Click on the image for a better view. This was this morning, right before the Beach Alliance meeting and at high tide. Speaking of Beach Alliance meeting, finally people are talking about Newburyport!Of course, it's mostly about how most of the houses in the eroded area (of Newburyport) are not in a state of emergency. Our Ward 1 councillor, Allison Heartquist, questioned the criteria for "emergency" and the use of the word "time" to do stuff. She was kicking some butt (most politely, too); it was pretty cool.
"We don't have time; we don't know what time is; or how to define time ... Why can't we get emergency certification for these homeowners?"
The city got a $75,000 partnership grant from DCR for beach issues. That means we have to come up with $25,000.
5 comments:
What I don't get is why so many people don't get that Plum Island is toast.
Rising ocean temps and levels all but guarantee Neptune is going to reclaim PI as his own.
It won;t matter how much money, how many hay bales, or how much ballast is trucked in to try and "save" PI, Neptune is calling it, and every structure on it, home.
Humans might delay the process for a bit, but they will never be able to stop it.
Barrier beaches are areas of active transport of sand.
Every barrier beach on the East Coast of the United States is busy moving. The sand transports, more or less, from North to South.
Looking at breakthroughs like at Chatham and what occurred several years back around Hatteras, North Carolina, is normal. Existing inlets silt up, beaches thin out, and then new inlets break through….
And there is not much anyone can do about it.
macsurf's conclusion that "Plum Island is toast...", is partially correct, even if the reason he cites is not.
Plum Island will remain, even though areas of it will thin and thicken, and new inlets may breakthrough here or there.
All this will occur just as much, regardless of global warming or cooling….
---Anon
Thanks, Anon. I agree - PI is not going to sink into the ocean; it's going to shift and change, as it is meant to do. It's just that the houses happen to be there. I can't help but notice that in the NBPT section, where most of the houses are set back from the dune (as opposed to on it), erosion is still going on but no homes are threatened - except for the 3 or 4 that were built on the dune. It does not make it more or less tragic for the homeowners; it's just the fact of the matter.
Gillian,
The houses are "set back" in Newburyport because they are separated from the ocean by a state(formerly federal)reservation. Nbpt is just as culpable as Newbury in that they permitted houses on what little private primary dune property existed.
Thanks, Bubba. I saw the map today with the boundaries of the reservation. Ends just before 55th St., at Grant St., whatever that is ... or they think that's where it ends. No one seems to be entirely sure.
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