1/8/2023 0 Comments Outbank hurricane 2016The land there has been eroding at about six feet per year, more than four times the median rate for North Carolina’s coast and higher than most of the town’s beaches. The effort wasn’t enough to save Nags Head’s East Seagull Drive. In some cases, though, nourishment may only prolong the pain. Credit: Nicholas Kusnetz/InsideClimate News Nags Head spent $36 million on nourishment in 2011 and wants to spend as much as $48 million more in 2018.Ī beach nourishment project underway in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, shows the difference between a newly nourished beach, in the background, and an area where the shoreline has eroded. Many states and towns are relying on an expensive and temporary fix: dredging sand from the sea floor and pumping it onto beaches, a practice called nourishment. By 2035, 170 communities along the nation’s coasts will face chronic flooding from rising seas, about twice as many as today, according to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In New York City, the state spent more than $100 million buying out homes in three neighborhoods flooded by Hurricane Sandy, though a handful of holdouts have refused to leave.Īlong the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, beach erosion is worsening as sea level rise accelerates and increasingly violent storms batter the shore. What’s happening along East Seagull Drive is a lesson and warning for coastal communities around the country, highlighting the complicated and expensive legal battles that result from failing to plan for how-and when-to retreat from the disappearing coast.Ībout 150 miles southwest of Nags Head, the tiny town of North Topsail Beach ended a legal fight by paying more than $1.5 million in 2008 to buy and condemn 12 homes wrecked by a hurricane. If Goldner’s house collapsed, he could at least collect insurance. Neighbors are upset that the town spent millions of taxpayer dollars on lawsuits and settlements, yet failed to clear the beach. Town officials don’t want to spend any more to buy them out. The owners of the two remaining homes are unable to secure permits to rebury septic tanks that now poke through the sand. Goldner, his neighbor and the town are now in a stalemate. Nags Head eventually paid $1.5 million to buy out the owners of six, but it was unable to remove the final two homes. Their lawsuits dragged for years and led to a ruling that said towns did not have the right to clear homes from the beach. Two were torn down, but the owners of the other eight fought back. “I just want to break even,” said Goldner, a tall man with tousled gray hair and blue eyes.Īfter the nor’easter, the town declared Goldner’s home and nine others on East Seagull Drive public nuisances and ordered their demolition. For homeowners caught in the middle, the damage has left some facing substantial financial losses. Sea level rise from climate change is making matters worse. Erosion has gradually consumed the shoreline in the tourist town of Nags Head, seizing homes and threatening nearly a billion dollars’ worth of property. Now only two remain in a row that once numbered 10. The storm sucked the land out from beneath the homes. And high tides wash underneath between pilings, even on calm days.Įver since a nor’easter slammed the Outer Banks in 2009, damaging hundreds of homes along these barrier islands, Goldner’s cottage has been largely uninhabitable. Today, insulation spills from its bowels. They’d planned to rent it out, but for much of the past decade, the faded yellow structure has stood vacant. Goldner bought the property with his brother 14 years ago, when it was part of a row of cottages perched above the high-tide line. NAGS HEAD, North Carolina-This hurricane season, Lance Goldner harbored an unusual wish: that his beach house on North Carolina’s scenic Outer Banks would collapse in a storm. This story was co-published with The Weather Channel. Sign up to receive our latest reporting on climate change, energy and environmental justice, sent directly to your inbox.
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