{"id":87299,"date":"2020-02-29T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=87299"},"modified":"2020-03-11T14:26:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T19:26:47","slug":"climate-change-has-hit-beaufort-south-carolina-but-only-some-vote-on-the-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/climate-change-has-hit-beaufort-south-carolina-but-only-some-vote-on-the-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change has hit Beaufort, South Carolina, but only some vote on the issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Anne Snabes and Maura Turcotte<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">BEAUFORT, S.C. \u2014 The sea along South Carolina\u2019s coast line is growing ravenous.<\/p>\n<p>In this sleepy coastal town at the bottom of the state, Tropical Storm Irma sent waves over the sea wall into a downtown park in 2017. Downtown businesses flooded with waist-high water. Nearly a year after the storm, the federal government reported spending nearly $64 million on South Carolina\u2019s recovery efforts.<\/p>\n<p>The damage from climate change is very likely to grow, scientists predict. The impact threatens areas of the state\u2019s Lowcountry barely skimming above sea level \u2014 including Beaufort, South Carolina\u2019s second-oldest city, home to longtime residents and retirees from the North.<\/p>\n<p>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that, if sea level rise is modest, the ocean will rise about <a href=\"https:\/\/cityofbeaufort.org\/DocumentCenter\/View\/5219\/Beaufort-Flood-Vulnerability-Final-Report?bidId=\">1.4 feet<\/a> in an area south of Beaufort by the year 2100. In an extreme scenario, the ocean would rise by 10.5 feet, swamping much of eastern South Carolina.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87307\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87307\" style=\"width: 1100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87307\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/floodinsurance.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/floodinsurance.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/floodinsurance-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/floodinsurance-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/floodinsurance-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87307\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">South Carolina\u2019s coast is struggling with the effects of climate change. (Maura Turcotte\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Residents recognize the rising sea and worsening storms. And yet there is no consensus among Beaufort residents \u2014 or in South Carolina more broadly \u2014 about whether action should be taken or even whether climate change should be a major issue in the Democratic primaries.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Among Democratic primary voters in South Carolina, a November 2019 poll by Quinnipiac University found just 13% think climate change is the most important issue in choosing a Democratic presidential nominee. Among Democratic voters who identified themselves as moderate or conservative, only 10% felt the issue of climate change is the most important \u2014 tied with education, and behind health care, the economy and gun policy.<\/p>\n<p>Nan Brown Sutton is one independent voter who believes environmental policy is important.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe water is coming up over the sea wall more often,\u201d said Sutton, 62, a city council member who lives along the Beaufort River.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll probably be underwater in a hundred years,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Amid the sweeping branches of oaks and cascading drapes of Spanish moss, historic antebellum homes stand clustered along the water\u2019s edge in Beaufort in the neighborhood referred to as The Point.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87306\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87306\" style=\"width: 1100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87306\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/The-Point.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/The-Point.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/The-Point-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/The-Point-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/The-Point-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87306\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Point neighborhood in Beaufort, South Carolina, suffered from intense flooding during Tropical Storm Irma in 2017. (Maura Turcotte\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and then Irma in 2017 ravaged the neighborhood. During both storms, the waters rose to nearly 9 feet in Beaufort County, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.islandpacket.com\/news\/weather-news\/article234696232.html\">unofficial measurements.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During Irma, the waters were so high on the streets of The Point that Sutton said her husband, a contractor, navigated the waters by boat.<\/p>\n<p>Joan Patterson, a resident of The Point, said her basement flooded with about 6 inches of water during Matthew. The damage was not severe, but she\u2019s concerned about how climate change will affect her neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s the water right there, and that way,\u201d she said, pointing towards the water\u2019s edge. \u201cWe\u2019re at elevation six, I think that\u2019s what our street is here. We don\u2019t have a lot of wiggle room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Already, NOAA calculated that the sea has risen <a href=\"https:\/\/tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov\/sltrends\/sltrends_station.shtml?stnid=8670870&amp;fbclid=IwAR1hivc7NlLXctuLstcGK-DH7COdwW2xiQO-5oNh5BEYU1fPSCeczCqXsfM\">3.33 millimeters per year on average<\/a> in the area since 1935 \u2014 which would mean a 1-foot increase by 2035.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87311\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87311\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87311\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/graph10.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/graph10.png 1000w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/graph10-300x120.png 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/graph10-768x307.