WRAL Documentary: Sea Change
- [Announcer] The following program is shot
in 4K high dynamic range,
and broadcast in high definition
from Capitol Broadcasting Company.
(air whooshing)
(analog tuner changing)
(air whooshing)
(thunderous booming)
- [Bill] The sea has been rising
for thousands of years.
- It continues on this upward increasing pattern.
- [Bill] Scientists predict
about a three foot rise in sea level
along our coast by the end of the century.
- This is not something we have
to deal with 100 years from now.
We have to deal with it right now.
- [Bill] But beach communities are dealing
with sea level rise right now.
- We are retreating by default.
- [Bill] Mainland coastal communities
are dealing with it too.
- They have water that they need to move now.
- [Bill] Saltwater is invading forests and farms.
- Some of these fields here are at
or below sea level.
- [Bill] It's inundating
a federal wildlife refuge.
- There's places that were eroding on average
of 45 feet a year.
- [Bill] Across northeastern North Carolina,
water is pumping,
dikes are blocking
and homes are rising.
- Being up here you feel a lots better, yeah.
- [Bill] But sea level isn't rising
above politics.
- The law makes it illegal for North Carolina
to consider scenarios of accelerating rates
of sea level rise.
- We're made fools of.
- Sea level rise is not a theory.
It's a measurement.
- [Bill] With a measure of uncertainty
for our coast.
(wave lapping) (ominous music)
- [Ben] Jennifer let's check out this bond--
- [Bill] Ben Huss is a bail bondsman
in Newton, North Carolina.
- Check on his court date.
Make sure he hadn't already missed it.
You are a modern-day bounty hunter,
when the guy dudn't show up for court.
- [Bill] The job is risky.
- The bigger bonds, you know,
that's a, more risk for us.
But it's also more money in your pocket.
Well here he is.
- [Bill] So, what is the connection
between a bail bondsman in Newton
and sea level rise?
(soothing guitar music)
- [Bill] Well Huss is also the owner
of this beach house,
made famous in the 2008 movie
"Nights in Rodanthe,"
starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane.
- Four nights, leaving Tuesday?
- Pretty early.
I've got a flight to catch.
- I was just enthralled with it,
with the movie and the house also.
At high tide,
the water was comin' under the house.
And, at low tide,
it would come up to the front steps.
- [Bill] Huss decided to take another risk.
He bought the house in 2009.
- I was gonna save that house
to the extent that I would probably die trying.
- [Moving Crewman] Okay Jerry, let's go.
- [Bill] Huss hired the same contractor
who moved the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in 1999.
- They tell me one hour the house is going
down the road.
- [Bill] He moved the house nearly 300 feet
from the ocean,
but the ocean is following.
- So now we're down to about 250 feet.
There is somethin' to the global warmin'
and our environment
with the hotter temperatures is making
the oceans rise.
That's a big enemy of any house
that's on the coast.
- [Bill] Sea level rise makes erosion worse.
Erosion has cost Nags Head several rows
of houses over the years.
- They seem to be the poster child
and the picture of sea level rise,
which we don't wanna be that.
- [Bill] From 1870 to 1924,
global sea level rise has been less
than a millimeter a year.
- The process of sea level change,
on a global basis,
is really a slow, gradual process.
It's like filling your bathtub gently.
- [Bill] But Rick says global sea level rise
is accelerating.
Since 1993, the rate has quadrupled
to 3.2 millimeters a year.
He says sea level rise is accelerating
because climate change is warming the oceans.
Here in North Carolina,
tidal gauges show the rate
of sea level rise is less
than the global average.
- On average, sea level has been rising annually
about the thickness of a nickel every year,
for at least the last 80 years.
- [Bill] But Rogers expects that to change.
- We think sea level is going to accelerate
in the future,
even though we haven't seen it
in the historical record of our gauges.
But it's almost certain to occur in the future.
- [Bill] Right now,
scientific projections are for sea level
along our coast to rise anywhere
from 15 to 55 inches
between now and the end of the century,
with a 39-inch rise being
the most likely scenario.
Just a two-foot rise
in sea level would inundate much
of the Outer Banks.
Just imagine places like Rodanthe, under water.
