Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Hurricanes on sandy shorelines · By Dirk Frankenberg
Houses built too close to shore
Figure 11. The dangers of insufficient setback. High tide now laps at the foundations of these houses. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 11 shows a row of houses near those in Figure 10. These were not set back far from the average high tide line. All of these houses are now on the upper edge of the beach, and sea water washes around their foundations at high tide.
There is a real question what is to be done about these structures. At the time of this writing there were strong efforts being made to secure public funding for adding sand to the beach in an attempt to restore it to its pre-hurricane position. Artificial beach building is called beach nourishment. It is technically feasible, but always expensive. The public responsibility for restoring beaches that will erode again in the next storm is very controversial.
