Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

The call from the North Carolina Attorney General’s office late last year relayed news of a victory.

A federal judge in Boston on Dec. 11, 2025, sided with Jeff Jackson and 19 other state attorneys general in their case against the Federal Emergency Management Agency, informed the caller.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled that FEMA unlawfully terminated a federal grant program under which roughly $200 million had been awarded to North Carolina communities, including Pollocksville, to tailor projects to reduce and prevent storm damage.

Stearns issued an immediate, permanent injunction restoring the Building Resilient Infrastructures and Communities, or BRIC, program.

“And, that’s all we’ve heard,” Pollocksville Mayor Jay Bender said. “We’ve never heard anything official from FEMA saying yay or nay. We have not heard anything from North Carolina Emergency Management saying yay or nay.”

FEMA funnels BRIC grants to state emergency management offices, which are responsible for managing and passing funds on to grant recipients.

N.C. Division of Emergency Management’s Justin Graney, chief of external affairs and communications, said in an email that the agency had not been notified by FEMA as to when funding would be released.

“NCEM continues to work closely with FEMA to determine the next steps and looks forward to a resolution,” Graney said.

But any such resolution could be, at a minimum, months away.

The federal government still has time to appeal Stearns’ decision. The 60-day window to challenge his ruling closes before the middle of next month.

The N.C. Department of Justice’s communications office confirmed in an Jan. 26 email that FEMA had, at that time, not filed an appeal in the case.

“We are closely monitoring FEMA’s compliance with the court order,” the email states.

FEMA’s news desk at its regional office in Atlanta did not respond to requests for comment. 

The agency announced without any forewarning last April it was canceling the BRIC program, one created under President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

But just three months or so into Trump’s second term, an unnamed FEMA spokesperson stated in the announcement that the agency considered BRIC to be “wasteful” and “political.”

FEMA later clarified only projects that had been completed would be fully funded, erasing congressionally appropriated funding for more than 60 infrastructure projects in North Carolina.

Jackson joined a lawsuit filed last July by a coalition of state attorneys general who argued FEMA’s termination of the program was unlawful.

The court agreed, concluding that FEMA did not have the authority to end BRIC because Congress, not the federal agency, appropriated funds for that program.

“The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives,” Stearns wrote.

“Our towns spent years doing everything FEMA asked them to do to qualify for this funding, and they were in the middle of building real protections against storms when FEMA suddenly broke its word,” Jackson said in a release following the court ruling. “Keeping water systems working and keeping homes out of floodwater isn’t politics – it’s basic safety.”

Pollocksville and Leland were selected to each receive about $1.1 million through the BRIC program.

Leland plans to relocate the town’s sewer system away from Sturgeon Creek from which floodwaters rise often after storms and natural disasters.

Jessica Jewell, Leland’s communications manager, said in an email that the town is exploring other grant opportunities to help fund their project.

At the time of FEMA’s announcement last April, Pollocksville had already paid out about $18,000 in legal, advertising and procurement fees ahead of the project the Jones County town had secured to raise six commercial buildings in its downtown next to the Trent River.

“I mean, this is a project that we thought was done,” Bender said. “We had a contractor. That was probably one of the most frustrating things. We were already under contract.”

Before the state attorneys general filed their lawsuit, town officials were contacted by the state and encouraged to submit their project proposal through the Hazard Mitigation Grant program. The HMGP is federally funded, but managed by the state Division of Emergency Management.

“Having to file all the same paperwork over – I don’t know that I can convey to you the complexity of the paperwork,” Bender said. “The positive thing about this, going through HMGP as opposed to going through FEMA, is that HMGP will be at no cost to the town. There’s no match and so that will obviously make it a more financially attractive proposal than FEMA.”

He went on to say that the town will take “the best deal that comes the quickest.”

“I will feel much more confident when there is an actual piece of paper to sign and when I see people on the street preparing elevate a building,” he said.

Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

POLLOCKSVILLE – North Carolina’s attorney general is confident federal funding unceremoniously stripped from local governments earlier this year will be reinstated under a court ruling.

“I think we’re going to win in court,” Jeff Jackson said Tuesday afternoon. “I think our argument is very strong.”

