“How much time did you buy for Smith Island?” Hellgren asked. “It’s a process by which you put breakwaters along the shoreline to control and create headlands and allow the area to continue to erode in between, and it will eventually stop eroding and create little embayments,” Hardaway explained. Hardaway’s company, Coastline Design PC, helped build what is called a “living shoreline,” which includes large stone structures that disrupt the waves. “Right now and for the next 50 years, I think she’s keeping up,” Scott Hardaway told Hellgren of Smith Island’s fate. And it’s just that dramatic rate of erosion that we tried to address with these projects.” that are now just lost to the Chesapeake Bay. … There were peninsulas and coves on those islands, places that had names.
“And particularly when you look at the aerial photographs from 10-20 years ago. “The shoreline erosion is profound,” Whitbeck said. The federal government has pumped millions into projects, including jetties, to protect Smith Island from erosion. The federal government has pumped millions of dollars into projects including protective jetties-after residents watched the shoreline vanish at an alarming pace. Whitbeck is proud of the efforts to protect delicate marshland around Smith Island and stop coastal erosion. Neighboring Fox Island is also seeing sea levels rise. Some of the changes Whitbeck mentioned are visible in satellite imagery provided by NASA. The dramatic changes that you see year after year are the shoreline erosion. “Sea levels are rising and land is subsiding, and that’s happening at a background rate. “It’s a pretty tall order to be honest,” Whitbeck said. “How hard a job is it protecting that shoreline?” WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren asked Matt Whitbeck, a supervisory biologist with the Martin National Wildlife Refuge. That is when water levels in the Chesapeake Bay are projected to rise as much as four feet, which would put pretty much everything under water. The pace of life here hasn’t changed much in the decades since Walter Cronkite’s report back in February of 1965.īut some worry whether this Maryland treasure-now down to fewer than 200 residents from more than 800 in the 1960s-can survive the next 80 years. Like, I say ‘house’ and I say ‘brown’ (sounds like hose and bruin),” Tyler said. Smith Islanders also have a distinct way of talking: “Our O-Us and O-Ws. Smith Island has long been known for its famous namesake layered cakes, which are Maryland’s state dessert. Smith Island (Photo via Mike Hellgren/WJZ) “The saying on the island (is), ‘When you get that mud between your toes, you just never want to leave,’” said Betty Tyler, a lifelong resident who only left for college. “It’s a unique place, number one,” said Eddie Somers who grew up on Smith Island. Smith Island is the last inhabited island chain in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay without any connection to the mainland-except by boat. One of the most endangered places sits in the Chesapeake Bay, about 12 miles from Crisfield in Somerset County. Hogan Announces Investigation Of Marilyn Mosby's Office, Threatens Hold On Funding Amid Crime Wave (WJZ) - Maryland has more communities vulnerable to the rise in sea level than almost any other state.Īnd while some scientists believe it is inevitable that several Chesapeake Bay communities will eventually become submerged in the rising waters, many residents who live there vow to keep fighting to save their homes-and their way of life.
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