Powerful storms in R.I. have eroded beaches and damaged properties – The Boston Globe

These sorts of storms and the erosion they bring with them are not in and of themselves unusual, especially in winter, experts say. In fair-weather periods, beachfronts and dunes recover ― beaches in weeks, dunes in years ― although the shore in Rhode Island is generally eroding more than it’s accreting.

What made the storms especially damaging is the fact that they’ve happened multiple times in such quick succession, the latest coming Saturday. The combined effect, according to some town officials and experts, is as extensive as anything since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

“The first storm comes and removes a chunk of the dunes, overtops the shoreline, and the next storm has that much of an easier time,” said Bryan Oakley, professor and chair of the Environmental Earth Science Department at Eastern Connecticut State University.

The storms raise longstanding questions about human activity along the ever-changing shore in a time of climate change and sea level rise.

“We need to think differently about where we rebuild and where we can make changes — where we can retreat and elevate or do some other adaptation to lessen the impacts the next time they happen,” Oakley said.

These sorts of questions are front and center in the case of the damaged home at the Narrow River that Kalen — and many other people — saw.

The building is part of the Dunes Club. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, affording it special protections (to the dismay of people who are concerned about the effect of private properties along the shore). And the ocean has been creeping in for years.

By early January, the Dunes Club asked the state Coastal Resources Management Council for permission to place bags filled with sand as a temporary measure to stave off more storm erosion. To oversimplify things a little, properties close to the water have to get CRMC permission for certain activities, whether that’s rebuilding a deck or putting up barriers to keep out waves. Photographs showed the foundation of the building at risk and the dune severely undercut.

CRMC agreed to let them place the large bags of sand, issuing what’s called a letter of authorization, but imposed certain conditions on things like public shore access. Letters of authorization are for temporary fixes, like those bags.

Then Saturday’s storm rolled in. It’s unclear what difference the bags of sand made, but a comparison of before and after photos shows the latest storm took an additional toll. There was once vegetation in front of the house, according to photographs from just the past few years. The latest storm sent waves past the front facade, scattering debris in its wake.

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CRMC is working with the club on a long-term solution, CRMC spokeswoman Laura Dwyer said. The Dunes Club didn’t respond to a request for comment.

For properties that have experienced structural damage, owners “should be contacting their local building official, and then CRMC and (the Department of Environmental Management) as needed,” Dwyer said.

Meanwhile CRMC staff are around the state to assess post-storm conditions, including erosion, and to make sure nobody is rebuilding or building new structures after the storm without going through the proper procedures first.

South Kingstown has also gotten a letter of authorization from CRMC to work on Charlestown Beach Road, part of which was swept away in the storm.

South Kingstown Town Manager James Manni said on Tuesday the town was looking into its options for the roadway. Repairs could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Five properties are beyond the part of the road that got swept away, with no other outlet.

Besides Charlestown Beach Road, the South Kingstown Town Beach also experienced significant erosion, Manni said.

“The beach right now doesn’t even exist,” Manni said Tuesday. “It got washed away. Where there was sand, there are 7-foot cliffs where all that sand just got washed out into the ocean. Some will come back in the spring, but at a minimum, we can pretty much guarantee we’re going to have to bring in tons of sand to offset that.”

The areas around East Matunuck and Matunuck Beach Road were also hit hard, according to photographs. Some homes were swamped with water.

“We’re trying to go house by house, trailer by trailer, cottage by cottage,” Manni said.

The storms also took a toll in Westerly, where in some areas 16 to 18 feet of dune were lost and deposited onto Atlantic Avenue and the coastal pond behind it, said Town Manager Shawn Lacey. The town has taken tens of thousands of yards of sand out of the roadway already.

As for state Department of Environmental Management properties, the damage seemed limited mostly to a lot of sand being moved around. Salty Brine State Beach in Galilee experienced some damage, which the DEM will likely handle in-house, said department Director Terry Gray.

Anecdotally, Gray said, the storms over the last few years have been particularly bad.

“I really think this is something we’re going to see going forward — I’m not prepared to say this is an anomaly and we’re going to have to get through it,” Gray said. “It’s something we really need to think about.”

Advocates for the environment and for the public’s right to use it are closely watching what happens next. Building or rebuilding along the coast — whether with CRMC permission or more of the wildcatting variety — is always a contentious issue.

To Topher Hamblett, the executive director of the environmental group Save The Bay, the storms represent stark reminders of the choice between armoring the shore — which keeps people away from it — or making a managed retreat.

“Planning for (public) access to the shoreline in the age of climate change is a significant challenge for the state,” Hamblett said.

Brian Amaral can be reached at brian.amaral@globe.com. Follow him @bamaral44.