Written in sand (taxpayers to rebuild access to vacation homes lost in hurricane)

Richmond Times Dispatch ^ | Sep 29, 2003 | BILL GEROUX

[putupon]

Written in sand
Storms repeatedly open and close inlets on Hatteras

BY BILL GEROUX
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 29, 2003

From the air, it's easy to see how Hurricane
Isabel ripped a new inlet between the
village of Hatteras and the rest of the
island, severing North Carolina Route 12.
DON LONG/TIMES-DISPATCH

From the air, it's easy to see how Hurricane Isabel ripped a new inlet between the village of Hatteras and the rest of the island, severing North Carolina Route 12. DON LONG/TIMES-DISPATCH HATTERAS, N.C. - The new inlet is a nasty piece of work.

It is a gash one-third of a mile long isolating the main part of Hatteras Island from this storm-battered village at the island's southern tip.

It ranges in depth from 2 feet to 30, and it changes constantly. It contains two ragged islands topped with crumpled asphalt from North Carolina Route 12, the only road that led to the village.

At high tide, the ocean roars through the inlet into Pamlico Sound in a confusion of whitecaps and breaking surf.

A half-submerged house far out in the sound only adds to the rawness of the scene.

The inlet was created on Sept. 18, most likely during the early afternoon hours, when Hurricane Isabel was at its worst.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has predicted it will get the inlet plugged within 3? weeks, by Oct. 24. The Corps has summoned a huge dredge it says can fill the inlet with sand faster than the ocean can steal it.

The senior Corps commander, Col. Ray Al- exander, says the gap in the island is a "breach" rather than a natural process at work. At a meeting in Hatteras on Saturday, he dismissed critics of the project as "nay-sayers."

But Alexander acknowledged that the Corps already has changed its project on the fly, and that subsequent storms or equipment problems could complicate things.

"Engineering is a science," he said. "But there are a lot of variables and a lot of unknowns to what we're working with."

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Oregon and Hatteras inlets, which many people today consider permanent parts of the landscape, were opened by the same huge hurricane in 1846.

Another monster hurricane in 1933 tore open an inlet in the same spot as Hurricane Isabel did, said former Dare County Sheriff Bert Austin, who was 2 at the time. Austin said a wooden bridge was built across that inlet to carry what few vehicles made the trip in those days.

"But after a number of years, the inlet filled in by itself, and people stopped using the bridge and went back to just driving along the sand," Austin said. The government finally burned the useless bridge in 1941 to harvest the metal in it for the war effort, he said.

As if to honor its predecessor, the new inlet opened by Hurricane Isabel exposed pilings from the old inlet bridge that had been hidden beneath the sand for a half-century. "Some of us knew they were down there somewhere," Austin said.

The most recent inlet on Hatteras Island before Isabel was cut in 1962 between Buxton and Avon by a fierce nor'easter popularly known as the Ash Wednesday Storm. The Corps struggled for nearly a year before it successfully closed that inlet with two small dredges.

Hurricane Dennis in 1999 opened a narrow breach in the island in roughly the same place as the Ash Wednesday Storm. That opening closed itself, and the state highway department quickly repaired Route 12 and reunited the island.

As one 50-something Hatteras native put it last week, "This isn't our first inlet."

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Dr. Orrin Pilkey, a retired Duke University geologist and a frequent critic of engineering projects to protect beachfront development, said the new inlet might not stay closed.

Filling the gap should require somewhere between 600,000 and 1 million cubic yards of sand, Alexander said, depending on how fast the ocean steals what the dredge deposits.

Corps officials said the cost surely will exceed $3 million, most of it borne by FEMA.

Alexander said the Corps could reunite the island by Oct. 24 if all goes well. But, he said, any number of factors could affect the timetable, including the weather.

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[TomB]

Then the people on the sandbar should feel good that they don't have to worry about it again for a while and build their own access.

So now you are back to not wanting the government to pay for ANY repair to the road. Right?

[F.J. Mitchell]

I've always paid my way as well. Unless you are among the crowd that considers a career in the Military and collecting the military retirement check, after fullfilling every iota of the contract you signed with your country, as free loading.

Beaches aren't nearly as open as you pretend-depends upon who claims title to the property along the coast.

Roads paid for by tax dollars should be built and maintained where they serve the most people, and best serve the public needs. Roads paid for by so many that serve the needs of so few, such as highway 12, is pure pork barrel for big donors to politicians.

THat Community mentioned in the article, should have ceased to be, after the access was cut in 1933. I was born in 1932 and remember how hard times were for so many, up til WWII broke out. Filling those holes with tax dollar funded sand in those days, was choosing sand for the rich, over sandwiches for the starving masses. Democrats made that choice too-how about that?

I am all for tax-cuts for everyone who has paid taxes-I am pro-Capitalist all the way. Don't even try to link me to those soak the rich socialists. I am 100% in favor of a flat tax on every cent that becomes our property, regardless of whether we gain a dollar or a billion dollars. I am just in favor of everyone paying for every luxury in their lives, including the extra expense of the road to their mansion, far off the path most traveled.

I ask the unanswered question once again: are you one of those who own property beyond where Isabel removed the access road?

[F.J. Mitchell]

"How do you know?'

I guess I don't-does it?

[putupon]

So now you are back to not wanting the government to pay for ANY repair to the road. Right?

That would be the prefered option, however, I realize the reality of that happening is slim to none.

If they have to do something, at least use a toll bridge or ferry that the users pay for and I will gladly pay my share when I use it.

Forget rebuilding the sandbar with the big dredge and pump. They weren't stupid enough to do it last time, I don't know why they have to get stupid now.

[TomB]

They weren't stupid enough to do it last time, I don't know why they have to get stupid now.

Maybe, JUST MAYBE, they are smarter than you are.