CAROLINA BEACH - As sea level continues to rise, North Carolina communities that have relied on beach renourishment programs will find it harder and harder to keep up with the ocean's onslought, a federal scientist told beach community and state officials today.

Jeff Williams, a marine geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said some global warming projections forecast more frequent hurricanes, which cause the most rapid and dramatic beach erosion. Many North Carolina towns have funded dredging projects that replenish sand that has washed away.

But Williams told a gathering of about 100 people at a meeting of the North Carolina Beach Inlet and Waterway Association, an advocacy group for beach communities, that the efforts may work for awhile, but are a temporary and expensive fix.

The beach group held a two-day meeting that examined how global warming would affect the state's coastline. Scientists have projected that warmer temperatures will cause the polar ice caps to melt, raising sea levels.

Another speaker, Margaret Davidson, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's coastal services center in Charleston, S.C., said local communities should expect to pay more of the costs for coastal problems. She said the federal budget deficit is rising faster than sea levels.