On Hatteras Island:
The Outer Banks was under-reported. Obviously this area isn’t the touristy area, but it is certainly dramatic.
At what point do we just decide that man wasn’t supposed to inhabit this narrow archipelago? At what point does someone, not sure who, decide that this area is just off limits to building?
The Oregon Inlet was formed from a breach during a hurricane. Other parts of the long series of barrier islands have been carved out, reshaped, and reshaped again over the years. The landscape is fragile and ever-changing.
Something to think about… when does man admit he has lost to Mother Nature?
Most recent from the Town of Duck:
“when does man admit he has lost to mother nature?. When hundreds of thousands of people stop showing up every summer bringing millions of dollars of revenue to the area and state. When rebuilding costs more than beach replenishment and and whatever deductable people have on their flood insurance policies. When everyone who is a third or fourth generation resident moves away or dies off.
When does man admit he has lost? Governor Easley of NC did that back in 2003 when he made it a state policy not to keep replenshing those barrier islands….tourist dollars or no tourist dollars, it was costing the state way to much to dredge.
In particular to that policy was the split between Ocracoke and the “villages” up a bit at Hatteras. Never rebuilt Route 12, and instituted a ferry service. That stretch of Hatteras they were showing is a tourist area – about 500+ of those fancy homes (aka to the locals as “Hurricane Speed Bumps”) across five or six of those little “villages”.
I put “villages” in quotes since the developers call them that, but they have no legal basis. There are a couple of actually incorporated villages along that stretch though.
I wish the people luck in rebuilding and especially in insuring. Since 2005 after Katrina, you could pick up property cheaper again along the whole stretch of barrier islands since Insurance Companies got really leary of selling policies.
Personally, I say let Mother Nature run her course…or build like the old Bankers do – use cinder blocks anchored with steel deep into the sand. There are several like that in my old stomping grounds down there which have stood since I first saw them in 1960.
These are from my stomping grounds, Duck NC
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150273245093240&set=a.10150273244493240.330292.159653793239&type=1&theater#!/photo.php?fbid=10150273245093240&set=a.10150273244493240.330292.159653793239&type=1&theater&pid=7902546&id=159653793239
pretty grizzly
Haven’t been to Duck in years but when I was there it was already overbuilt and overrated. If you went to the beach you had to bring your own piece of beach to stand on. If people want to build on the barrier islands, find, but don’t expect one dime from the federal government–you knew the risk when you built there.
I suspect what will happen is that people won’t be able to get insurance and thus a mortgage.