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."

..........................................................................................................

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."

.....................................................................................................................................................

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.

.........................................................................

[putupon]

surely will exceed $3 million, most of it borne by FEMA

Who funds FEMA and if I go build a house on sand, will they maintain the roads and access for me too?

[usafsk]

3M to repair a road is pretty small potatoes, compared to other uses of funds. Isabel caused about 1B in damage, a small amount. I'm sure that you drive on federally funded roads everyday. Are you in an earthquake zone? Does your power ever go out due to ice storms? Tornado? Give these people a break.

[Rebelbase]

"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"

There have been reports on some of the local online fishing boards that a buried shipwreck was exposed down toward Cape Lookout.

[John H K]

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.

Monster? The 1933 hurricane was a Category ONE at landfall.

Same hurricane opened the Ocean City Inlet and made Assateague an Island in Maryland.

[autoresponder]

Wealthy summer home owners on NJ and Fire Island NY beaches expected the feds to pay for them to rebuild their beachfront homes at US taxpayer expense.

I compare this ripoff to those Mississippi cities that did not properly build strong dikes (insert Reno/Hillary joke here) and seawalls while others did.

They expected like most libs and furren nations that Uncle Sugar would pay to rebuild their homes and even towns again on higher ground at least.

Uncle Sugar seems to think it's OK to build on uninsurable property.

It is.

But no help from me.

Wealthy self-annointed lib elitist or old timer, no difference from me.

Their personal desires cannot reach into my pockets.

[John H K]

Long term, barrier Islands are not suitable locations for permanent human habitation; keeping them so will require ridiculous levels of funding subsidized by people in other locations.

We've been fooled since WWII, and especially since 1970 or so, by the lack of strong storms into thinking you can live there permanently.

They really should only have summer beach shacks, etc.

The problem is the explosion in gigantic, palatial permanent homes that get rebuilt by heavily-subsidized government insurance.

[xzins]

The wealth of the people in a neighborhood should not matter about the state maintaining roads and bridges it has determined ahead of time are state roads.

If a bridge washes out in a poor neighborhood, why should the state bebuild it? It might wash out again in another flood in the future. And bridges are very expensive, too.

I simply don't see why discrimination should occur because of the area's economic status.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The senior Corps commander, Col. Ray Al- exander, says the gap in the island is a "breach" rather than a natural process at work.

Last time I checked, a hurricane was a natural process.

[Maria S]

"Who funds FEMA and if I go build a house on sand, will they maintain the roads and access for me too?"

"If a bridge washes out in a poor neighborhood, why should the state bebuild it? It might wash out again in another flood in the future. And bridges are very expensive, too."


Would an engineer build a bridge on sand (in either a rich OR poor neighborhood)? A house, maybe, but a bridge? Just wondering...I'm certainly no building engineer, so just asking.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. But I haven't checked DU's ERC (Evil Republican Conspiracy) page lately.

[TomB]

taxpayers to rebuild access to vacation homes lost in hurricane

You addendum to the title is misleading. The government isn't rebuilding a private access to "vacation homes", it is rebuilding N.C. highway 12, a state road. There are hundreds of people who live there permanantly, in a community that goes back to 1858.

[mewzilla]

Well, if you think this is bad, Virginia Beach has just finished spending tens of millions on expanding its beachfront. Don't know how much of that was federal money, but after Izzy I imagine they'll be back at the trough asking for more.

[DustyMoment]

You took the words right out of my mouth. Flood insurance is provided ONLY by the feds and, when hurricanes damage ocean-front property, Uncle Sugar encourages the home-owners to rebuild - at taxpayer expense.

John S- (can't think of his last name) the ONLY conservative at ABC (he reports on that "news" show with Baba Wawa) did a report on this a few years ago. He used to own ocean-front property that was demolished in a hurricane and the feds gave him the money to rebuild. A few years later, another stormed wiped it out again. The feds came along with their checkbooks open, but this time he refused. He didn't think the taxpayers should have to pay for his housing.

[xzins]

I doubt an engineer would build a bridge on the sand.

However, the state will build roads to the strangest places. If there are people living there, then they'll build roads to it.

They shouldn't base that on the wealth of those living there. They shouldn't discriminate against the rich, nor should they discriminate against the poor. Especially when they're talking about restoring a long-standing road; not building a new one.

[putupon]

Who is forcing those people to live on that thin strip of sand that always washes out?

[Corin Stormhands]

I have less of a problem with rebuilding the road than I do with rebuilding the million dollar homes in places like Corolla. I would hate to see access to the Hatteras Lighthouse and Ocracoke cut off completely.

[mewzilla]

Well, I don't know about in your neck of the woods but around here lots of people pay for private roads that only the owners use. Why should the taxpayer pay for a nice, paved road to someone's lake cottage?

[xzins]

That isn't really the issue.

The issue is this whether it's illegal for them to live there, and if not, why they shouldn't be treated with equality and not with discrimination.

Besides, WHEN was the last time this area washed out? 1933? That's the same time as the great flood in Ohio (1937). It washed out a lot of roads and bridges. We had a repeat flood in 1997 that washed out some of the same areas. No one even questioned rebuilding them.


Rich people are citizens, too.

[mykdsmom]

NC Ping!