Jackson had just wrapped up a short tour of Pollocksville’s Main Street, where the town’s longtime mayor pointed to building after building tapped to be raised higher off the ground and out of the path of future flooding that might spill over the banks of the Trent River.

“This building’s got great potential,” Mayor Jay Bender said as the two men strolled a sidewalk toward the river. One that, in September 2018, rose more than 25 feet when Hurricane Florence dumped more than 30 inches of rain.

Floodwaters forced most of the town’s residents to evacuate and destroyed or damaged more than 80% of its buildings.

“There’s nothing woke, there’s nothing political, there’s nothing wasteful,” Bender said to Jackson.

There’s also nothing left of the federal program that helped communities tailor projects to reduce and prevent damage from future storms.

Four days before Pollocksville officials were to sign contracts to kickstart their project to raise buildings, President Donald Trump’s Federal Emergency Management Agency killed the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grants program.

The agency said only projects that have been completed will be fully funded.

Gone was the nearly $1.1 million in funding this small Jones County town had worked so hard to secure through a process vetted by FEMA for more than 30 months.

“The rug was pulled out from under us,” Bender said.

A coalition of 20 state attorneys general, including Jackson, filed a lawsuit on July 16 in a federal court in Boston accusing FEMA of unlawfully terminating the BRIC program.

“The basic argument is that was not FEMA money to cancel,” Jackson said during a press conference under a picnic shelter in the town’s waterfront park. “That was congressional money. Congress gave that money to FEMA and told FEMA how to spend it. They said we want you to spend it helping small towns like Pollocksville defend themselves against the next flood. That is exactly what Pollocksville was doing with this money.”

Tuesday’s visit to Pollocksville was his second in recent days to a North Carolina town awarded BRIC funding only to have it ripped away.

Several days ago, Jackson went to Hillsborough to visit a pumping station that flooded when Tropical Storm Chantal swept through parts of central North Carolina early this month. Plans were to construct a new pumping station outside of the floodplain with more than $5 million in BRIC funds.

“We’re going in order of indefensibility,” he said Tuesday in what seems to be a campaign of sorts to raise awareness of FEMA’s decision to cut the BRIC program.

Pollocksville is one of 68 towns, cities and counties in the state that have been awarded BRIC grants since the program officially began its first round of funding in 2020. As previously reported by Coastal Review, almost half of the local governments awarded funding are in the 20 coastal counties.

The only completed BRIC project in the state is a living shoreline in Duck.

Congress approved the program in 2018 with bipartisan support and Trump’s signature during his first presidential term. Since then, nearly $5 billion has been committed to communities across the country for projects to elevate buildings and roads, relocate vulnerable sewer pump stations, control flooding, and strengthen building codes.

“Yes, we want to get this money back to Pollocksville,” Jackson said. “If we’re successful it means we get money back for the entire state.”

He said he expects the court will hold a hearing “within the next few weeks” over a request by the attorneys general for an injunction to lift the funds from being blocked.

“That’s been our request that they treat this as an emergency,” Jackson said. “What we want the court to do is say, while this matter is winding its way through court, which will take six to nine months to fully resolve, the money can continue to flow.”

Jackson said there’s no lack of evidence to support the importance of BRIC funding for communities like Pollocksville that are trying to better protect its residents and infrastructure from floods and other natural disasters exacerbated by the changing climate.

“The flood here, the flood in Hillsborough that happened three weeks ago, there’s fresh evidence with respect to an enormous number of these things,” he said.

This is the first in a series of stories about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

POLLOCKSVILLE – Jay Bender is rightfully proud of his town hall. Lovingly restored when it was moved to higher ground a few years ago, the old train depot has come to symbolize the grit of this little river town that a hurricane once tried to drown and its government in far-off Washington now has abandoned.

The mayor for 42 continuous years – a record in North Carolina – Bender fashioned his office to look like one that the stationmaster might have used when the depot was built in 1893. An antique rolltop desk anchors the room, accented by sturdy wooden chairs for visitors and framed railroad maps on the walls.

He led me to the handsome town council chambers with its wide-beamed oak floor and huge, sliding, wooden cargo doors that bear names and other graffiti that people scrawled during the building’s lifetime. “All of this was under water,” explained Bender. “We lost everything. We lost our records. We lost our computers. Everything.”