Sea level rise is already causing
higher storm surges and more flooding.
In September of 2017,
Hurricane Jose caused this over wash
that came through some beachfront homes
and closed Highway 12 even though
its center was 300 miles off shore.
- If we look at how we're managing those threats,
immediate threats today,
we're not doing a very good job
of handling the immediate threat.
- [Bill] The town of Nags Head
has been dealing with the shoreline threat
through beach renourishment.
- Our will is to continue to nourish the beach.
As long as we can afford to do so,
and as long as we have a sand resource
that we can replenish the beach with,
we're gonna continue to maintain the beach.
- [Bill] The town has also required new homes
to be built further from the ocean
and higher in elevation.
The problem is there's little room left
for new construction.
The town is nearly 90% developed.
- I wish 30 years ago they knew then
what we know now.
- [Bill] Lawsuits have hampered
the town's ability to move homes
out of harm's way and condemn
and remove ones already on the beach.
- We lost some of our appetite for this
because the legal challenges are expensive,
and they do cost the taxpayer quite a lot
of money to deal with these.
- [Bill] Meantime, sea level rise is also
affecting groundwater.
- It's rising, and it's rising fairly quickly.
- [Bill] Which contributes to flooding
during heavy rain.
In September of 2017,
Nags Head adopted a comprehensive study
that identifies and prioritizes
its vulnerabilities to sea level rise.
- Regardless of where you fall on the science
and how much it's gonna rise,
and how fast and how much,
it seemed irresponsible for us to not plan ahead.
- The town solicited input from residents
and business owners.
It even formed a climate change
and sea level rise adaptation committee.
- And then we started rewriting our codes
or addressing climate change,
sea level rise into our building codes.
- [Bill] North Carolina Sea Grant partnered
with the town to develop the study
and use it to start developing
an adaptation plan.
- We've had elected officials there
who have been engaged through the entire process.
They're really serious about making this happen.
- [Bill] The plan will focus
on critical infrastructure over commercial
and residential development.
- To really begin thinking about,
okay at what point are we gonna have a problem?
At what point do we reach a threshold
where we will have some negative consequences?
And how do we keep that from happening?
- [Bill] For the town of Nags Head,
the overriding goal is to stay put
as long as possible.
- You know, we can't relocate.
We can't pick up the town and move anywhere else.
- So from originally built in this picture,
with 400 feet of beachfront,
down to no beachfront.
- [Bill] Ben Huss already moved his beloved
"Nights in Rodanthe" house once.
He's hoping he doesn't have to move it again.
- We're hoping to get 15 more years maybe
before the water comes up to the edge,
and up to the front steps.
And it'll be there for who knows how long.
- With a $1.2 billion annual tourism economy,
the Outer Banks may get most of the attention
when it comes to sea level rise,
but next the impact may be even greater
further inland.
- What we're seeing here is erosion rates
anywhere in the range of 5 to 15 feet per year.
In some places we are getting as much
as 45 feet a year.
(ominous music)
- [Bill] When Hurricane Irma threatened North Carolina
in September of 2017,
Hyde County Water and Flood Control Coordinator
Daniel Brinn went out to inspect the dike
and tidal gates, they help protect
the community of Swan Quarter.
- Make sure that any debris that's holding
the gates open that would allow tide water to seep past.
- [Bill] The gates help keep out saltwater
from storm surges and allow fresh water
from heavy rains to drain to help prevent flooding.
Swan Quarter is the county seat
and where most of the counties 5500 residents live.
The county started construction
on this 11 mile dike in the mid-'80s
to help protect Swan Quarter from storm surge
coming off nearby Swan Quarter Bay
and the Pamlico Sound .
The county sped up dike construction
after Hurricane Isabel flooded Swan Quarter in 2003.
- Isabel was a huge wake up call.
- [Bill] The dike was completed
just before Hurricane Irene in 2011
and saved the town from Irene's storm surge.
- Right here where you're looking now the water
was maybe three or four inches from the top of the dike
and inside you and I would be standing on grass right here.
- [Bill] But the entire county is vulnerable
to flooding, most of it is less than three feet
above sea level.
- About 85% of the county is within
the hundred year flood plain.
