killed hundreds battering through the Caribbean, and knocked out power, forced evacuations, and flooded beaches as it scoured the Florida coastline. But thinking long-term, the storm is a punctuation mark in the creeping erosion narrative playing out on many southeastern shorelines.
Erosion is nothing new. Shorelines experience seasonal ebbing from winter, and typically regrow in the summer. Longer term, things like development—and way longer term, sea level rise—cause a more gradual coastal deterioration. Big storms, like Hurricane Matthew, have the potential to alter, or hasten those other erosional patterns, by reshaping the shoreline, devouring dunes, or demolishing human-made fortifications.