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87311\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">At Fort Pulaski, which is 30 miles away from Beaufort, the average sea level measured each month has increased over time. (Courtesy of NOAA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Environmental issues have not played a role in how Patterson has voted, but that\u2019s changing, she said, because Beaufort\u2019s environment is \u201cpretty fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of these homes have been here a very long time \u2014 I mean since before the Civil War, like this one here,\u201d she said, pointing to a grand home with white pillars as she walked her two dogs. \u201cIt\u2019s just something to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling, who leans Democratic, said his city\u2019s residents care about the environment. While he described the area as very Republican, he said his constituents support his plans to address sea level rise and his opposition to offshore oil testing, an invasive process of finding oil that harms marine mammals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey care about the quality of life here, which is how Joe Cunningham won,\u201d he said, referring to the moderate Democratic congressman whose pro-environment positions helped him beat a Republican in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>However, Rikki Parker, the nonprofit Coastal Conservation League\u2019s south coast office director and legal analyst, sees denial among South Carolina residents about the cause of climate change. Some think it\u2019s a \u201ccyclical\u201d or natural process, she said, which has been disproved by scientists.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87304\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87304\" style=\"width: 226px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-87304 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/parker-226x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"226\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/parker-226x300.jpg 226w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/parker-773x1024.jpg 773w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/parker-768x1018.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/parker.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87304\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rikki Parker said people in South Carolina, especially coastal residents, realize they need to address climate change and sea level rise. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A March 2019 poll by Winthrop University found that only 29% of South Carolinians blame humans for climate change, while 39% believe climate change is a result of both human activity and nature, and 22% believe that it is simply a natural process.<\/p>\n<p>State politicians who support tackling climate change don\u2019t necessarily follow traditional political lines. Parker, for instance, cited state Sen. Tom Davis, a Republican, as one of her favorite officials to work with on environmental legislation.\u00a0The official, representing Beaufort County, has pushed for offshore drilling bans and solar power expansion.<\/p>\n<p>On the national stage, though, Parker is firm in criticizing the actions of President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, which has repealed offshore drilling safety regulations and diluted the Clean Water Act by eliminating federal protections for many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/01\/23\/trump-epa-curbs-water-protections-102779\">streams and wetlands<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not agree with any of the regulatory rollbacks that the Trump administration has implemented, and certainly they\u2019re moving us in the wrong direction from a climate change standpoint,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Across the country, only 2 in 10 Republicans see climate change as a top priority, an August 2019 Pew Research Center survey reported.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, Parker said all of the Democratic presidential candidates are \u201cpretty focused\u201d on climate change. She said they \u201chave at least some plan to move us in the right direction\u201d to fight the changing environment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat has to be a talking point for whoever eventually is the nominee,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it is really a crisis and something that we are, you know \u2014 it&#8217;s the great issue for whoever ends up as president to tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Keyserling agreed any of the Democratic candidates would be \u201cright\u201d on environmental issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t, even in the biggest storms we ever had, remember the kind of flooding we have today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Sea islands hug much of the southeastern coast of the United States, including South Carolina.\u00a0 Hunting Island, 14 miles from Beaufort, loses 15 feet of sand each year due to erosion, according to park manager J.W. Weatherford. The park pumps new sand onto its beach every 10 years, costing it $8 million each time.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87300\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87300\" style=\"width: 1100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87300\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/beachedited.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/beachedited.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/beachedited-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/beachedited-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/beachedited-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87300\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sand is being pumped through a brown pipe onto Hunting Island State Park\u2019s beach, which is replacing sand lost through erosion. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Slightly farther inland, on St. Helena Island, fishing docks and the first school in the South for formerly enslaved people stand among the area\u2019s forested wetlands.<\/p>\n<p>Craig Reeves, who runs the fishing business Sea Eagle Market on the island and votes Republican, said Hurricane Matthew in 2016 brought 2 feet of water over the sea wall onto his property. The water surged past the business docking area and flooded the parking lot, forcing him to replace the electrical lines in one of his buildings.<\/p>\n<p>But he does not attribute coastal flooding to climate change.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87303\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87303\" style=\"width: 1100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87303\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/turtleedited.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"788\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/turtleedited.