For years, Chesapeake Bay islands have been sinking, eroding and succumbing to sea-level rise. In Maryland, U.S. Fish and Wildlife used Sandy money to build protective breakwaters on the uninhabited Glen Martin Wildlife Refuge that will benefit parts of Smith Island. But in Virginia, Tangier Island residents haven't had much luck.
They've been asking unsuccessfully for breakwaters since 1996. And a badly needed jetty that took the Army Corps of Engineers three years to study will take another two years before it's built.
Scientists say Tangiermen are running out of time. One report says they have maybe 25 years until they will have to abandon their island, unless breakwaters are built. Even more imminent is a jetty to keep Tangier's channel open so watermen can continue their livelihood of crabbing, oystering and fishing.
Earlier this month, Tangier Mayor James Ooker Eskridge had the eyes and ears of Colonel Jason Kelly, the newest commander of the Norfolk district of the Army Corps of Engineers, on a tour of the island.
Eskridge told Kelly he’s been talking about erosion for years, but, “when it gets to your doorstep you pay more attention to it.” They don’t have a lot of time, he said.
"Has that been the plan," Kelly asked. "I mean really just retreat is that the way over the years you handle the erosion. Just relocate?"
"Yup," Eskridgereplied. "There used to be a community up here and I don't know how many families that lived up here and they had a schoolhouse up there. The other community out here and they're all under water now."
Later, at Tangier's school auditorium, nearly half the town came to hear news of the jetty and breakwaters. They had been under the impression they got the money for jetty project three years ago when thenGov. Bob McDonnell showed up for a celebration. It turned out the money was only for a study.
Now, the Corps has announced the study is nearly complete. But the jetty won't be built for another two years.
"What is there left to study?" Tangier school teacher Duane Crockett asked. "We are washing away. I've contacted every state official, every national official that I know to get in contact with concerning this."
Colonel Kelly told the islanders the Corps has done everything it can to help move the process along, but now it might be up to the islanders and the state. They could ask Kelly’s superiors in Washington to expedite things.
And then there's $9.2 million breakwater project that's been shelved since 2011 for lack of funding. Islanders are desperate to save their community and way of life that goes back to the earliest colonies of the1600s. Town Counselor Jean Crockett said Tangier helped pay for a breakwater back in the 1980's but can't afford new ones.
"We increased our town taxes by 200 percent in order to try to get up our portion," she said.
And it will be difficult to do that again. Back in 1980 there were about 700 islanders, today there are about 450, many over age 65. That means the town’s bills are increasing, but there are fewer people to share the load. Crockett says they’re going to have to “shake some trees, really hard” to get the money.
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