For nine decades, the Sewells Point tide gauge or its ancestors have been recording the sea level off Pier 6 at Naval Station Norfolk.
The story it tells is clear. Between naturally sinking land and global warming driven sea level rise, the water is a half-meter higher than it was at the beginning of the last century.
That's creating problems at the world's largest naval base.
In rough weather, damaging surf slams against electrical, water and steam lines under the piers where the Navy docks its Atlantic fleet. High waves can keep sailors from getting to the ships. Even getting on base is getting harder as "nuisance flooding" becomes a regular problem, cutting off roads around the city of Norfolk.
"It's not going to stop us from accomplishing our mission. We're the military. We'll figure it out," said Capt. Dean VanderLey, commanding officer of Naval Facilities Engineering Command for the Mid-Atlantic region. "But it just makes things more difficult."
"The higher the sea level gets, the more we're going to have to deal with that," he adds. "I don't think we fully understand the scope of the problem. And we definitely don't fully understand the solution."