Related: North Carolina among most successful states for BRIC awards

The depot, which even then served as town hall, was a few blocks away, down on the banks of the Trent River, a pretty, usually placid stream that languidly flows northeast a dozen or so miles to its confluence with the Neuse River in New Bern. In these parts it’s known primarily for its catfish and largemouth bass. It was the little town’s biggest attraction.

Until it became the source of its destruction.

That would have been during those three, grim days in September 2018 when Hurricane Florence dumped more than more 30 inches of rain and unleased a biblical deluge. The river had overflowed its banks before, of course – back in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd, for instance – but never like this. Some experts would later speculate that the Trent hadn’t flooded that badly in maybe 1,000 years. It rose more than 25 feet, covering much of Pollocksville to its rooftops. Most of its 300 or so residents had to be evacuated. More than 80% of its buildings were destroyed or damaged, including every town commissioner’s home.

Bender, living in his grandfather’s old place on high ground, was spared. That’s where they ran the town until the river receded and the power was restored 11 days later.

The slow recovery then began.

Aided by state and federal grants, the town moved and refurbished the waterlogged old depot in 2021 and began getting pieces of its sewer and water systems out of the floodplain. Owners raised some buildings, and the town gussied up U.S. Highway 17, its main road, with a bike path, planters and banners.

The place was starting to look almost normal again, and Bender was feeling optimistic about his town’s revival until the Trump regime in Washington suddenly and without warning pulled the rug out from under him.

Killed without warning

The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced about a month ago that it was cancelling its major grant program that provided seed money to communities that wanted to be better prepared for the next flood or weather catastrophe. FEMA didn’t contact Pollocksville or the 67 other communities in the state that were awarded grants but had not yet received any money. Neither did it notify the N.C. Division of Emergency Management, which administers the grants, or the media. The agency made the surprise announcement on one of its websites after 5 p.m. on a Friday, presumably to attract the least amount of attention.

Bender didn’t find out about the cancellation until the following week. It was the first time a federal grant program had been killed in midstream.

It would be another 12 days before FEMA clarified that only grant projects that had been completed would be totally funded. Those that have started might receive partial funding. Everything else was dead. In North Carolina, that meant almost $186 million in projects intended to help communities ward off weather catastrophes and save lives would have to be shelved unless the recipients could come up with the money elsewhere. That total includes about $81 million in the state’s 20 coastal counties, including $1.1 million for Pollocksville to raise six commercial buildings to revive its downtown.

“Losing the grant is very disappointing,” said Bender, whose town operates on an annual $600,000 budget. “It would have funded the next step in our long-range plan. Replacing the grant money will be difficult.”

The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grants, known as BRIC, was the federal government’s showcase program to help communities help themselves by funding projects to lessen and prevent storm damage. It committed almost $5 billion to communities across the country since it was approved by Congress with bipartisan support and signed by Donald Trump in 2018 during his first term. Local governments had planned to use the money to help raise buildings and roads, relocate vulnerable sewer pump stations, control flooding, strengthen building codes and on similar projects to reduce the damage of future storms. The program was so popular that last year FEMA had to reject nearly 2,000 applicants because it didn’t have enough money to go around.

About $1 billion was allocated to the program as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021. Under President Biden, the BRIC grants were key parts of the government’s efforts to address climate change, and a special emphasis was placed on helping Black and other historically underserved communities. It was those directives that likely put BRIC on the regime’s hit list.

‘Wasteful,’ ‘political,’ fearful

An unnamed FEMA spokesperson said in the April announcement that the agency now considers BRIC to be “wasteful” and “political.” I called FEMA’s “news desk” at its regional office in Atlanta several times to get some examples. Each call disappeared into the ether because the number listed on the agency’s regional website didn’t even generate a dial tone. I sent an email to the address listed on the site. It remains unanswered. As do the emails and phone message I sent to the state’s two Republican senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, asking for their reactions.

Many county and town officials also didn’t return emails and phone calls. They watched the bullying of the country’s biggest universities and law firms and heard the threats about withholding federal funds to public schools and museums. They apparently got the message. They would need FEMA someday, and all depended on federal funding for something. Bender understands his counterparts’ desire to remain under the radar. He’s relying partially on federal money to upgrade his water and sewer plants. “We lose this grant and we’re out maybe $20,000,” he said. “But I can’t build half a sewer plant.”

