And so my love, Catherina and me,
Decide to take our last walk
Through the noise to the sea.
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Eventually, insurers will stop writing policies for new home sales and so the mortgage companies will refuse to make the loans, so the sales won’t happen and the only people who can buy a beachfront house will have a) enough money to pay cash, and b) enough money to not care if the property is destroyed. If you currently own one of these homes, you need to be at the “enough money not to care if the property is destroyed” wealth level soon. Get to it!
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You don’t have to be Einstein to know that sand will be easily and quickly carried by ocean waves–though it might help to be his son, Hans Albert, who came up with an empirical formula for determining the minimum diameter of boulders required armor coasts and prevent erosion:
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It is possible the residents might have ignored the opinion of a professional civil engineer and decided to pay a contractor to carry out their own, cheaper, much less sound plans. Or, perhaps, as you suggest, they were swindled.
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Did it never occur to these nimrods to use rocks instead? (shoreline near our house)
You can see the difference in how much of the this small hill was eroded where there weren’t any rocks:
Also, when it was built some years ago (dunno when) they were all big rocks. Over the years the waves banged them up into smaller rocks:
(The Sea… She be a harsh Mistress… Yarrrrrrrr!)
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Yeah, I gotta house on the coast near Otisburg. It’s a cute wee hamlet. Cheap property, too.
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We think we’re buying, we’re only renting
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Them houses are like crypto currencies - fine as long as someone else wants them, but then what when it turns out you’re the biggest fool?
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Eventually?
Are there any companies, that anyone expects to be in business after the claims start, that is still writing polices in costal flood zones?
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Something, something bible parables.
“They never learn.” -Jesus probably
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So the quick & easy ‘Ron Hamburger’ fix didn’t work? Shocked… shocked I tell you.
The real-estate shows regarding beach front purchases are something else. Agent shows them a house across the street from the beach and it still isn’t good enough. Buy across the street, wait 10 years and you’ll have the waves lapping at your steps.
But really, these owners are hooped. Can they even sell? Who’s buying? Can they sell to whomever at any price, or are they in some mandated Gov-buyer situation? Then house is razed and there’s one less potential claim to pay out.
Even if you built on stilts, the rest of the community is washed away along with the town and roads and bridges and sewer capabilities… like… congrats, your house survived. Too bad it’s now in a FEMA disaster zone that will never come back.
Really, they need to stop allowing building in these areas. Has to be people upset all this State money goes to repairing the same things year after year, when inland facilities are left wanting and underfunded.
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You just have to get someplace farther from the water. Even then, it may just be temporary.
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My wife grew up in Long Beach, NY. A barrier island in front of a barrier island. In 2012 hurricane Sandy completely destroyed it. The boardwalk was completely obliterated, the entire beach was washed up into the streets and basically every home within 3-4 blocks of the beach was flooded. When they rebuilt, it was with an eye toward long-term resilience. The boardwalk acts as a flood break (there is no “under” the boardwalk, just a steel wall). The jetties were massively increased in height, width and length with BIG freaking rocks and they constructed a giant sand berm that was then planted with sea grasses, sand roses (can’t remember their real name) and other erosion-proofing vegetation. All surviving homes were jacked up and a lower floor made of concrete was added, converting formerly small bungalows into two and three-story homes, massively increasing their value. This construction was going on for the better part of a decade and you still occasionally see houses that are siting on the jacking blocks, waiting for the first floor to be built.
What they did not do was just dump a shitload of sand right back where it was washed away in the first place.
There used to be a boardwalk here:
Those jetties are huge now. It was really cool seeing giant backhoes flinging the rocks into place.
This image is probably 3-4 blocks away from the beach:
And this is the new dune right after erosion plantings. Note that it is at least 50+ yards back set from the high tide line. You can also see a bit of the new jetties.
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yup. or, like here in Florida-da, the home insurance companies just pull up stakes and stop writing policies in the entire state. Amiga, Farmers, to name the first two to come to mind. this has piled so many people’s policies into the state-funded “insurer of last resort” (Citizens), who has seen their own bottom line (supposed to be not-for-profit) drop and no way to cover all the new policies. so, Citizens is currently pushing homeowners that lost coverage from the major players that saw the writing on the [sea]wall and onto smaller private insurers that are of questionable ability to pay out in a natural disaster. the new policy costs several times more than what it was originally.
i don’t live on the beach, but on an island that is very much in danger from rising sea levels and stronger, more frequent storms. i own my home, (so mortgage does not enforce insurance) but of course keep insurance expressly for storm damages. even as my premiums keep going up and i worry just how much i can recoup after a hit.
living here we know it is not if we get hit, but when.
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“I don’t know what the solution is,” he said as he climbed into his gigantic gas-guzzler SUV and drove the quarter mile to Costco for more plastic bottles of water.
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TBF - moving several tons of sand is a lot easier than several tons of rocks.
I saw something on the news the other day about an area dredging up sand to refill their beaches and protect the shore, but it was done by some government entity, I believe.
At some point there needs to be laws made about no new housing X close to shore (and updating it from time to time). I imagine MOST people living there have other options (2nd homes, etc) but at some point we probably need to just demolish them and put in anti-erosion measures. Only that will piss off certain rich people and it will raise a stink. 
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All home owners insurance increasing to pay for the wealthy’s inaction on climate change…
Sounds about right — beat the American Middle Class up some more …
… meanwhile … I will just eat my corn flake dinner
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