‘We Cannot Save Everything’: A Historic Neighborhood Confronts Rising Seas

How much did the author say the ocean his risen? Or is global flooding a prediction for the future such as global famine (70's), global pollution (60's), over population (80's), Peak Oil (90's), nuclear annihilation (50's), YK2, killer bees, ozone depletion, internet invasion, California falling into a crevasse... always something to preoccupy the populace so they take their eye off the ball.

Do what they’re doing all over Fire Island. Raise the houses. Average cost is $150K

My father was a geologist and we lived several blocks back from Corpus Christi Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. Any closer , he said, was immensely foolish. These beautiful, historic houses in R I cannot be saved by having water flow through their lower stories " whenever it needs to ". The people who live in R I have seen an Atlantic hurricane. I have a house with a basement, a dehumidifier and a sump pump. During recent heavy rains some water has intruded and has needed help to exit-lots of towels, and pushing it toward the pump. If you don't get almost all of it out and dry out the air the remainder of your house upstairs will begin to smell strongly of mildew and mold will grow on the upstairs bathroom walls. You cannot, as someone seems to have suggested, suggested, benignly leave water down there in cisterns or basins...Also as someone else wisely pointed out :These houses are not going to be surrounded in a storm by gently lapping waves a foot high while you go on about your business. Eventually the ocean will take them. It is sad but we need to become realistic.

Making America Great Again by ignoring the forces that are putting our shared American history underwater. Brilliant.

This suggestion may at first seem worthless, but please think it over, as it just might provide an answer for a few people. I live in Wyoming. My property in Rock Springs is at an elevation of 6,288 feet; coincidentally, the exact height of New Hampshire's Mt. Washington, the state where I was born (during a blizzard!). Wyoming's population is actually falling, and has been for three or four years now. We have lots and lots of houses for sale, and apartments for rent. Our cost of living is miniscule compared to the east or left coasts, and we're a lot cheaper than Colorado and Utah. If you happen to be on a fixed income, making as little as, say, $1,800 a month, you can come here and live high off the hog, and stay dry into the bargain! OK, OK, I've lied a little bit. About 40% of my town is, in fact, in the flood plain of Bitter Creek; but the truthful part of what I'm saying is that at least it's not ocean water that you have to worry about -no sharks, for example. Usually, Bitter Creek near my house is only about two feet wide and one inch deep, yet it's drainage basin up stream of my house is over 2,000 square miles in extent (bigger than Rhode Island), so you can imagine the flooding potential. All the same, just be sure, if you come here, to check local flood-way and flood-plain maps, which are usually easily available.

The "blue streets" is an idea that has been discussed for the Back Bay area of Boston. In looking at climate maps, some have suggested that the Back Bay area streets be turned into canals not unlike Venice. The flood vents are reminiscent of a bridge here in Maine. The Cribstone Bridge, going out to Bailey Island. Not exactly the same, but the bridge was built with a diagonal grid of granite slabs and holes so that as the tide rises or large waves approach they flow through as opposed to breaking and washing over the roadway.

I'm surprised that there was no mention of the Netherlands, which has successfully held back the sea for centuries. The ancient system of dikes and canals has been continually upgraded. No one knows more about holding back the sea or has better technology for it than the Netherlands.

I found this to be a fascinating article, especially the idea of the plaster “memory garden.” I hope they could be left in place. The flotation device sounds brilliant, as do the other water channeling suggestions. I’m wondering if the buildings themselves could be left in place, but enclosed or plasticized or something to protect them. Wouldn’t seeing them partially or totally underwater, like a shipwreck, give the climate message more impact? To me, moving them elsewhere seems like pretending climate change isn’t really happening. Floor plans and photos can preserve the history well enough.

The sea is not rising, warmer, but sea rise is not high tide. The US is doing well in common sense actions. China and India are not. Trying to predict sea rise is an imperfect science. Using words like could, or may, or scientists agree is counter productive. using the label "Denier" is worse. Trillions of tons melt from Greenland, and no seas rise.

We know from studying buildings from ancient times, that our ancestors were often more keenly aware of major and long-term changes to their surrounding environment. Thus elders who were from the area of the Fukushima Nuclear disaster, knew of tsunamis that were more than 30' tall, but the engineers who designed the seawall protecting the reactor did not consider it. Similarly, the Anasazi who lived in the Southwest, were migratory, having endured the beginning of the Great Drought which persisted for almost 300 years. It is clear that historical geology and paleoclimatology will need to become two of our most important sciences if we hope to survive.

Perhaps we could (gasp) adjust zoning laws so that newly constructed neighborhoods would be just as welcoming and desirable, instead of the Great American Sprawl we currently have. Not to say that historic housing isn’t valuable and worth conserving, but everyone loves the way that particular neighborhood feels because it was built for people, not for cars.

There is so much to lose because of global warming so sad.

Is there a way to tap into tourist dollars to help save this neighborhood? As a midwesterner who rarely gets to see 18th C buildings,I, for one, would be willing to pay something to see this remarkable area.