Anna Weber, however, needed no coaxing. She’s a policy analyst for the National Resources Defense Council and helps communities prepare for the violence of an unstable climate. She has a hard time understanding how spending money to prevent death and damage from future storms can suddenly be considered wasteful.

“In fact, investing in adaptation and resiliency against climate change is one of the least wasteful things we can do,“ she said. “It’s actually one of the best investments in preventing future local damage and loss of life from storms.”

She noted that studies have consistently shown that every dollar invested on projects to prevent storm damage results in at least $6 in savings when the pieces later have to be picked up and put back together.

BRIC also seemed to dovetail with the regime’s desire to require states to pay more for cleanup and reconstruction costs after a disaster, Weber said. The grants pay 75% of project costs. The applicant is responsible for the remainder. “These were communities that were doing this right,” she said. “The federal government wanted communities to step up and take some responsibility. These communities did step up and do what the government asked, and now the rug is being pulled out from under them.”

The charge that the grants were doled out as political favors by the Biden administration makes little sense in North Carolina, which Trump carried handily in all three of his elections. The 22 counties, which include the state’s most populous, that Biden won in 2020 received only about a quarter of the grant money, while the 20 coastal counties, many of which Trump won with 60-70% of the vote, received almost 45%.

Jessica Whitehead was North Carolina’s first chief resilience officer and helped evaluate the state’s first BRIC applications in 2020. She’s now director of the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at Old Dominion University.

“Politics?” she said. “It never came up.”

No one asked Bender about his politics when the town applied for its BRIC grant.

“This had nothing to do with politics,” he said, “and I don’t know how you can consider it wasteful. This is all about trying to get our town back to normal.”

The state has reopened a program launched in 2022 to provide funding for eligible first-time and first-generation homebuyers in federally designated storm-impacted counties.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency’s Community Development Office set aside $4.4 million to administer through its homeownership assistance program. The long-term mitigation funding is from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD.

The program was put on pause last year to make sure that the available federal funding would cover applications already in process

There is $2.2 million remaining for eligible homebuyers in Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Edgecombe, Jones, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Robeson, Scotland and Wayne counties, officials announced Monday.

HUD designated these 16 counties as “most impacted and distressed” by hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018.

Selected applicants can receive up to $30,000 in down payment assistance and up to 5% of the home sale price toward closing costs to qualifying homebuyers. They must complete the education and counseling offered at no cost through the program before closing on a home.

Visit the homeownership assistance webpage to read the program requirements and learn how to apply.

RALEIGH – The N.C. Department of Transportation announced Friday that it had won a national award for the flood warning system that allows the agency to better respond to hurricanes and other storms.

The advance-detection warning system, which became fully operational in 2022, was developed after Hurricane Florence caused more than 2,500 roads to close in 2018. NCDOT said the system allows the agency and its partners “to deploy resources more efficiently before a storm, recover more rapidly after it and adapt to changing climate conditions,” according to the announcement.

The department was one of 14 recipients from across the country to win the Federal Highway Administration’s 2024 Environmental Excellence Award award. The awards announced last week recognize transportation projects, programs or organizations that incorporate environmental stewardship and partnerships with other agencies. NCDOT and its partners were specifically recognized for their approach to flood resilience through real-time monitoring and predictive monitoring.

“This innovative system not only helps keep our transportation network more resilient against future flooding, but it also has the potential to save lives,” said Matt Lauffer, NCDOT’s state hydraulics engineer, in a statement. “We can use this information to better inform our emergency partners and the public about potential flooding problems.”

NCDOT’s system is a partnership with the N.C. Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Coastal Center of Excellence at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and other consulting partners.

The system uses computer modeling programs that receive various kinds of data, such as rainfall totals and river forecasts. It also relies on a network of stream gauges that monitor 2,200 miles of state roads and almost 16,000 bridges and culverts across the state. During a storm, the system automatically generates email or text alerts to warn NCDOT maintenance and bridge crews of potential problems.

