Sea level rise forces US space agency to retreat

The space agency, like other government facilities that find themselves on the coast, are trying to make incremental changes over the coming decades, Russell De Young of the NASA science directorate at Langley told AFP.

"This is not imminent," he said, noting that the forecast at Langley, which is in Hampton, Virginia, is for five feet (30 centimeters) of sea level rise from the 1980s until the year 2100.

"With sea level rise you can always manage it, but if a hurricane hits us, that is what worries us. The combination of the two is a devastating blow that we dread."