Storm damage can happen here

We have recently returned from a visit to relatives in the eastern states of the USA.

We arrived a day after the severe storms of April 19 and the first TV news which we saw, showed a state of emergency along the coast of New Jersey and the people being interviewed were lamenting the loss of their beach homes and their beach.

Further north along the coast, we heard that seven houses had been lost in those storms.

Certainly at Camp Ellis in Maine, we stood amidst the small cluster of houses where three houses had gone.

There was no sign of them and those which were left looked very forlorn and sad.

They were losing their foundations and so were lopsided and dejected looking.

It was both sad and frightening to look at.

A small earth-mover was valiantly trying to save a house which was only three metres from the new drop to the beach.

We then encountered much flooding caused by a seawall which had been built further down the coast.

Houses along the road which had previously looked out at the beach and the surf rolling in, just like The Esplanade, now looked out at a long pile of rubble, which authorities had placed there in an effort to stop the water going across the road into the homes.

At Newport, Rhode Island, famous for its yachting activities, there had been manicured lawns all along the front, above the beach, just like the ones which some people would like to see at Umina and Ocean Beach.

These lawns were now punctuated by large holes where the sea had swept in and up, taking the sand back with it and this together with the water falling on the top had helped to gouge out enormous holes.

In some places, efforts were being made to re-vegetate and re-build the dunes; an almost hopeless job.

Seeing such things makes me wonder just why the people of the Central Coast, and particularly on the Peninsula, seem so sure that such things will not happen to them.

Why have they been signing petitions asking Council and the State Government to remove the vegetation at Town Beach, Ettalong and encouraging the building of a commuter ferry and wharf, which will disturb another beach and thus affect the currents even more?

Whatever we do along the coast is vulnerable and will only be a temporary reprieve and definitely cause trouble elsewhere.

Anyone looking and thinking seriously about the situation now, with our own storms, should surely be beseeching Council to plant more vegetation all along the beaches instead of removing it.

Anyone seeing the people, who constantly chop down trees for a view, should be reporting this vandalism.

Surely a view of the sea through trees is preferable to a view of a pile of rubble?

We have been warned for a long time now of an increase in severe storms, particularly along our coast.

How much worse does it have to get before we come to our senses and believe it?

I suppose that as soon as the sun shines, all will be forgotten and it will be business as usual.

Margaret Lund Woy Woy Bay