Coastal Massachusetts Homes Already On Edge Brace For Potential Major Storm
TRURO (CBS) – Days ahead of a possible coastal storm, a view from above is a reminder of how beautiful and yet how vulnerable our coastline really is.
Each and every storm that passes through New England takes a little piece away and it's a never ending process trying to restore our beaches and save our coastal homes.
WBZ-TV's Sarah Wroblewski traveled by helicopter over the most vulnerable spots along our coast on Wednesday.
Last week's coastal storm brought significant impacts to parts of Plum Island where a house was considered uninhabitable by city officials.
In an effort to stop the force of the waves and water, rock walls, wood piling and sand bags line the beach front ahead of this weekend's storm. There were also clear reminders of how powerful mother nature could be with empty plots where houses likely once stood.
The ocean was calm flying down to Scituate, another area where WBZ found homes boarded up. This area typically can see very high wave action and even rocks thrown like marbles from the angry ocean during storms.
On the Cape in Mashpee, bulldozers were busy at work, replenishing the beach once lost to previous storms in front of ocean front homes.
The Outer Cape landscape is so unique, it jets out about 30 miles from the main body of land and that puts it 30 miles closer to any passing storm, closer to the strongest winds and closer to the wave action.
Beach erosion has been a common scene in recent years along the Cape, and with each passing storm we continue to see our bluffs erode away.
One of the most incredible sights we saw today was in Truro. A crowd of people stood in astonishment of the historic boathouse turned home that was dangling on the edge of a bluff near Ballston Beach.
It's now on its last legs, as the power of the wind and waves ate away at the sand underneath that home during last week's storm. This home has been moved in recent years to protect it from the ocean, but after this weekend it could be washed away.