Effects of Rising Sea Level on Coastal North Carolina - "Sea Change" - A WRAL Documentary

Scientists are predicting about a three-foot rise in sea level along North Carolina’s coast by 2100, which would have devastating impacts on our coastal communities. A rising sea is already causing issues including more frequent flooding, higher storm surges, higher erosion rates and saltwater intrusion into forests and farmlands. Just how much has North Carolina been affected by this problem? What is the next step?
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[@unnaturalselection8330]

As a native Outerbanker, none of the photos they've shown here are at all indicative of anything more problematic than my grandfather's time.
We're talking about a string of SANDBARS.
By nature, these were mobile and we are interfering with nature in the process of making ourselves at home.
...For instance, older heads remember when there were more inlets.
Well, inlets aren't allowed to open and close like they did in our islands for millennia ...because houses and infrastructure would go into the sea.
That, by the way, has a perhaps unintended consequence: once water is pushed into the sound by a Noreaster or hurricane, it's far harder for the water to drain back into the ocean quickly, thus salt poisoning low lying land more easily that it might with better drainage.
Also, we don't do near enough dune replenishment.
Certain areas are KNOWN to flood during storms and yet the same area will be breached over and over with no tangible attempts to better the situation.
ALSO, there's extremely bad drainage in just about every township that gets worse as construction continues; you can't pave over all the sand and give the water no system to run off to after denying it the ability to seep into the sand.
It pools.
....Kitty Hawk and KDH are especially egregious on the "zero drainage" tip.
ALSO, we've had phosphate companies quietly pumping out massive amounts of water from our aquifers in the Great Dismal Swamp to process their products for decades, which makes land SUBSIDE.
As to oceanfront houses, given the impermanent nature of our home, I consider oceanfront houses going into the sea to be part of the normal ebb and flow of the sandbar we've built our lives on.
There's a reason our grandparents generation never built anything hard up on the ocean side.
Therefore, an oceanfront house is a rich man's luxury that he must by prepared to lose with any major storm.
Point being, why not address the local problems we CAN solve instead of talking about Antarctica, when our local communities simply don't have the power to affect change on that level?!?
My long winded 2 cents, not that anyone will ever read this, lmao.

[@rickyphillips2552]

I lived in Key West in the early 80's which is one foot above sea level. A recent visit showed the sea level is exactly the same! The sea must be rising only on the NC coast!/? So, does anyone have a explanation why the sea is not rising in Key West?

[@tadblackington1676]

30 years ago we did know this but we have willfully ignored this knowledge over the intervening decades.

[@coreyadkins8775]

They are shifting sand bars. Not rising sea levels.

[@heather3193]

The sands are shifting...the ocean is not rising.

[@douglasthompson8927]

houses are the enemy of sea level rise