Last year, the flood-warning system was named a top-12 finalist for two prizes in the America’s Transportation Awards competition.​

A project to repair and improve around 100 acres of recreation sites in Croatan National Forest now has the go-ahead.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service released the final decision last week for the Neuse River recreation sites project following public comment and objection periods, which took place in the fall of 2023.

The final decision authorizes the Croatan Ranger District to begin at Fisher’s Landing, Flanners Beach, Pine Cliff, and Siddie Fields recreation sites projects that include the removal of riprap and work to control erosion, stabilize the bank, upgrade restrooms, make trails and walkways safer and add group sites.

Croatan District Ranger Ron Hudson expressed optimism about where the project is headed.

“We are all thrilled to see these projects moving forward and building on the recovery we’ve already accomplished. The work will take time, but these sites will be incredible for our visitors and generations to come,” Hudson said in a statement.

The project also addresses ecological damage caused during Hurricane Florence and will increase the resiliency of the shorelines along the Neuse River. Adaptive approaches for the living shoreline stabilization include recreating a more gradual slope for safety and stability as well as planting native plants that offer stability.

In September 2018, Hurricane Florence caused catastrophic damage throughout the Croatan National Forest and the surrounding area, officials said. High winds, flooding, and a large storm surge eroded the Neuse River shoreline, toppled trees, and damaged infrastructure. The erosion created unstable cliff faces and the recreation sites were closed for public safety.

This project is the largest so far for the newly established North Carolina Disaster Assistance Recovery Team called DART. This group of U.S. Forest Service employees is dedicated to streamlining recovery projects and preparing for potential disasters on the National Forests.

“This project and this team are a big shift in how we respond after disasters. We’re ready at all times, and we’re not just thinking about repairs back to the status quo or old standards. We’re thinking about how we can build resilience into recovery,” said Jenifer Bunty, a DART spokesperson.

The final environmental assessment and decision notice for the Neuse River project are available online.

With the shoreline surveys of three state-owned lands complete, North Carolina Office of State Archaeology officials are waiting for the contractor’s draft assessment of storm-related impacts before they can develop a plan to protect these vulnerable cultural sites.

When that data is delivered in the coming months about Hammocks Beach State Park in the Swansboro area, and Alligator River Game Land and the Scuppernong River section of Pettigrew State Park, both in Tyrrell County, Historic Preservation Archaeology Specialist Allyson Ropp said recently that her office intends to look at ways to protect the cultural sites on land, underwater and in the tidal zone.

Called North Carolina Shorescape Survey, this project and the Historic Cemetery Survey, which documented how cemeteries had been affected by hurricanes and identified unmarked cemeteries, are being funded through the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service.

The state’s archaeology office was awarded $1 million of the $17 million North Carolina received following the storm surges, rain and high winds from hurricanes Florence and Michael in 2018. Those storms threatened coastal historic structures and archaeological sites, according to an October 2023 update on the project. Both projects have been in the planning stages since 2020. Fieldwork for the shore survey wrapped up in late 2023.

Scott Seibel, associate vice president of multinational infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, told Coastal Review last week that his team worked on the three sites this past fall and are producing the draft report now. The plan is to deliver the draft by early March.

If there’s anything of interest in the data, they will explore it further, and if not, Ropp said her office will complete its report and then hold public meetings, most likely in April.

The three sites were chosen using a model that ranked the state-owned and -managed lands by environmental and historical significance.

Ropp said she designed the model by combining known data on storm surge and sediment movement, historic maps and existing archaeological information to prioritize all of the state lands in the 12 counties. Those counties are Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Dare, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender and Tyrrell.

The shoreline is the focus because, as Acting State Archaeologist and Deputy State Archaeologist Chris Southerly said, there was a lot of activity at the shoreline environment, such as fishing or wading out into the water to collect shellfish.

“I’d say almost the majority of the cultural interface that we have maritime dealings with in water happens in that 60 meters (about 197 feet) one way to 60 meters the other from the shoreline,” Southerly said.

Because that interface can be difficult to reach, land-based archaeologists may not go all the way to shore and in-water archaeologists will stop where the boat stops.

Shorelines are where “a lot of cultural material could be lost,” Southerly continued. For example, an American Indian could have dropped something into the muck while getting out of his dugout canoe, or English settlers from their vessels, or by soldiers during war time.

