sandwich

Members of the Cape Cod Reopening Task Force gave a community update Thursday focused on what’s happening in town government, including efforts to encourage mask-wearing and the outlook for summer recreation income.

On Saturday morning in Sandwich, mask-wearing shoppers perused the racks on the sidewalk outside Sundance Clothing in Merchants’ Square.

The town of Sandwich is currently trying to pull off the biggest beach nourishment project that’s ever been done on Cape Cod, and one of the biggest in the state.

For more than 100 years, the town’s main beach has been starved of sand by its neighbor, the Cape Cod Canal.  

And that’s left both the beach, and the town, increasingly vulnerable to climate change. 

Nationwide, 2017 was a record year for high tide flooding across the country, according to a new analysis out from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And that trend is projected to continue into 2018. In coastal communities across Massachusetts, people are starting to take notice. 

Meryden Kirby and her husband Bruce were not home the night of March 2nd, when the ocean pulled the foundation out from under their house.

They had heard the forecast, and knew they should leave.

Their home of 20 years, on Wood Avenue in Sandwich, was perched right on Town Neck – a beach that has eroded away dramatically in recent years. 

The repeated damage caused by intensifying storms and coastal erosion is an issue facing many towns across the Cape region. Last week, Sandwich voters said it's worth $2 million to rebuild the town's marquee structure, even without any assurances about how long it'll last, or how well it'll hold up to the next storm.