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
Posted on 09/29/2003 4:19:20 AM PDT by 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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(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
Using your logic, we shouldn't repair the highways in LA after the last earthquake because they'll just get damaged the next time one hits and those people knew what they were getting into when they moved there.
I also plan to accept the risks that come with living at a place that stands a good chance of getting a few hurricanes within what remains of my projected lifespan, therefore I don't plan on it being on a thin barrier island.
You seem to have a real problem understanding the difference between PUBLIC and PRIVATE property, and the government's role in them. I don't belive the government should go in and repair anybody's roof, however it is absolutely necessary to repair a PUBLIC, STATE road that has existed in that place for decades.
You think that we should just leave things go and tell the people "screw you, you were stupid enough to move here". But that isn't the way things work. Those people pay taxes, and they can have a reasonable expectation for the road to be fixed.
The point is, repairing breaches in shifting sand is a waste of time and money, peeing in the ocean, as it were.
The last time it happened was 70 years ago, and there hasn't been another major land change in the Outer Banks since. How is that a waste of time?
And the Army Corps built the Richmond Flood Wall.
I'm looking at the floodwall now out the window. Shokoe Bottom was not built on sand, when the floods receeded, the land was still there.
You cannot build on shifting sand and expect it to remain in place.
How much money was was spent on VA Beach that just got washed away?
Ocean front, especially barrier island ocean front, is subject to rapid changes. You do what you can keeping the dunes built up and protected, but when it goes, it goes and any fix is temporary.
Put up a bridge there like they did last time, no problem. Maybe it will even fill up again on it's own, like it did last time without taking a dime from the taxpayers to do so.
Migrating Barrier Islands[Same link as above, only this one might work]
Einstein never built a house on a half mile wide sandbar in the middle of the ocean.
I don't have a problem with a bridge. Even a toll bridge if need be.
But your arguments today have sounded like you didn't think they should do anything but tell the residents there that they're SOL.
Using your logic, we shouldn't repair the highways in LA after the last earthquake because they'll just get damaged the next time one hits and those people knew what they were getting into when they moved there.
I also plan to accept the risks that come with living at a place that stands a good chance of getting a few hurricanes within what remains of my projected lifespan, therefore I don't plan on it being on a thin barrier island.
You seem to have a real problem understanding the difference between PUBLIC and PRIVATE property, and the government's role in them. I don't belive the government should go in and repair anybody's roof, however it is absolutely necessary to repair a PUBLIC, STATE road that has existed in that place for decades.
You think that we should just leave things go and tell the people "screw you, you were stupid enough to move here". But that isn't the way things work. Those people pay taxes, and they can have a reasonable expectation for the road to be fixed.
The point is, repairing breaches in shifting sand is a waste of time and money, peeing in the ocean, as it were.
The last time it happened was 70 years ago, and there hasn't been another major land change in the Outer Banks since. How is that a waste of time?
You'll have to discuss that with God, I can't help you with directing hurricanes.
So now you want to spend MORE money? Which is it? Do you want them to spend the money or not?
That's exactly what they were. This is called "damage control".
S Out of Logic when chosing a place to live, their luck is holding though because Joe Taxpayer is on his way to cover their loses.
You haven't read too much about the geography of the Outer Banks yet, even thought I gave you the links.
Darn, buy the books, send them to school, all they want to do is flame the teacher.
Mr. "I didn't know the road to Corolla was paved" is now an expert on the Outer Banks because he skimmed a book.
Including upkeep and maintanance, a bridge is more expensive, but I'll leave it to the experts to decide what is most effective for that spot.
And could you answer this? "Using your logic, we shouldn't repair the highways in LA after the last earthquake because they'll just get damaged the next time one hits and those people knew what they were getting into when they moved there." Agree?
Are you still ignoring the fact that pertains to tornados and inland floods that I've mentioned ad nauseum; when the disaster is over, the land remains, or are failing to make the connection that the same applies to earthquakes?
Migrating sand bars get washed away, with the barge pumping new sand in to pave over, you are just putting in a temporary fix.
No, the roadways in the west are ok to repair when damaged by earthquakes, but I would have to look hard a rebuilding anything on those high mud cliffs that wash down during El Ninos.
The people that live on the sandbar can just ride a boat anyhow. If it's good enough to transport the kids across the Sound to school every day, it ought to be good enough for the parents to take to the grocery store.
What "land remains"? We are talking about damaged roads. If a flood washes away the roadbed or an earthquake splits the highway, they are as badly damaged as the section of highway 12. You are making a distinction without a difference.
Migrating sand bars get washed away, with the barge pumping new sand in to pave over, you are just putting in a temporary fix.
You keep saying that as if it happens multiple times a year. Tell me, when was the last time highway 12 had to be fixed because a new inlet was formed?
No, the roadways in the west are ok to repair when damaged by earthquakes,
Uh, yea.
The people that live on the sandbar can just ride a boat anyhow. If it's good enough to transport the kids across the Sound to school every day, it ought to be good enough for the parents to take to the grocery store.
No kids ride a boat from Hatteras village to school.
And now I see you do want to leave the area isolated. I wish you'd make up your mind
As for your picture of the earthquake road, the land is still there, just a few elevation changes. We can work with that.
I guess their idea is better then, seeing as how the land connection lasted 70 years.
As for your picture of the earthquake road, the land is still there, just a few elevation changes. We can work with that.
Uh huh.
Guess we shouldn'ta fixed this either.
It's San Francisco for crying out loud! They knew it was an earthquake zone when they moved there!
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