a proactive step to flood risk adaptation. That analysis became part of the record: the Crandall Cemetery Management Plan submitted to Florida’s Division of Historical Resources in 2025 incorporates Climate Central’s flood modeling directly, citing projections for both 2050 and a 3-foot sea level rise scenario.

Coastal Risk Finder map of Nassau County, Florida, showing land below the annual flood level in 2050 under a 1.0 m global sea level rise pathway, based on NOAA 2022 sea level projections at the 50th percentile. (Coastal Risk Finder)

Flood risk analysis for land in Nassau County, which features a prominent Gullah/Geechee burial ground, Crandall Cemetery. (Coastal Risk Finder)

Solutions and Preparedness

My goal is to share solutions that inform our community’s climate preparedness efforts by educating about risks before highlighting what risk-reduction options exist.

Climate Central’s materials help facilitate discussions about flood risk that can involve community members in climate preparedness decisions. This gives a platform for residents to explore culturally driven and culturally appropriate solutions.

Coastal Risk Finder and FloodVision highlight impacts, provide risk profiles, and identify local solutions to empower coastal adaptation. The information these resources provide equips community members to take specific actions or deliberate about the available options, such as raising their homes, to address flood risk. Presenting realistic models based on predicted extreme climate events, such as flooding, helps communities better understand their risks and motivates them to implement localized adaptation strategies. With resources from Climate Central, other community leaders can protect what they care about most, by building healthier, more resilient communities.

The FloodVision FloodRover stopped along the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor during Climate Central’s 2024 Edge of America Tour.

“Being inside a disaster feels a lot more real than seeing colors on a map. The real challenge is helping people see this not as theory, but as reality.”

- Glenda Simmons Jenkins

ABOUT GLENDA SIMMONS JENKINS

Glenda Simmons Jenkins is the founder and Executive Director of the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Community Trust Inc. (GGCCT) and the Florida Representative to the Gullah/Geechee Nation. A journalist focused on cultural sustainability, she draws on communication skills and community engagement to foster cultural reconnection, help her community understand flood risk to ancestral sites, and strengthen climate resilience for Gullah/Geechee communities in northeast Florida. She is the recipient of the 2022 Stewards of Heritage Award.

ABOUT CLIMATE CENTRAL

Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. The FloodVision program uses the FloodRover — a vehicle equipped with LiDAR, GPS, and stereoscopic cameras — to capture street-level data and generate photorealistic flood visualizations, helping communities understand and prepare for sea level rise and storm flooding. Explore Florida climate solutions and access Coastal Risk Finder at climatecentral.org.

Glenda Simmons Jenkins Case Study