- [Bill] The county has a network of drainage canals
and pumping stations.
- And this pump is used to remove water
from the agricultural land and improve land
upstream to lift it and then to move it outward
on to the Pamlico Sound.
- [Bill] Saltwater can ruin farmland
risking the county's nearly $200 million
in annual crop sales.
- It's a constant battle against the water
down here in Hyde County.
- [Bill] This shows just what
farmers here are up against.
The same storm surge from Jose
pushed this saltwater three miles inland
from the Alligator River and into a drainage ditch
alongside Hyde County farmland.
Local farmers plugged the ditch
to try to keep the water out, but the plug is failing.
- They're seeing more evidence that saltwater
is moving into these canal systems and influencing,
negatively, their agricultural production.
Let's just use some more red ones here.
- [Bill] Burchell is a NC State professor
doing research to try and help.
- We're trying to see how much the water's rising
and how salty that water is at these different locations.
- [Bill] Burchell hopes he can help farmers
improve existing infrastructure
and develop new technologies to battle saltwater
intrusion into their fields.
- As long as it makes economic sense they'll fight it.
- [Bill] The fight will get tougher.
This graphic shows just how a two foot sea level rise
would inundate much of the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula
including much of Hyde County.
It would put communities like Engelhard underwater.
- We have many shorelines that are less
than one foot in elevation and if you raise it
two feet we've got the better part of six counties
that are gone, they're underwater,
they're going underwater right this minute.
- Like Nags Head, Hyde County partnered
with North Carolina's Sea Grant
to develop a plan to adapt to sea level rise,
it focuses more on immediate rather than long term threats.
- Because if you're not there five years
from now you can't be there 30 years from now.
- [Bill] The county identified problem areas,
examined infrastructure improvements
and published a flood guide for residents.
It also helped identify homes that need to be elevated.
- What about the different steel here
with the frame built compared to the bricks.
- [Bill] Chris Hilbert helps provide grants
through FEMA's national flood insurance program
to cover the cost of elevating homes.
- We had a recent house that was paying
about $4000 a year in flood insurance,
that when they got renewed after the elevation
it reduced down to $400.
- [Bill] More importantly it gets people like
Bertha and Solomon Cooper out of harms way.
Their house in Swan Quarter flooded three times.
- We had just about four foot of water each time.
- [Bill] The last time was during Hurricane Irene,
Cooper's home was on the wrong side of the dike
and filled with water.
- We lost everything.
- [Bill] Hilbert helped Cooper
get a grant to tear down his old home
and build a new one that's elevated
and in a less flood prone area.
Cooper says, he feels much more prepared
for the next storm.
- Well you feel a little better now you know
you probably have something to come back to you know.
- [Bill] Like many Hyde County residents
Cooper plans to stay.
- The people here in Hyde County are resilient folks
and that's why we're still here now.
- [Bill] And they understand the risks.
- Nowhere else in the state I would think
you would get a broader consensus
that sea level rise is real than you would
here in Hyde County.
- Yeah, this road used to extend
well beyond where that piling is
out there in the water, just a few years back.
Just five years ago.
- [Bill] The Nature Conservancy's Brian Boutin
points out the land that is being lost
to sea level rise in the
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge covers 157,000 acres of main land
Hyde and Dare counties and by the end of this century?
- A lot of the refuge could be underwater.
- [Bill] Scott Lanier was one
of the original three employees of the refuge
in 1985, he left in 1991 and returned 25 years later.
- I just looked around and thought,
my word what is happening in this place,
this change in habitat is really unreal,
what's going on?
- [Bill] Marshes had turned to open water,
land into marsh and woods into ghost forests
of dead trees.
- The easy button would be, oh well you know
there's nothing we can do really.
What's going to happen is going to happen.
We're not going to do that.
- There used to be a fence that
ran basically from Wanchese over to Manns Harbor.
- [Bill] Instead the refuge partnered
with The Nature Conservancy on a project
to adapt to sea level rise,
Water control devices have been installed.
- What we're actually doing is creating
more of a system where the freshwater
is pushing the saltwater back towards the sound.
- [Bill] More salt-tolerant vegetation
is being planted and oyster reefs have been installed
to slow down shoreline erosion.
