'I'm watching it disappear:' Residents along Lake Erie reckoning with worsening shoreline erosion

Sue O'Brien gets anxious — "shaky," she said — as soon as a storm is in the forecast. 

"We call it PTSD, and I don't think that's a stretch," she admitted. "As soon as the winds start … you start getting really worried."

O'Brien, who is now retired, said she has spent $100,000 trying to fortify her property on the edge of Lake Erie. Her backyard is guarded by a steel barrier, many of her windows are permanently boarded up and sandbags surround the foundation of her home. 

But every storm betrays the cruel futility of her efforts. As the winds pick up, so does the water, as four-metre-high waves slam into cottages already gutted by nature's wrath. The lake takes over O'Brien's backyard and gushes around to the front of her home. 

"We used to have sand and beach," she said. "This year has been like a nightmare." 

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/im-watching-it-disappear-residents-along-lake-erie-reckoning-with-worsening-shoreline-erosion/ar-BBXQgzo