NavList:

Interesting indeed...Frank, I did not realize how much sea levels changed with respect to various weather phenomona and cold and warm cycles or that elevations were such accurate tools. 

I was also contemplating after my first muddled reaction if part of the greater concern they speak of is not so much purely absolute sea level as an increase in regional tidal ranges. In other words if it sloshes higher up your way...you might be in a "pickle" even if the absolute avg sea level itself was of little concern...

The redistribution of terrestrial melt water would be based on coastal depth and countours.   As we go into tidal extreme areas...or very shallow contours.........the amount of water "sloshing" about from increased ocean volume regionally would seem to have much greater consequence than a simple increase in the charted local sea level. The risk would be greatest when tidal flow or surges are activley pulled or pushed into more vulnerable geographic regions.  

The turbine pump example...recalls Storm "Sandy" to me personally.........which chewed up the northeast seaboard.....I rode that one out safely afloat in the sheltered West Cove of Noank..it had degraded from a hurricane in its final throes...but it was the wind driven water pump effect up the moraine of long island sound I recall produced horrifying levels of destruction....