NANTUCKET—It’s no longer unusual to see a kayaker paddling along downtown Easy Street. The cobblestones along the town’s waterfront once were flooded a handful of times a year. That rose to an average of 37 days a year by 2020 , according to tide gauge monitors by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The next year, Nantucket began taking steps to beat the tide.

Town and county officials cooperated on a coastal resilience plan in 2021 following an island-wide risk assessment that found four major concerns: groundwater table rise, coastal flooding, high tide flooding and coastal erosion. The 270-page report was more than timely: Easy Street was flooded a record 75 days in 2023.

Leah Hill , the town’s coastal resilience advisory coordinator, said in an email exchange that a

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