NC beach homes and coast are ‘doomed’ and residents need to get out, scientist says

[Bucko]

wrote

> NC beach homes and coast are ‘doomed’ and residents need to get out,
> scientist says
> BY ABBIE BENNETT, Aug 21, 2018, newsobserver.com
>
> There’s a “disaster” approaching North Carolina’s coast, and it’s not
> a hurricane. It’s an increasingly encroaching sea, Orrin Pilkey says.
>
> An award-winning Duke University professor emeritus of geology, who is
> also the founder and director emeritus of the Program for the Study of
> Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, Pilkey doesn’t
> mince words when it comes to sea level rise.
>
> “These beaches are doomed,” Pilkey has said, multiple times — most
> recently in The Washington Post and in an interview with The News &
> Observer. “The buildings are doomed, too.”
>
> Rising sea levels will likely prove the first global calamity from
> climate change, Pilkey told The News & Observer. Climate scientists
> view sea level rise as one of the most obvious signals of a warming
> planet.
>
> Sea level rise is an imminent threat to North Carolina’s 18 barrier
> islands — the Outer Banks — and the area just behind, the Inner Banks,
> which could be two of the most devastated areas, Pilkey said.
>
> Parts of the world are seeing sea levels rise far beyond average, and
> it’s just a matter of time before some areas are overwhelmed with sea
> water, studies show.
>
> The East Coast of the U.S. is experiencing “sunny day flooding” that
> scientists didn’t expect for decades.
>
> Sea levels are rising at a rate of about an inch per year (5 inches
> from 2011-15) in some areas along the East Coast, from North Carolina
> to Florida, according to one study — that’s faster than researchers
> expected.
>
> The solution, Pilkey said, is to move inland.
>
> “Except for timing, there is no controversy among scientists regarding
> the rise in sea levels,” Pilkey said. “We need to plan now for
> retreat.”
>
> Disappearing beaches
>
> There are “slight differences” to the degree of sea level rise
> different parts of North Carolina are experiencing, but it’s happening
> “virtually everywhere, and it’s accelerating,” Pilkey said.
>
> To those who say the coast is always changing, and that sea level rise
> is not happening, or is not a significant threat, Pilkey says, “You’ve
> got to learn about tidal flooding.”
>
> Residents of coastal communities most often feel the effects of sea
> level rise during increasingly frequent and worsening tidal flooding,
> major storms and when large swathes of beach are eroded away and
> require renourishment.
>
> The costly effort of dredging sand from the bottom of the ocean and
> piling it onto beaches in an attempt to rebuild North Carolina’s — or
> any state’s — coastline has been the preferred solution to maintaining
> the shoreline and protecting coastal properties for generations. But
> it’s needed more and more, Pilkey said. And “it’s an exercise in
> futility.”
>
> “You’re holding shoreline where it doesn’t want to be,” he said.
>
> Nags Head beaches in Dare County are eroding at a rate of about 6 feet
> per year, according to the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.
>
> The town of Nags Head is “spending $48 million — and raising taxes for
> property owners — dredging sand from the sea floor and pumping it onto
> beaches,” The Washington Post reported.
>
> Some areas of beach, including near the Bodie Island Lighthouse, are
> eroding at rates of nearly 10 feet per year, according to NCDCM.
>
> There is constant flux for many parts of North Carolina’s beaches, and
> barrier islands naturally migrate, but renourished beaches disappear
> “at least two times faster than natural beaches,” Pilkey said.
>
> As sea levels rise, more beaches likely will be nourished.
>
> “I think the time will come when the public will no longer be willing
> to pay for this,” Pilkey said.
>
> “There’s already the attitude of ‘I wasn’t dumb enough to build a
> house right next to the beach, why should I pay for it?’”
>
> ‘Sheer madness’
>
> Measures can be taken to mitigate storm damage — such as construction
> and setback regulations, updating flood plain maps, buying out
> storm-damaged properties, and raising buildings up on stilts — but
> those efforts will not address the permanent effects of expected sea
> level rise, Pilkey said.
>
> Continued construction on or near replenished beaches is “sheer
> madness,” he said, since it puts more structures in threatened areas
> and can contribute to erosion.
>
> Even buildings on higher elevations are in danger, if infrastructure
> such as roads are chronically flooded by increasing sea level rise,
> Pilkey said. And in the event of storms, evacuation of at-risk areas
> will be increasingly difficult.
>
> The solution is for residents of these threatened areas to move
> inland, he said.
>
> “If my parents were to ask me where to buy a house in North Carolina,
> I would tell them to stick to the mainland,” Pilkey said. “People
> living there now should be taking a long view.”
>
> https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article217026850.html
>
>
I wonder if their Gawd is gonna pitch in and help them for a change?

[Bucko]

[Byker]

"Bucko" wrote in message news:XnsA9F8D...@178.63.61.175...

wrote

>> “If my parents were to ask me where to buy a house in North Carolina, I
>> would tell them to stick to the mainland,” Pilkey said. “People living
>> there now should be taking a long view.”
>>
>> https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article217026850.html
>>
>
> I wonder if their Gawd is gonna pitch in and help them for a change?

Let the rich shits pay for their own rebuilding. They can afford it...