The Virginian-Pilot
©
OREGON INLET
The same storm that tore multiple holes through N.C. 12 and sent floodwaters rushing into hundreds of homes two weeks ago did the Outer Banks at least one big favor. Thanks to Hurricane Irene, Oregon Inlet is in good shape for the first time in a long time.
Irene eroded away the southern tip of Bodie Island Spit, a southward-moving land mass that seemed determined all year to overtake the narrow navigation span beneath the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge. Many watermen depend on that access to make a living.
With powerful southeast winds that forced Pamlico Sound beyond its banks, the hurricane left a deeper, wider and straighter channel. Just east of the bridge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers measured water as deep as 18 feet Tuesday. The same area measured as shallow as 6 feet in April.
“We’ve been waiting for man to take care of it, and, you know, God took care of it for us,” said Britton Shackelford, a charter-boat captain out of Broad Creek Fishing Center and Marina in Wanchese.
Before the storm, Coast Guard Capt. Anthony Popiel said he wouldn’t have risked sending a 110-foot patrol boat through Oregon Inlet. The water was just too shallow, the risk of running aground too great.
“We could probably do it with some confidence now,” he said this week. “It just completely cleared the sand out of there.”
Oregon Inlet, a dynamic waterway carved out by a hurricane in 1846, is maintained the corps. But with dredging funds dwindling each year, officials and fishermen have renewed calls for a permanent solution. Locally, jetties are the overwhelmingly popular idea, though it was rejected by the federal government in 2003 after decades of study.
Some are saying the storm’s impacts may be enough to save the winter fishing season – the main money-maker for the local commercial fishing industry. When shoaling made the channel too narrow for large trawlers earlier this year, some businesses, including the Wanchese Fish Co., diverted vessels to land their catch in Virginia.
“Right now it’s looking a whole lot better,” said Mikey Daniels, a co-owner of the Wanchese Fish Co., said Thursday.
Hurricane Irene also carved a new inlet through the Bodie Island Spit, leaving the popular beach spot and bird nesting site an island unto itself. Cyndy Holda, spokeswoman for the National Park Service, is calling it the “Bodie Island Spit Island.”
In recent years, park officials have been closing the area to beach-goers to protect shorebirds during the nesting season. The spit re-opened to vehicles less than two weeks before the storm. Where a shallow pond once was, there’s now a channel 12 feet deep funneling water back and forth twice daily, Holda said.
Hurricane Irene demonstrated how vulnerable Oregon Inlet is to severe weather, said John Bayliss, who owns a boat yard and boat-building company in Wanchese.
“In this case, it’s good news,” he said. “But if that had been really hard out of the northeast, then it could have been a completely different story. We could be in worse shape.”
“I guess, all you can say now is, ‘We’ll take it.’”
Erin James, (252) 441-1711, erin.james@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Twitter
Google
Yahoo
comments
Not for just this article but also for most others that I have read ... I am surprised and saddened that the tone of some people is intentionally hurtful and vitriolic and written primarily to offend others. This is a sad testimony to how we, as a world-wide family of human beings, (Christians and others) are so very self-destructive and how we work so hard to make problems instead of solutions.
DANGER Will Robison DANGER
Why so many goof off's taking the time to waste other peoples time, Quite silly I might add. The Whole North Carolina Outer Banks (Island Group), is moving in kind of a backward roll, as the sea has taken a Half mile or more of the islands in the last 400 years..the beach use to be at least a half mile out into the Ocean as per most islands. This should be telling people something, Humans should consider it STUPID to build next to the Ocean on a Barrer Island..Money does motivate people to be stupid, this much understood, but the big deal is why I should pay for the rights and mistakes of stupid people building in stupid places. A category 4 or 5 Hurricane made about 1/3 of Ocean View, a category 4 or 5 Hurricane can take away...Meow/burp
If a small storm can deepen
If a small storm can deepen the channel to 18', how would this affect the foundation of the new bridge that is so foolishly being planned in this location?
For the record, I think this deepening of the channel is awesome. But the bridge option being pushed is plain dumb. It's obvious the longer option is prudent considering you now have empirical evidence of the fragile state of 12. NC nor the Feds can afford the string of bridges needed to maintain the road from end to end.
so they can't afford a
so they can't afford a string of bridges but they can afford one long bridge? good argument.
I should remember to write
I should remember to write to the level of the intended reader. My bad.
The long option is more sustainable. It will last longer than crossing the inlet. Therefore it will be far cheaper than the Bonner replacement in it's current location.
The string of bridges on 12 will be needed to traverse the the entire stretch. Inlets will be popping up all over the island very soon. This is a fact. You can see a very determined ocean in the pictures is pushing mother natures agenda in the pics.
Better?
where is the evidence that
where is the evidence that 'inlets will be popping up all over the island soon'? the inlets that formed during irene were known hotspots. how about we devise a plan that takes account of those hotspots?
as someone who has studied under some of the experts in the field of coastal processes and erosion (specifically along the outer banks), I am curious to where you get your information.
by the way, this reader has a master's in a field related to this very topic so it would appear you are the one who is a little out of their league.
I gained my knowledge in
I gained my knowledge in college. I have to assume your Masters is not related to this or you were a poor student. I do not mean this as an insult, but rather a response to your inquiry. I just pulled my freshman Physical Geology book and this easy to read. This is a rolling dune line. By it's nature it is constantly moving back and forth. The coast is trying to straighten itself and part of that process is an unstable topography. New inlets open, old ones will close. It is dynamic and a fools game to attempt to stop.
Several studies have been done showing 12 will have to be supported by a series of bridges to keep the entire road open. These reports have been mentioned in this very paper.
You are capable of the research.
so you got your information
so you got your information from a freshman physical geography book that is how many years old? did you pass the course?
I guess i should write to the level of my intended reader but i'd rather not stoop that low.
So you are saying that
So you are saying that coastal straightening does not exist? This is from this years McGraw text:
coastal straightening The gradual straightening of an irregular shoreline by wave erosion of headlands and wave deposition in bays.
(See page(s) 345)
Your bluff has been called nesurf.
Got in A in all Geo courses
Got in A in all Geo courses by the way. I'm the guy you would have needed to copy off of.