"Climate Change Complicates Predictions Of Damage From Big Surf"

"Tropical Storm Colin ripped across the Gulf of Mexico in June and hit the coast of southwest Florida with 60-mile-an-hour winds. Before it arrived, a team from the U.S. Geological Survey used a new computer model to predict how far inland the waves would invade. When the storm hit, the USGS sent Joe Long out to film it.

Long is an oceanographer with the USGS. His video shows waves rushing up the beach to the foot of a sand dune. 'So water levels are reaching that high,' he says as we watch the video. 'They are eroding the face of that dune and creating this pretty steep face.'

Just beyond the dunes, you can see a multistory condominium. 'If that dune wasn't there,' Long explains, 'that water would be going onto roadways or hitting the base of those buildings.'"

Christopher Joyce reports for NPR's All Things Considered August 24, 2016.