Carteret County and Beaufort (we pronounce it correctly, btw, BOW-fert) are coastal and thus overrun with Jersey, NoVa and DC people. You have to get to the rural areas on the coastal plain to feel all that southern anymore, much like Florida.
It screws up a formerly nice place so bad people have to leave. But instead of the disease dying then and there, unfortunately, take the disease with them to their new home, eventually screwing it up too.
Marx didn't invent evil. He just gave it a very effective tool set for building a bigger, badder Beast.