Facing the Future: Rising Tides & Our Coastal Community
Experiencing the destruction of Superstorm Sandy in 2012 exposed the risks and realities faced by shoreline communities, raising questions about how to better plan for the future. The threat of rising sea levels increases these risks, making storms, tidal surges, and flooding more frequent and damaging.
Lessons learned from previous storms are often forgotten as time goes by and people come and go. Since the mid-20th century’s severe New England hurricanes, the number of people desiring to live and work along the coast has grown dramatically. This means that relatively few residents had lived through a major coastal storm before Superstorm Sandy in 2012.