America’s Coasts Can Already Taste the Danger of Rising Sea Levels

High Tides and Record Flooding Are Just the Rehearsal for a Troubling Future

In June 2009, the coming of summer brought beautiful sunny days up and down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. But then something weird, almost creepy, happened in the mid-Atlantic between June 19 and 24: Waters started spilling across roads, across intersections, and under houses in places like Carolina Beach, North Carolina. Phones at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Silver Spring, Maryland were ringing, and scientists could only observe that water heights were as much as 2 feet higher than they had predicted. Normally only a storm …