Residents of Salisbury, Massachusetts, are calling for help to protect their beachfront homes.
Coastal erosion has taken its toll on Salisbury Beach. Residents spent $600,000 out of pocket and trucked in 15,000 tons of sand for protective dunes last week, only for half of the sand to wash away in Sunday's storm.
A meeting was scheduled Wednesday afternoon. At the last minute, the in-person meeting moved online -- a move State Sen. Bruce Tarr said was made to accommodate a spike in interest.
The Republican lawmaker said these meetings usually have about 10 people, while more than 150 joined Wednesday — some from as far away as Portugal.
Residents said at the meeting that they want help from the state, and that they can't afford to continue spending thousands of dollars each time there's a storm.
The state says it is continuing to work with Salisbury residents.
"As homeowners, I mean, we are kind of spitting into the wind here," Joe Rossitto, who lives on Salisbury Beach, told NBC10 Boston Tuesday.
"If we didn't build this, these dunes, our properties would have gotten damaged," added resident Tom Saab.
Saab and Rossitto say it isn't as easy as moving, either. In both cases, their oceanfront homes have been in their families for generations.
"You just don't walk away from that, you know what I mean?" Rossitto said.
"Sacrificial sand buys time, but it does not buy permanence," Tarr said Tuesday. "Obviously, this has been a very difficult year, we haven't been able to stay ahead of it, but we need to continue to work together and use the tools that are available."
