The first big storm to hit the Outer Banks this Atlantic hurricane season is closing major roadways, damaging dunes and stalling a restoration project.
The rare nor’easter is leaving behind familiar scenes along N.C. Highway 12.
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Friday marked the second day of the highway closure as water continued to flood the area. The closure expanded to include part of Ocracoke Island on Friday morning. Overwash and pavement damage occurred during high tide.
Dare County has seen plenty of storm damage in its history, but County Chairman Bob Woodard said he has not seen road damage this bad in years.
“Now the ocean waves are hitting directly up against that portion of the highway. When it does that, it certainly can undermine the highway and crack the pavement,” Woodard said. “We haven't seen that in a good while. This is the first we've had of that in a few years.”
Woodard said he doesn't have an estimate of when it will reopen, but repairs will likely take crews a few days to complete.
“Depends on how much more damage we get there, and then we have another high tide [Friday] morning,” Woodard said. “So, if it compromises that highway even further, where we've got to repair it, then that's going to take another two days for NCDOT to make that make those repairs where it's drivable.”
The storm comes near the tail end of a $42 million nourishment project. As the ocean eats away at more of the coastline, the county started the restoration work two years earlier than initially projected.
Now, the project is at a standstill. Woodard said 1.8 million of the project's 2 million cubic yards had been completed before the storm.
As the forecast worsened, crews contracted by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company pulled equipment in anticipation of the storm this week.
“This isn't their first rodeo,” Woodard said. “They're the best in the business. When they get back on scene, they’ll finish this project in time. I mean, they don't mess around.”
Woodard said it is still too early to know the full scope of the storm’s impact on the project.
“It's hard to tell, you know. We do a pre-inspection, and then we do a post-inspection,” Woodard said. “So, we'll do that post-inspection after the after the storm passes, and we'll be able to tell then if any damage was done.”
Woodard said Thursday afternoon he does not believe the storm will delay the project’s completion date.
Longtime Buxton resident Kevin McCabe described the scene near the project site Thursday afternoon as “disheartening.”
“It's right now is very disheartening to see what's happening out there and what you know what the next two days are going to bring,” McCabe said. “There were several of us over there [Thursday] morning, assessing what was going on. From where the beach was, the swell has washed up and over the beach, and it's hit the dune.”
McCabe said he had high hopes for the nourishment project.
“If the beach nourishment could have taken us into, say, two months into winter, it would have been like a dream,” McCabe said.
Now he’s unsure.
“We're hopeful that what we had with our beach nourishment stays, though it was compromised so much this morning,” McCabe said. “From a surfer's point of view, it's like I know what's coming. It's going to get worse.”