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/turtleedited-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/turtleedited-1024x734.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/turtleedited-768x550.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87303\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fisherman Craig Reeves shows off a device that prevents him from catching turtles. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Reeves said he believes there are \u201cebbs and flows\u201d in the earth\u2019s climate, or periods of warming and cooling. He is concerned about chemicals sprayed on the coast, though. They kill insects, he said, but also kill shrimp or crab larvae in the river. He also thinks coastal marsh areas are being overdeveloped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think God created this earth that can pretty much tolerate anything man threw at it, but he put systems in place to clean up behind us and the salt marshes is a way to filter out impurities,\u201d Reeves said. While he remains skeptical of climate change, he said overdevelopment hinders those natural systems.<\/p>\n<p>The idea that climate change is natural, however, is false. Scientists say the planet\u2019s fast rate of warming can\u2019t be attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yaleclimateconnections.org\/2018\/09\/global-warming-isnt-just-a-natural-cycle\/\">natural processes<\/a>, and human activity has increased the Earth\u2019s temperature by about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipcc.ch\/sr15\/chapter\/chapter-1\/\">1\u00b0C <\/a>since the start of the Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>On St. Helena Island, environmental degradation threatens the Gullah Geechee community. The Gullah Geechee people, descendants of West Africans enslaved on the isolated island and coastal plantations, developed a unique culture and language that is still present today along the U.S. coast between North Carolina and Florida. For a community settled so close to the water\u2019s edge, climate change has become a pressing issue.<\/p>\n<p>Marquetta Goodwine, who goes by Queen Quet as the head of the Gullah Geechee Nation, said the communities along the coast started noticing changes to their environment more than two decades ago \u2014 more trees falling, more beaches eroding, increasingly intense storms.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes people joke, she said, that they need boats to navigate the island\u2019s causeway because of the higher tides.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_87302\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-87302\" style=\"width: 1100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-87302\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP+Media+Folder+-+medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/QueenQuetedited.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/QueenQuetedited.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/QueenQuetedited-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/QueenQuetedited-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/QueenQuetedited-768x513.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-87302\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marquetta Goodwine said the Gullah Geechee culture is \u201cinextricably\u201d tied to the Sea Islands in the Lowcountry. (Anne Snabes\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Goodwine, who has already talked with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), appreciates that Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have noted that environmental changes will hit communities of color particularly hard and potentially cause lung and heart problems.<\/p>\n<p>But she has yet to find a candidate to endorse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, I don&#8217;t see any one of them that stands out for me in regard to actually working with the Gullah Geechee community,\u201d Goodwine said. \u201cI wish I could say something else. There are a lot of great people running, you know \u2014 on the Democratic ticket, that is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She believes that candidates must promote environmental justice to remedy African American disenfranchisement, instead of superficially interacting with communities of color.<\/p>\n<p>For the Gullah Geechee community, the rising tides caused by climate change won\u2019t just alter the environment. The effects will rip at the community\u2019s very culture, according to Goodwine. Praise houses sit along the water, as well as gravesites. Residents till the marshy land for okra, grains and other vegetables, and pull oysters and fish from the sea.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"m_7453995479304858690gmail-docs-internal-guid-e15a1773-7fff-edcf-0894-7d418d15c499\">\u201cGullah Geechee land is who we are,\u201d she said. \u201cI always say to people, the land is our family and the waterways, our bloodline.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sea Eagle Market, owned by Craig Reeves on St. Helena Island, saw 2 feet of flooding during Hurricane Matthew in 2016. (Maura Turcotte\/MEDILL)<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Anne Snabes and Maura Turcotte Medill Reports BEAUFORT, S.C. \u2014 The sea along South Carolina\u2019s coast line is growing ravenous. In this sleepy coastal town at the bottom of the state, Tropical Storm Irma sent waves over the sea wall into a downtown park in 2017. Downtown businesses flooded with waist-high water. Nearly a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":621,"featured_media":87305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[452,4946,28,29,2951,4928,4892],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-chicago","category-election-2020","category-general-interest","category-health-and-science","category-politicsnational-security","category-south-carolina-2020","category-winter-2020"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Climate change has hit Beaufort, South Carolina, but only some vote on the issue - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/climate-change-has-hit-beaufort-south-carolina-but-only-some-vote-on-the-issue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Climate change has hit Beaufort, South Carolina, but only some vote on the issue - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Anne Snabes and Maura Turcotte Medill Reports BEAUFORT, S.C. \u2014 The sea along South Carolina\u2019s coast line is growing ravenous. In this sleepy coastal town at the bottom of the state, Tropical Storm Irma sent waves over the sea wall into a downtown park in 2017. Downtown businesses flooded with waist-high water. 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