"The state has identified hundreds of thousands of homes that will need to be abandoned. But at one flagship buyout, only one in 10 eligible homeowners signed up."

"For as long as Melissa Krupa had imagined her dream house, she pictured palm trees in the yard. Krupa, a crisis counselor for victims of domestic abuse, is a self-described “beach girl,” and nothing reminds her of the beach like palms.

In 1996, at 19, she moved from Philadelphia to South Carolina: the Palmetto State with a sabal palm tree on its flag. Seventeen years later she found a brick bungalow in Socastee, a quiet residential neighborhood a few miles from Myrtle Beach. The porch was shaded by three palm trees. A fourth was out back.

Krupa’s new home had its first big flood in 2015. Three years later Hurricane Florence swept five feet of water through her living room. Krupa became the vanguard of a group of locals asking to be bought out: for the state to help them relocate out of harm’s way, and to demolish their homes so that absorbent green space could slow the roll of future flood water for others still living nearby. Krupa had found her dream home, then spent six years begging the government to destroy it. This July, her wish came true."

Daniel Shailer reports for Inside Climate News September 3, 2024. [2]