Cape Charles, VA Coastal Erosion Rate
What USGS measures 10.6 miles southeast of Cape Charles, VA
USGS's shoreline-change data puts this stretch, 10.6 miles southeast of Cape Charles, VA, at 8.04 feet of erosion a year on average, a long-term rate for this specific ~3.5-mile section, not one storm's damage. At that rate, the shoreline has lost roughly 80.4 feet over the last decade.
The grain of this number
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Cape Charles, VA, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 37.16, -75.86. USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic assessment last surveyed this stretch through 2007-2009, computing the rate with its LRR method. Other US regions were surveyed in different years, sometimes decades apart, so this page states its own rather than implying one national vintage.
What 8.04 ft/yr means over time
Run 10.6 miles southeast of Cape Charles, VA's 8.04 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 201 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 82 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 100% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. The published margin on this reading runs ±1.08 ft/yr. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 31 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. For scale: Modest Town, VA, 49 miles away, ranks 78 of 1211 nationally for erosion, 3.63 ft/yr, 0.5x this stretch's rate. 2 miles away, Cheriton, VA is the nearest other measured stretch: severe erosion at 5.55 ft/yr.
Cape Charles, VA on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.