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Sea Levels are Already Rising in America's Southeast. A Preview of the Future?

The Washington Post visits one of over 100 tide-tracking stations around the U.S. — Georgia's Fort Pulaski tide gauge: Since 2010, the sea level at the Fort Pulaski gauge has risen by more than 7 inches, one of the fastest rates in the country, according to a Washington Post analysis of Nati...

"This particular mechanism does not immediately suggest it's just natural variability," [said Ben Hamlington, a research scientist who leads NASAâ(TM)s sea level change team]. For now, sea levels in the Southeast are surging — and they provide an early picture of what most of the United States, and the rest of the world, will experience as oceans rise... On Tybee Island — whose population of 4,000 swells to over 100,000 during the summer months — leaders have gotten used to the constant fight against the waves. With the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the city has built dunes to protect vacation homes and local storefronts from the rising water; many homeowners have also raised their properties high up into the air.

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