Long Neck, DE Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 4.7 miles east of Long Neck, DE?
USGS's shoreline-change data puts this stretch, 4.7 miles east of Long Neck, DE, at 2.08 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 20.8 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
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 Long Neck, DE, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 38.61, -75.08. Survey years: 2007-2009, method LRR, from USGS's New England / Mid-Atlantic shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.
What 2.08 ft/yr means over time
Run 4.7 miles east of Long Neck, DE's 2.08 ft/yr rate forward 25 years and it implies about 52 feet of further retreat, assuming nothing changes, which is exactly the assumption a seawall or nourishment project exists to break.
Where this fits nationally
This reading comes from 68 individual transects averaged together, 100% of which measured erosion rather than growth. USGS's confidence interval here is ±0.6 ft/yr. Among the 1211 US coastal segments with a measurable trend, this one ranks 130 for erosion, 1 being the fastest-retreating coast in the dataset. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2010-1119. Rank 362 nationally for erosion belongs to Orange Beach, AL, 915 miles from this stretch, measured at 0.37 ft/yr, 0.2x this stretch's rate. Bethany Beach, DE, 1.7 miles off, is the adjacent measured stretch, reading slight erosion at 0.84 ft/yr.
Long Neck, DE on the source map: try the Coastal Change Hazards Portal, zoomable well past this page's ~3.5-mile grain.