Coastal erosion and sandslides at Vigsø beach, Digi Mart USA News (Vigsø, Denmark): Lise-Lotte Diana Mierzejewski walks along the sea almost every day, but one recent walk made her stop. Along the coast at Vigsø, the sea has eaten into the dunes, and a series of smaller sand slides has occurred.
“We have to think differently,” she says. While walking along the shore, she asked herself, “What, what is happening here?” The changes came suddenly.
“It happened from one day to the next. There wasn’t even a storm in between,” she said, adding, “It has really gone fast.
It was a little eerie to see.”
After the sand slides, several large lumps of concrete and signs lay on the beach. “Imagine if that concrete block had come crashing down while I was walking there,” she said with concern.
Mierzejewski says she often sees many people using the paths through the dunes, because they are the easiest and quickest way down to the water. She fears another accident could happen, with someone becoming trapped or buried under a sand slide.
She therefore urges people heading to the water to take care of one another and to use the extra time needed to take the longer but safer route down.
Even though the views are exciting and beautiful, she advises people not to go too close to the edge. “I often see people standing at the edge just to look out over the sea.
But people need to stop going so close to the edge. They could fall down and get trapped,” she said.
Overall, she hopes people will think twice in the future. At present, she says, solutions do not appear to be forthcoming.
“I hardly know what should be done. I don’t think signs help enough.
We need to learn to think in a different way, and people need to take better care. We should secure our coastline,” she said.
If nothing is done, she fears the consequences could be serious. “We are up against some larger forces.
The sea is eating more and more of our land,” she said.
