Washington State Ocean Front Rapidly Erodes, Watch Houses Fall Into Sea

One of the houses that recently fell into the Pacific
Ocean at aptly named Washaway Beach in Washington State.  

It's wintertime in the Pacific Northwest, and that means a parade of gusty, rainy storms stir up big waves on the ocean and send them crashing on shore.

There's an aptly named place in Washington State called Washaway Beach in which the waves generated by Pacific Ocean storms are eroding the land rapidly, and houses and other buildings are falling into the ocean one right after the other.

At least three more went this week.

Coastal erosion is a big problem in many areas of the world, especially as sea levels rise due to global warming. 

In most places, the process is gradual. A large storm every now and then in most places permanently destroys some land, and takes buildings with it.

Just last week, St. John's County in northern Florida issued an emergency declaration as coastal erosion threatened homes and roads.

A few days ago, a massive storm caused enormous waves and coastal flooding and erosion in Great Britain.

At Washaway Beach, in Washington State, the rapid erosion has little if anything to do with global warming and is more a creature of local effects.

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the land near Washaway Beach has been eroding away at an average rate of 100 feet per year for a century.

Natural processes are making a tidal channel migrate northward, causing the rapid erosion.

The result is that people who bought vacation homes a decade or two miles from the beach now find the ocean washing their houses away.

As the normal parade of winter storms continues in Washington State, most people will just hunker down against the wind and rain. But at Washaway Beach, more houses will surely be lost to the Pacific Ocean.

Here's the video of the latest loss at Washaway Beach.