www.sea-technology.com October 2015 / st 35
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his fall, we will mark the third anniversary of Hurricane
Sandy, which wreaked havoc along the U.S. East Coast.
From fooding and waist-deep sand deposited on small
town streets to damaged property, mangled infrastructure
and battered wildlife habitat along the coast, Sandy's legacy
will not be forgotten. The coastal communities that fared
the best—where impacts were less severe—were those that
had invested in their own resilience, those that had rebuilt
beaches and dunes and other protective measures in the
wake of previous storms or to combat long-term erosion.
The year 2015 also marks the 10th anniversary of Hurri-
canes Katrina and Rita, which devastated the Gulf of Mexico
(GOM) Coast, as well as the ffth year since the Deepwater
Horizon (DWH) tragedy, bringing other coastal ecosystem
impacts and demonstrating the need for coastal resilience.
For more than 20 years, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) has partnered with coastal commu-
nities, states and other federal agencies to help build that
BOEM Partnerships Strengthen Coastal
Resilience, Environmental Stewardship
Restoration Progress Along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts
By Abigail Ross Hopper
(Photo
Credit:
Tim
Boyle,
USACE)
The Long Beach Island Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project
in New Jersey, started in May 2015, is designed to complete the
dune and berm system and reduce future storm damage. It is a
partnership between BOEM, USACE and the New Jersey Depart-
ment of Environmental Protection.