All this money to save a few houses that no one even lives in? The reality of climate change has not even begun to sink in to coastal towns. A sad anecdote, I visited Pensacola Beach in 2007 and saw the barrier island there being rebuilt after one of the hurricanes. I had gone there to see the "Dome of a Home" a hurricane proof home. That home was fine but every other home was being rebuilt. I watched as contractors literally staked sod down to the sand, while the waves were only a few dozen yards away. And very few of the homes were being raised. No homes were copying the very safe but unusual design of the dome home. A few days later, we drove to New Orleans and saw the devastation of an American city--not only was there nearly no construction going on, it looked as though Katrina had hit last week. New Orleans died that day--and those levees that were supposed to protect it, are now almost functionally obsolete because the forecasts of sea level rise were lower than reality. Friends, if you live in a coastal town or own property in a flood zone, you need to be seriously considering how you will adjust your life. You have less time than you think. I feel for these people and their homes, but a wall of money will not stop the oceans from rising.

Everyone wants to protect their own property, to say nothing of historic properties. How can that be done? Where would the money come from? Over time, some properties will probably be let go to the elements. I grew up in Myrtle Beach, SC, where many homes and now hotels are built close to the ocean's high water mark. It's clear that this is leading to beach erosion and expensive beach "renourishment." Many hurricanes and often just large storms create the need to replenish the beach sand. If you don't do it, you have a situation like the beach park in CT where there is a cliff atop the beach. The best solution, I suspect, for houses that can bear it, is to jack them up and put them on pilings or other higher foundations.

I'm trying to digest the first photograph. Is that a boat launch or a driveway leading to the street? Whats the pole doing in the middle of the street? Is it used to tie a boat? If this was a photo taken of a city street at high tide does this occur twice everyday along with high tide? Is it part of a storm surge? Go over to the noaa website and you'll find a steady rise from 1850 to present. Depending on the computer model you see the steady rise continues to 2100 or it can increase rapidly. There's more to it than melting polar ice such as solar activity to pumping ground water. But climate change or not sea level is rising and once again the effect of man made climate change in the present doesn't seem to be the problem just yet. Nature is doing a good job of raising sea level without our help. Since I learned to read there have been plenty of stories about these lovely communities built on sand bars being reclaimed by the sea. You can't ignore that part of science and only focus on one can you?

In the early 90's I watched in disbelief as Va Beach and OBX property owners shouted down Duke Prof. Orrin Pilkey, as he advocated retreat from the shore. His point was about the folly of throwing money at preservation techniques. Buoyant and flow-through structures are novel thoughts, but oceanic events rarely offer a cooperative flow of storm water. The graphics are well done, but the logic is flawed. LoL, it's a joke, right? I have lived from Newport to Key West, where my father's last duty station was Norfolk. In downtown Norfolk, the Hague floods when high tides match up with a two-year storm or better. In Annapolis, the City Dock/Ego Alley area around Compromise Street floods with a good tide, too. The ocean won't relent, no one can stop it. Move, or get your feet wet! I wanted to buy oceanfront when I was younger, after I read Pilkey, then witnessed the public reaction, first hand, well I changed my mind. My suggestion is fund and bolster elementary education, first, then move to secondary and post secondary.

It is so sad to see the way we are losing our fight not only to preserve parts of our natural and pristine heritage, but also our fight to convince this administration that climate change is the cause, and that it is real. In my opinion New England is the most beautiful and picturesque part of America, it’s coastlines, it’s history! Everything possible should be done to preserve it and all the other endangered areas around the country. As a child Growing up in Belize, I spent my summers in a little village with my grandparents, they had two ponds on their property, Big pond and little pond. I learned to sail and swim and fish on Big pond! Well, both ponds are dried out and so are most of the lagoons in the area! One has to be blind to not see the devastation that climate change has caused and will continue to, unless we rapidly reverse course!

Since our government continues to wait and deny and lie about climate change, at this point the choices are really few, simple and exceedingly unpleasant. Move the buildings or watch them sink. Other choices that might appear more palatable require voting in some folks that understand science. Good luck with that.

Trump and the GOP continue to say there is no change in the climate. What will Trump say when Mar a Lago (right at sea level) is in several feet of water?

My mother was raised by her aunt - my Great Aunt Mabel - on Washington St in Newport. She and her brother sailed catboats right at the end of the little streets that went down to the water off Washington. We scattered her ashes in Battery Park in 2007 and added my Dad's two years ago. I have the best memories of visiting Aunt Mabel there and my mother's stories of childhood in Newport; it is such a lovely neighborhood. I still remember the house with the beehive oven. So much history that has made it this long, but we didn't act seriously enough soon enough and so they will not make it much longer.

I’ve visited Newport many times and I find this just so incredibly painful — and it’s only the tip of the iceberg on what the world will be losing with the rise of the ocean.

It's no secret that building on the shoreline can eventually lead to a lost city. There's plenty of evidence around the world (sunken cities) that should serve as a lesson.

All so sad. It is one thing to save historic homes, it is another to watch coastal towns that have ignored rising tides for years pay for reconstruction of beaches where mega-mansions were recently, and recklessly, built. Even sadder that we have an administration that ignores climate change and still promotes the fossil fuel industry. The hubris is breathtaking. Anyone who lives on the coast and is a realist could of foretold of this just from observing tides for the last thirty years.

I am disappointed at my fellow architects' designs for individual homes: all the designs proposed for accommodating flooding ignore the massive volume of water that would surround each building. No municipal or even regional infrastructure solutions can deal with those immense volumes. It's high time that anybody who is capable of looking ahead start thinking about The 'R' Word, namely retreating from low-lying shores and creating new municipalities, because the historic ones will become fragmented into higher-elevation islets, thereby robbing existing municipalities of their voters and their businesses as well as their tax incomes.