Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in an effort to protect beachfront homes in Salisbury, Massachusetts, and it took just one storm to bring residents back to reality.
Sunday's storm, like so many before, proved costly on Salisbury Beach, but for a different reason. On Thursday, residents had just finished trucking in 15,000 tons of sand, paying the $600,000 price tag out of their own pockets.
Just four days later, half of the sand washed away.
"As homeowners, I mean, we are kind of spitting into the wind here," Joe Rossitto, a Salisbury Beach resident, said Tuesday.
"If we didn't build this, these dunes, our properties would have gotten damaged," Tom Saab, a Salisbury resident said.
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.
Residents hope the state can help pay for a more permanent solution.
"Sacrificial sand buys time, but it does not buy permanence," Republican Massachusetts Sen. Bruce Tarr said. "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."
Residents plan to meet with local and state officials on Wednesday afternoon to discuss a plan moving forward. Tarr estimates that plan will cost at least $1.5 million, and funding remains an issue.
"When you put sand on the beach, it is not a permanent solution, and that indicates how difficult the challenges that we face, again, to try and keep pace with erosion," Tarr said.
With nor'easter season extending through April, residents worry about the next storm, and the one after that.
"You can't give up. I won't give up, I keep going," Saab said.
