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Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

This Seaside Community Is Getting Swallowed by the Ocean

Author:     SARAH GIBBENS
Source:     National Geographic
Publication Date:     3 July 2018 (used)
 Link: This Seaside Community Is Getting Swallowed by the Ocean
Stephan:   I have been telling my readers since the early 1990s that sea rise was going to submerge much of coastal America, as well as the other coastal areas of the world, and that in the U.S. it would begin with Florida and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The other day I did a report on what is happening in Florida, Here is what is happening on the Outer Banks. Water is destiny.

Sand encroaches the now demolished Beacon Motor Lodge in Nags Head, North Carolina. Oceanfront motels once dotted the landscape.
Credit: John Tully

Slowly but surely, North Carolina’s Outer Banks are being eaten up by the sea.

The 200-mile stretch of islands that sits just off the coast is known for its idyllic beaches and thriving tourism, but scientists say those beaches are in jeopardy. Rising sea levels are forcing residents to grapple with a home that’s slowly washing out from under them.

One 2010 report predicted that sea levels around North Carolina could rise 39 inches by 2100 as climate change melts glaciers and contributes to global sea level rise. Already, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality says, about six feet of costal land erodes every year.

These rising seas are making already unstable strips of land more erosive. The Outer Banks are shifting sandbars that naturally drift toward the coast. Each time a storm makes landfall, seawater carves inlets and […]

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