Slow motion disaster: Shorelines and sea rise in Virginia
The beach near the NASA base in Wallops Island, Virginia has been disappearing at an average rate of three to seven metres per year. The access road and a 1,000-car parking lot have been rebuilt five times in the past decade because of coastal flooding.
Across a narrow inlet to the north sits the island town of Chincoteague, gateway to a national wildlife refuge blessed with a stunning mile-long recreational beach – a major tourist draw and source of big business for the community. But the sea is robbing the townspeople of their main asset. (Reuters)
