Read the full article by Lisa Sorg (Inside Climate News).
“FORT FISHER, N.C.—On a sunny, brisk afternoon in mid-December, Kerri Allen peers from the deck of a ferry, crossing the Cape Fear River from Fort Fisher, on a coastal barrier island, to Southport, a small town on the mainland, near where the river meets the sea.
Allen has lived near the water all of her 30-plus years. She competes in outrigger canoe races and calls herself an ‘East Coast mermaid.’ She knows how to read a river, and at times her life has depended on that skill. She has paddled this rugged stretch of the Cape Fear River when winds were wailing and whitecaps were walloping her boat. She now works as coastal management program director for the N.C. Coastal Federation.
On this day, from the port side of the ferry, the river looks as deep and dark as midnight. A light southwest wind pushes serrated waves against the hull.” …