Hurricanes, (Re)Construction, Rip Tides, and Drowning- When Will We Learn?
This article was originally published in the Herald Sun on October 7, 2018. If you have a subscription, please read it there. (Thanks for supporting our local newspapers!)
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 peak rental costs of more than $500/night, always seem to be for sale, presumably due to mandatory and exorbitantly 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 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 keeps pounding away, 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 that literally live on the beaches during summer.
But it goes farther than public safety. A 2012 NC State bill addressing how far houses can be built from the ocean actually banned consideration of sound scientific data predicting rapid rises in sea-levels (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 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 on the NC coast for generations? As coastal homes disappear, year-round residents and businesses (who would also be eligible for buy back) will be able to affordably move upstream, away from the future barren coastline. 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.
USAToday article posted on August 17, 2022 in response to an recent child’s rip-tide death: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/08/17/surge-rip-current-deaths-prompts-calls-better-beach-protection/10201809002/
“Unnaturally altered beaches could pose an elevated risk of injury to the very tourists that sand replenishment was meant to attract”: https://coastalcare.org/2018/09/is-pumping-more-sand-onto-nc-beaches-causing-deadly-currents/.
Dredging Causes Rip Currents: https://www.newsherald.com/story/news/2019/10/04/experts-warn-beach-renourishments-usually-come-with-rip-current-risk/2610878007/.
“Rip currents most typically form at low spots or breaks in sandbars, and also near structures such as groins, jetties and piers”: https://uncw.edu/ehs/ripcurrents.html.
Here’s a great slideshow on the matter: https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context=petersheim-exposition, which states:
“The Army Corps of Engineers has emphatically claimed that there is no correlation between the beach nourishment and rip currents. They also refuse to study the rip current trend. NOAA has since begun a study that is currently in the early stages to see if the nourishment projects are indeed linked to rip currents.”
The author’s good friend, Austin Joy, drowned several months ago saving his twin daughters from a rip current at Atlantic Beach. Connect at www.melissarooneywriting.com.
