Will the East Coast Learn Anything from Hurricane Florence?
This article first appeared in The Herald Sun on 9 October 2018. It is reposted each year on the anniversary of Austin Joy’s death.
Homes on NC Coast (Outer Banks) after heavy rains.
In the wake of Hurricane Florence, one question plagues me (again): Are we going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA and other public emergency funds to rebuild homes along the hurricane-battered coast, only so we can do it all over again when the next hurricane/tornado hits?
Or will we finally adopt the common-sense, economically sustainable long-term solution: Don't Build/Rebuild Along the East Coast? It would be far less costly, in human, monetary and environmental terms, for our state and federal governments to partner with the insurance companies and purchase these ocean-front properties at fair market values, combine them into one or more nonprofit public parks, and simply let Nature take back the coast, as it is clearly bound to do.
A coastal-property buy-back provides a fair exit for the owners of all those vacation beach houses that, despite rental costs of more than $500/night during summer, always seem to be for sale, presumably due to mandatory and exhorbitantly high flood insurance. Given the plethora of coastal houses flooding the market (pun intended), NC does nothing to discourage new construction along the coast. Walk a block or two around the Outer Banks and you’ll see sizable coastal homes under (or halted during) construction amid vacation homes that have been on the market for months if not years.
For generations, NC's preferred (and costly) solution has been to dredge sand from the bottom of the ocean and pile it onto the beaches in a futile attempt to prevent them from eroding. According to the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, Nags Head beaches are eroding at a rate of about 6 feet per year. The Washington Post reports that Nags Head is “spending $48 million — and raising taxes for property owners — dredging sand from the sea floor and pumping it onto beaches”.
Meanwhile, the ocean just keeps pounding away. What's worse than the Heart-of-Darkness futility of the whole thing is that it is creating dangerously deep sand bars and accompanying rip tides that result in more drownings every year, drownings that are exacerbated by the hundreds of thousands of tourists (mostly families) that literally live on the beaches during Summer.
Photo accompanying a WSet.com report of one of many Outerbanks drownings this year.
But we aren't just turning a blind eye to public safety. In 2012, a NC State bill addressing how far houses can be built from the ocean actually banned the consideration of sound scientific data predicting rapid rises in sea-levels along the NC Coast (20-55 inches by 2100). Since that bill passed, more recent data and more advanced technology have predicted East Coast sea level rises of one inch per year, greater than the 2012 prediction. It should come as no surprise that measured sea levels actually did increase by 5 inches from 2011 -2015 in many areas from NC to Florida.
What about year-round coastal residents and businesses- farmers, fishermen, families who have lived there for generations? As coastal homes disappear, year-round residents and businesses (which would also be eligible for buy back) will be able to affordably move upstream, away from the future unpopulated seashore.
People will always want to go to the ocean, whether they stay in a house on a crowded and dangerous shoreline or whether they have to walk/drive a half-mile or so down the road to enjoy the pristine coast. The local economy will take care of itself. Our state and federal governments owe it to us to take care of our long-term health and safety.
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"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." ~
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This article was written In homage to my good friend, Austin Joy, who died earlier this year while saving his twin daughters from drowning in a rip current at Atlantic Beach. See the followup HERE.
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What to do if you are caught in a rip current:
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article215322100.html
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Be Smart. Stay Safe.
