I used to look out of my home office location to see the Port Mahon lighthouse directly across the bay. It is gone now and the whole skyline where the town used to be is dark. Sea level rise is causing erosion that has all but swallowed this once-thriving town on the shore of the Delaware Bay.
These pictures taken in March 2011 tell the story of the current state of Port Mahon
, Delaware. Once a popular bayside community, now all that is left is a boat launch lamp accessible at low tide. At high tide the road is impassible.
Physical deterioration was evident in March at the beginning of the spring storm season. It appears that if the road is not heavily maintained
, it may be completely washed away with a few months. (See the photos with broken asphalt).
These sobering photos were taken on March 23
, 2011, on a calm overcast day with light rain. Since this was not a full moon or any other lunar cycle, I concluded that this was a normal high tide. We generally expect tide levels to increase over the spring.
Two watermen had pulled boats and were leaving Port Mahon Road as I entered. It was about an hour before high tide. I wondered if they knew that the road became impassable at high tide, but I drove ahead anyway. The deepest water was about six inches, which is about the maximum my little SUV can handle.
One the long drive back home, I reconsidered the possibilities of hardening to resist erosion (the strategy used by my local community in New Jersey) as compared to a strategic retreat (the strategy endorsed by the scientific community). My guess is that we’ll do everything possible to avoid addressing the issue in a responsible and effective manner.