Tyler said the jetties and other protective measures are helping. We want it to keep going for the next generations,” she said. “Do you worry about what things are going to look like in 25 years, 50 years?” Hellgren asked. “Because when they were supposed to come to work, the tides are going to be flooded on the roads, and then they can’t get to work.” “If they live on the other end of the lowland, they may have to leave home 2 or 3 hours ahead of time just to get to work,” she said. Tyler acknowledged that flooding from rising tides has made it more difficult for some of her employees. If you’re in trouble, the whole island is in trouble,” she said. Tyler’s family owns a number of businesses on Smith Island including the island’s lone gas station. You’ll hear people give speeches about the sea level rising, but I also hear that it’s everywhere on the waterfront, not just on our island.” “I am not sure,” Betty Tyler said when asked if she believes climate change is to blame. The same goes for public opinion in nearby Tangier Island, which may not survive even the next 50 years, according to a CBS News report. Many residents are not so sure whether the cause of the problems is human-made climate change. Despite having a home there, Somers said he’s not worried about sea-level rise. He grew up on the island and brought WJZ there on his boat. …I see the land being here and I see people being here,” Kitching said.Įddie Somers does, too. Hellgren asked Kitching where he sees Smith Island in 50 years. …It’s just because of one little island washing away-one little marsh Island-probably 25 acres of habitat was gone.” When the marsh leaves and bodies of land disappear, it changes everything around it,” Kitching said. When the erosion takes place, it takes away the habitat. “It has affected our livelihood because of the erosion. We see a lot of people wanting to get away from everybody,” said Mark Kitching, a waterman and lifelong resident who gave WJZ a tour of Ewell on his golf cart.Įwell is the community that hosts most of those tourists. On the island, the pandemic has brought more visitors, with people eager for an escape renting homes there. READ MORE: Man Shot In The Stomach In West Baltimore Overnight “Well, like I say, we have abated the erosion and, I think we have abated it for 15-20 maybe even more years,” Hardaway said. “How much time did you buy for Smith Island?” Hellgren asked. “It’s a process by which you put breakwaters along the shoreline to control and create headlands and allow the area to continue to erode in between, and it will eventually stop eroding and create little embayments,” Hardaway explained. Hardaway’s company, Coastline Design PC, helped build what is called a “living shoreline,” which includes large stone structures that disrupt the waves. “Right now and for the next 50 years, I think she’s keeping up,” Scott Hardaway told Hellgren of Smith Island’s fate. And it’s just that dramatic rate of erosion that we tried to address with these projects.” that are now just lost to the Chesapeake Bay. … There were peninsulas and coves on those islands, places that had names. “And particularly when you look at the aerial photographs from 10-20 years ago. “The shoreline erosion is profound,” Whitbeck said. The federal government has pumped millions into projects, including jetties, to protect Smith Island from erosion. The federal government has pumped millions of dollars into projects including protective jetties-after residents watched the shoreline vanish at an alarming pace. Whitbeck is proud of the efforts to protect delicate marshland around Smith Island and stop coastal erosion.
Neighboring Fox Island is also seeing sea levels rise. Some of the changes Whitbeck mentioned are visible in satellite imagery provided by NASA. The dramatic changes that you see year after year are the shoreline erosion.
“Sea levels are rising and land is subsiding, and that’s happening at a background rate. “It’s a pretty tall order to be honest,” Whitbeck said. “How hard a job is it protecting that shoreline?” WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren asked Matt Whitbeck, a supervisory biologist with the Martin National Wildlife Refuge. That is when water levels in the Chesapeake Bay are projected to rise as much as four feet, which would put pretty much everything under water. The pace of life here hasn’t changed much in the decades since Walter Cronkite’s report back in February of 1965.īut some worry whether this Maryland treasure-now down to fewer than 200 residents from more than 800 in the 1960s-can survive the next 80 years. Like, I say ‘house’ and I say ‘brown’ (sounds like hose and bruin),” Tyler said. Smith Islanders also have a distinct way of talking: “Our O-Us and O-Ws.
Smith Island has long been known for its famous namesake layered cakes, which are Maryland’s state dessert. Smith Island (Photo via Mike Hellgren/WJZ)