Return L.I.'s Barrier Islands to nature, a panel urges.

Reports that a Long Island planning agency recommended that almost 5,000 houses and businesses on Fire Island and in other shore resort areas threatened by erosion be gradually eliminated and that the barrier islands they stand on be returned to nature. The proposal, by the Long Island Regional Planning Board, comes only a few months after Hurricane Hugo devastated the developed barrier islands off South Carolina and at a time of concern that global warming is raising sea levels.