Update on August 22. From the New York Times: A Project Built on Sand

The take-away from the National Research Council was alarming: There is no national plan to manage the coast. No plan for storm-damage reduction. No plan for how best to allocate federal funds. And no plan for how to respond to coastal hazards and rising sea levels over the long run.

Original Article in the HuffPost: Scientists Urge For Funds To Prevent Coastal Disasters, Not Just Recover From Them.

A group of top scientists has called for a fundamental change to how the United States deals with risks to its Atlantic and Gulf coasts from storms and climate change in a National Research Council report released Wednesday.

Urging a “national vision” toward addressing coastal risks, the report comes on the heels of a Reuters analysis published earlier this month showing that coastal flooding along the densely populated Eastern Seaboard of the United States has surged in recent years, with steep financial consequences.

The great majority of money — most of it federal dollars — spent on coastal risks goes toward recovery after a disaster rather than on planning for and mitigating against storms, climate change and sea-level rise, the report said.

The direct link to the NAS for a free download of the full, 130 page report that is titled Reducing Coastal Risk on the East and Gulf Coasts is here.

Here is another account, from the National Geographic.