Omigod the sand is gone
A group of wealthy US homeowners spent $565,000 (£441,000) to build protective sand dunes near their properties – only to have the barriers wash away in days.
Where were these properties? Why, on a beach. Hello: beaches have been disappearing from under beach houses for decades, far longer than anyone’s been talking about climate change. I have vivid memories of dangling halves of houses on the New Jersey shore back in the 60s. Why in hell would anyone think for a second that bringing in more sand to be washed away would be useful?
I mean even without the last few decades of experience, are people not aware of what sand is? Do they not remember building sand castles on the beach for the very purpose of watching the tide dissolve them?
The group in Salisbury, Massachusetts, trucked in about 14,000 tonnes of sand in hopes of protecting up to 15 homes. Those protections washed away, however, and residents now hope the state will help fund a more permanent solution to safeguard their seaside homes.
Pause for hilarity.
“Ok well that barrier made of cardboard didn’t work so now please give us the cash for a concrete wall.”
Hilarity aside, hello again: seaside houses are inherently vulnerable. They’re a risky luxury. They should never ever be subsidized by public funds.
Tom Saab, the head of Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change, told the BBC that the group had “begged” Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and the state to help re-fortify the beach after a particularly brutal storm in December 2022. He alleged that they had “refused to help” and had left their properties vulnerable to flooding and storm damage. Their inaction, he said, had forced the community to fund the short-term fix. “A project of this magnitude should have been done by an engineering company or the state and federal government,” Mr Saab added. “But our little volunteer group from Salisbury pulled off a minor miracle.”
The entitlement of some people. Sure, get it done by an engineering company, but at your expense, not the expense of everyone in New Hampshire.
As a former Masshole, I think it would be hilarious if they got New Hampshire to pay. But I think you meant Massachusetts.
Even if done by government, it is still a form of disaster. The sea is going to go where the sea is going to go. A concrete wall will just increase erosion in adjacent areas. The Outer Banks are another disastrous area for this phenomenon of affluent people expecting the public purse to underwrite the continued existence of properties they insist are private in every other possible dimension.
Apparently they missed the (probably apocryphal) story about Cnut and the waves. Or at least missed the point.
“King Cnut, very weak king. The waves didn’t respect him like they would King Trump.” — Donald Trump, probably, if he knew anything about Cnut, and only after he made several crude jokes about his name.
Jesus spake a parable about this. Matthew 7:24-26. Oh, those sinners gonna pay .
Screechy, #4,
Given the obvious potential for crude jokes, I was amazed that Cnut is what PZ’s grandson is named. In this day and age, t’s almost as though the poor kid’s parents want his school days to be absolute misery. It might be fine in a Scandinavian country but they live in the US. Talk about not thinking things through.
Maybe they could ask Mexico to pay, after the great enthusiasm they showed for paying for Trump’s wall.
In September 1992 there was extreme rainfall in a place called Vaison-la-Romaine, built originally by the Romans (hence “la-Romaine”). This caused major flooding, with 37 deaths. However, the bits built by the Romans hardly suffered at all; virtually all the damage occurred in parts resulting from 20th C. development.
Having owned a house on a similar beach in Ma.
I can tell you each house is paying $25-30K taxes a year.
When they are gone so is the money!