Earlier this year President Obama traveled to Alaska to highlight what he called the frontline of climate change. But a report published in Nature, says residents of Virginia's Tangier Island, just 90 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., on the Chesapeake Bay, may be forced to leave during the next 25 years.
Most of the 475 residents of Tangier can trace their roots back to the 1600s when it was first occupied. Hurricanes and Nor'easters coupled with sea-level rise are eroding the island's unprotected shores at alarming rates. The report, funded partly by the Army Corps of Engineers confirms what islanders have been saying for decades, without more breakwaters, the island will drown. On a recent tour of the island, Mayor Ooker Eskridge, showed members of the Corps the benefits of their last project.
“This jetty here this has been a lifesaver, we were losing 25-30 feet a year. And that was completed in '89 and since then we haven't lost one inch.”
David Schulte a Corps scientist who worked on the report says the immediate goal is funding.
“What we're hoping for ultimately is to raise the profile high enough for Tangier that we can actually get Congress interested and get the big study and the funding to save the island.”
One study has been done by the Corps on breakwaters but the state and island residents cannot afford the multi-million dollar project. From Tangier Island, I'm Pamela D'Angelo
