NPR

'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas

Tens of millions of U.S. homes are threatened by rising seas. Communities around the country are planning for that future, but there are challenges to even having the discussion.
An aerial view of the coastline of Del Mar, California, located about 20 miles north of downtown San Diego. The city has voted against a formal policy of 'managed retreat' from rising seas.

About 150 steps from John Imperato's Southern California home, pavement gives way to an ever-shrinking stretch of soft sand.

Imperato lives in Del Mar, a small, affluent town just north of San Diego. He spent his life savings to live here. He wanted to raise his son like he grew up, withing walking distance of the sea.

Del Mar is a picturesque place that's name means "of the sea," in Spanish.

That's becoming increasingly true.

Del Mar is one of countless coastal communities in California and across the U.S. that is seeing the impacts of climate change and preparing for worse to come.

By mid-century, tens of millions of U.S. homes and billions of dollars of property are likely to be destroyed or made unusable by increased flooding from rising seas and storms,by the U.S. government.

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