- And that helps to keep this ecosystem intact,
it helps to slow the rate of erosion
to something that's more natural
and something that we would normally see
in an area like this.
- You're preparing for what's going to happen
in the future and just slowing that whole
rate of change down.
- [Bill] Giving the wildlife here
a better chance to catch up, adapt or migrate inland.
- We're hanging on to what we got as long as we can.
- [Bill] Next, successfully adapting
to sea level rise may mean putting policy over politics.
- Unfortunately, sea level rise
and climate have become political issues, not science.
(ominous music)
(intro music)
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(intense music)
- If your science gives you a result that you don't like,
pass a law saying that the result is illegal.
Problem solved.
(laughing)
- [Man] That's comedian Steven Colbert,
lampooning our state legislature in 2012.
- It was over a law that prohibited coastal communities
from using a state science panel report
that looked at sea level rise projections
to the year 2100.
The panel later amended the report
to look out only 30 years.
- [Man] That, of course, makes the projections
look less dire, a probable rise of seven to 12 inches
instead of 15 to 55.
- It's important to show what's vulnerable out here.
- [Man] Coastal geologist Stan Riggs served on that panel.
- What the state of North Carolina did,
was throw that part of the coastal system under the bus.
They threw the science under the bus.
But they also threw the people under the bus.
- [Man] Riggs says the state can't properly plan
major infrastructure projects
like the new 100 year Bonner Bridge
if it's only looking at 30 year sea level rise projections.
NC-20, a group representing the state's coastal counties
pushed for the change.
- The idea that the public will rebel against this.
They won't come to our beaches anymore.
It's gonna kill the coastal economy.
- [Man] But NC-20 says it was more about
the initial report taking away local control.
- And it said in the report that local governments shall,
and the one thing you learn when you're looking
at any legal document or legislation,
there's a big difference between shall and may.
And it said local government shall use a,
kind of an official rate of sea level rise
in local planning purposes.
- [Man] Kelly says planning for
an uncertain scenario more than 80 years out
is unrealistic for coastal communities.
- Climate change, it's a certainty.
Modeling, though, is not a certainty.
I think that 30 years, everyone could kind
of wrap their heads around it and understand it.
- [Man] And she says communities can still look
at the longer projections if they choose to.
- So there are parts of the Outer Banks that are doing it.
- [Man] Spencer Rogers, who also served on
the state science panel agrees that
the 2100 timeline is too distant.
- The problem is that our ability to predict
that far in the future gets weaker and weaker
with what evidence we have in hand today
and what we're able to model.
(bird noises)
- [Man] As for future sea level rise planning,
a recent study by N.C. State
and Appalachian State Universities found
that most coastal communities are doing little to none.
But the study also shows that the more certainty there is
in predictions and impacts,
the more willing communities are to plan.
- The evidence for these coastal officials will continue
to come in and hopefully that will increase
their comfort level and ability
to make some adaptive actions.
- [Man] Right now, Nags Head and Wilmington
are the only coastal communities
that specifically mention sea level rise
in their comprehensive plans.
- Unfortunately, sea level rise and climate
have become political issues, not science.
But the good news is they're often making
the same decisions they would need to do
for sea level rise adaptation
for other coastal hazard reasons.
So they're making changes for coastal hazards.
They're not necessarily doing it directly
for sea level rise.
(waves crashing)
And that's understandable, because it's
a lot more immediate threat for a hurricane this year
than it is for sea level rise a hundred years in the future.
- [Man] More coastal communities are requiring
home foundations to be higher.
- We can engineer our way out of a lot of things,
but not everything.
At some point, you've gotta back off.
- [Man] And while there's been some notable backing off
on the Outer Banks, people there say total retreat
is not realistic.
- Is there an expiration date for the Outer Banks?
I have no idea of knowing that.
And I know that we're gonna go along
and do what we need to do, and do the best
that we can do today in planning for
a future and protect our livelihoods
and protect our culture.
(bird noises)
- [Man] And in 2100?
- [Kelly] Will it be here?
Will it not be here?
And none of us can answer that question.
And we're not gonna be here to know it.
(soft music)