In Rodanthe, N.C., seven homes have been lost to the ocean in the last four years, as rising sea levels erode shorelines and put more buildings at risk.
My grandparents had a house on Cape Cod that was right on the water. When I was maybe 8 to 10 years old I could stand on the beach and rest my elbows on the top of the seawall that separated the beach from the yard in front of the house.
20 years later when the house was sold so much sand had eroded from the beach that, as an adult, I couldn’t reach the top of the seawall while standing in the same place. So over the span of a couple decades roughly 5 vertical feet of beach had eroded away.
My grandparents had a house on Cape Cod that was right on the water. When I was maybe 8 to 10 years old I could stand on the beach and rest my elbows on the top of the seawall that separated the beach from the yard in front of the house.
20 years later when the house was sold so much sand had eroded from the beach that, as an adult, I couldn’t reach the top of the seawall while standing in the same place. So over the span of a couple decades roughly 5 vertical feet of beach had eroded away.