There’s no doubt the world is changing — its existence has evolved from its birth and will continue to evolve until it is no more. One part of that evolution is sea-level rise.

There are many who do, in fact, know that sea-level rise is a real thing, regardless of whether or not they actually believe in the larger picture of climate change. They know because they’ve seen it themselves. The river is markedly higher than 40 years ago. It takes days of wind blowing all of the water out to see the bulkhead on Castle Island off the Washington waterfront. A century and a half ago, that was certainly not the case.

This change did not happen overnight. It’s happened over decades, centuries. The fact that it has occurred, however, has had, and will continue to have, grave impacts. As hurricanes continue to grow larger and slower, the potential for damage grows. For Beaufort County, the greatest threat posed by these large storms is the very root of commerce and community through hundreds of years — our waterways. Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence delivered flooding that was unexpected, even for communities that have seen plenty of flooding through the years.

This is the wake-up call. It’s nature’s way of warning us to expect the unexpected. It’s a wake-up call to be prepared.

Every time hurricane season rolls around, the folks at emergency services encourage people to get their hurricane plan in place: paperwork, supplies, evacuation plans for both pets and people. Those who have ridden out plenty of storms in the past, perhaps weathering the experience with only the inconvenience of a power outage or a tree down, might say the folks in charge of such things are being a bit alarmist.

They would be wrong.

You can’t judge the potential impact of any hurricane on any past hurricane. For example, what happened in Ocracoke during Dorian was not inconvenience, it was life-changing for many, and many of those people who’d spent their entire lives riding out storms on the island.

So, when the emergency services people say it’s time to prepare, don’t ignore it. Don’t put it off until later. Because, one day, later will be too late.