Posted on 06/27/2014 2:29:22 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
NAGS HEAD, N.C. The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be swamped.
The state had detailed maps to illustrate this claim and was developing a Web site where people could check by street address to see if their property was doomed. There was no talk of salvation, no plan to hold back the tide. The 39-inch forecast was a death sentence, Kelly said, for ever trying to sell your house.
So Kelly, a lobbyist for Realtors and home builders on the Outer Banks, resolved to prove the forecast wrong. And thus began one of the nations most notorious battles over climate change.
Coastal residents joined forces with climate skeptics to attack the science of global warming and persuade North Carolinas Republican-controlled legislature to deep-six the 39-inch projection, which had been advanced under the outgoing Democratic governor. Now, the state is working on a new forecast that will look only 30 years out and therefore show the seas rising by no more than eight inches.
Environmentalists are appalled, and North Carolina has been lampooned as a hotbed of greedy developers trying to outlaw the rising tide. Some climate-change experts are sympathetic, however, calling the rebellion an understandable reaction to sea-level forecasts that are rapidly becoming both widely available and alarmingly precise.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I visit the outer banks and Beaufort, NC every few years, and none of the houses are underwater yet....all is well.
What planet are they living on? I haven't seen one alarmist prediction that was even close.
Oh, yeah. Planet Washington.
“The dangers of climate change were revealed to Willo Kelly in a government conference room in the summer of 2011. By the end of the century, state officials said, the ocean would be 39 inches higher and her home on the Outer Banks would be swamped. “
I would think current storm surges would make this a poor location for a house, but few of us will be around at the end of the century, so don’t worry about it.
Barrier island investment: a crapshoot.
We’ve stayed on the Outer Banks several times. Last time we talked to a man with an oceanfront house. Fifty years ago it was four blocks back from the beach, great investment.
And we’ve stayed in property a block back where the cottage was swept away by a hurricane. Land still there, HUGE house built two years later. ??? investment.
And we’ve seen houses dangling on broken pilings, with the sand bank caving in and the waves rolling under. Bad investment.
Every year we’ve gone, we’ve had a near miss with a hurricane, just before, just after, or path offshore.
Are you going this year? My son and new wife are in Jacksonville. :)
Sitting in my Beaufort NC home right now, and I'll tell you, not only are we NOT under water - I wish the tide would come up a bit where we are. I think there's less water, not more, than there was 11 years ago when we bought this property.
Don't they go underwater every decade or so from storm surge? I don't buy global warming, but don't like paying for others' seaside insurance from repetitive normal events, either.
bfl
She should have bought land cheap and make a fortune.
There is sand erosion and it’s not climate change, it’s the problem a lot of beach fronts have... and replacing the sand costs money. The tides do encroach further in and erode the area so that houses can end up in the water, or gone if a hurricane hits. Hurricanes and storms are severe and destructive now.
Most states with long beaches are constantly replacing miles of sands gone from the beaches. Yes, water will rise and beaches erode, but that too is 40-50 cyclical weather, according to many of the meteorologists. I guess time will tell, but it isn’t consistent on all beach areas, with some of various places I visit.
The point is those houses should never have been built that close to the ocean ever, but many were grandfathered in before the local building codes began, so houses get replaced due to a love of beachfront property. I doubt they can afford insurance now. I have seen places where beaches are now shorter.
Some people may not be worried, but my boyfriend’s brother-in-law sold their home in south Florida (6 feet above mean high tide) and bought near Orlando (35 feet above mean high tide). I’m debating whether to sell my cottage in Chincoteague, VA, or spend $12,000 to raise it 3 or 4 feet. Even though it is behind Assateague Island I have seen water flood the back yard during major storms, and the house floor is only 2 1/2 feet higher.
http://coastalcare.org/educate/shoreline-engineering/
And yes Barrier Island Investment should not be a good investment as those beaches are going to change but it’s not climate change as the above link explains how the changes occur.
Here’s a map on sale at ebay...has it changed much from 1590?
and one taken from Apollo 9...(1969)
we have a place at the NC beach and yes, we have lost some beach, but it is because Nor’easters, and just the prevailing winds from the north, eat away the sand and wash it southward. Environmentalist will not allow jetties and other structures to minimize the erosion, so it keeps going south. Somewhere down there is a lot of sand. (actually some goes out from shore and forms off-shore sand reefs)
“Some climate-change experts are sympathetic, however, calling the rebellion an understandable reaction to sea-level forecasts that are rapidly becoming both widely available and alarmingly precise.”
Yeah, precise.
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