It was Glen Witherbee's last day in his Chathamhouse of 35 years, (shot in the eye of a storm with a camcorder in 1987).this video is controversial and may not represent the views of this site's contributors.
In 1987 nine homes were lost to the sea when a vicious storm broke the barrier beach that protected Chatham in two, exposing it to the open ocean. Now twenty years later it is happening again. In April of 2007 the same barrier beach has again broken open. This time over 100 homes, town beaches and the Chatham fish pier are in danger.Seven houses have already been lost this year on North Beach and the tide is creeping up on the rest. Now the homes that line the shore are also at risk.
Strangely enough a local scientist, Dr. Graham Giese predicted this would occur. He studied old data and maps that showed the erosion is on a 140 year cycle. Every 140 years the beach breaks up then re-grows itself. It is a constantly shifting mass.
In 1987 the town ordered studies of the erosion, because they had never seen it happen so rapidly before. A new law passed that same year allowed some homeowners to build seawalls while others could not.
A heated battle ignited between homeowners and regulatory agencies over the building of seawalls to protect their homes. The once close knit town was at war. As the battle brewed and the scientist studied the ocean swallowed up nine homes. Today the controversy still exist over building seawalls in front of shoreline homes and the process for a permit to build a wall is still lengthy.
Meanwhile the erosion is growing worse, the tides are higher, homes and town property stand unprotected.The town could become landlocked leaving a multi million dollar fishing fleet stranded, or it could wash away more than 360 million dollars worth of property.
Join us on a trip back in time when the shores were once before eaten away. We will explain the erosions cycle and see it's progression through aerial and historical footage. We will talk to the experts and travel with home owners through this on going story, of a town against the resilient ocean.
North Beach before breakthrough (Photo by Kelsey-Kennard)
