SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Jim Szymanski remembers when a parking lot and road, 50 feet of beach grass, and a wide expanse of soft sand separated this colony of summer shacks from the pounding Atlantic surf.

Now, waves lick at the first row of cottages at Roy Carpenter’s Beach following years of erosion and last month’s Hurricane Sandy, which carried off thousands of tons of sand along Rhode Island’s south shore. Now, the cottages closest to the ocean are being moved back. Szymanski’s third-row cottage will soon command unobstructed ocean views, a luxury that’s likely to be as fleeting as a New England summer.