Warming Winds, Rising Tides: Florida and the Atlantic Coast

The entire coast of Florida is threatened by rising seas and stronger surges during storms. This sandy shore north of Miami at Dania Beach is being washed away by a normal high tide. On a clear day in April 2001.

This casts doubt on the future of the apartments and homes that crowd the East Coast. Rising sea level is also driving sea water into the Everglades, inundating mangroves, and threatening all low lying islands. Thus Florida and the Keys are the U.S. equivalent of the many island nations of the Indo-Pacific who face rising seas.
To the north on Cape Hatteras, the US Park Service saw the futility of protecting America's most famous lighthouse from the eroding shoreline. In 1999 it moved Hatteras Light back 2800 feet from the surf.

Erosion along Cape Hatteras North Carolina has been about 12 feet per year in recent years, leaving house after house stranded in the surf, awaiting its destruction. This is due to a combination of rising sea level and stronger storms and hurricanes, effects of increasing warmth in the atmosphere and ocean. Federal insurance guarantees money for rebuilding, and local officials continue to bulldoze sand back onto beaches -- both of which actions actually increase erosion damage, according to scientists.