The project in the Swansboro area is looking at archaeological sites within the shoreline environment – about 60 meters inland from the low-tide mark and about 60 meters offshore the low-tide mark – “to see how archaeological resources in those areas are being impacted by shoreline erosion, hurricanes, storm surge, inundation in general,” Ropp said.

Hammocks Beach is one of the more vulnerable sites, Ropp said, because the state-managed park is part of a barrier island, has a lot of known resources, and has a high potential for more to be discovered. The land also has a rich African American maritime history, which is another reason the park topped the list.

There are 27 known sites on two of the protected islands and the mainland. “Most of those, I believe, are prehistoric shell middens,” she said.

A midden is a mound of refuse that may include shells, fish and deer bones and plant remains — things Indigenous peoples harvested from the landscapes around them.

Southerly noted that shell middens are extensive in Carteret County and parts of Onslow County and are usually indicative of long-term habitation by American Indians. This means there’s a higher probability of finding an intact Native American site nearby.

“Shell middens are one of the key markers to look for along the coastal area for pre-contact American Indians,” he said, and built-up shell middens are a good indication of repeated settlement or habitation.

Both sites in Tyrrell County have a high potential for plantation-related resources, canal building, shipwrecks, and general marine infrastructure.

AECOM, a cultural resource management firm with offices all over the East Coast, performed this fall the land and in-water surveys with a field crew of about 15 and around 10 in the office working on artifact analysis and geographic information system, or GIS data.

The area for each of the three projects was 60 meters landward of the shoreline and 200 meters, or 656 feet, into the water.

The fieldwork at Hammocks Beach State Park included both terrestrial and underwater archaeology, Seibel said. “We surveyed the entire shoreline area of the mainland portion of the park, all of the shoreline area of Huggins Island, and the sound-side shoreline of Bear Island.”

For the terrestrial archaeology, which took place from early October to early December 2023, most of the work involved shovel-digging test pits at 100- and 50-foot intervals within the project area. The pits were about 12 to 16 inches in diameter and about 3.3 feet in depth.

The sediments were screened through 0.25-inch wire mesh to collect artifacts such as ceramic sherds, stone flakes and oyster shell from the pre-contact middens. They found brick and glass, too.

“We also inspected the ground surface for artifacts and features, such as brick foundations from former houses,” Southerly said. “All of our shovel test pits and any features that we found were mapped using a GPS system. Along the shorelines, we used an electronic data form to record information about the condition of the shoreline and the possible threats to archaeological sites from things like waves, tree fall, and looting.”

The underwater survey, which took about a week to complete, included using remote sensing equipment towed behind a boat including a side-scan sonar, magnetometer and sub-bottom profiler, Seibel continued.

“A side-scan sonar uses sound waves to produce images of the seafloor. A magnetometer records anomalies in the Earth’s magnetic field and is useful for identifying shipwrecks that contain iron, like nails,” he explained. “A sub-bottom profiler is similar to a side-scan sonar, except that it provides information about sediment layers below the seafloor and can be used to identify old and buried streams and terrestrial landforms from when sea levels were much lower than today.”

The terrestrial archaeology work was different at the two project locations in Tyrrell County, Seibel said.

“Along the Scuppernong River, since it was all cypress or cedar swamp, all we were able to do was slowly run a boat along the river’s edge to see if there were any signs of piers, docks, or other similar features or small areas that could be shovel tested,” he explained. “At the other project area along the Little Alligator River and fronting Albemarle Sound, most of the project area was also swamp, but often thick with phragmites, an invasive reedy plant. We were able to walk over the small beach areas looking for artifacts and dig shovel test pits in scattered areas.”

The underwater survey took about a week to complete for each of the areas, while the terrestrial survey work for all three areas totaled over three months last fall.

“As we expected, the mainland and Huggins Island portions of Hammocks Beach State Park have been used by people for thousands of years. Archaeological site types include large pre-contact shell middens and even a pre-contact village as well as the remains of historic home sites and a Confederate earthwork from the Civil War,” he said. 

At the sites along the Little Alligator River and Albemarle Sound, remains of fishing pound nets in the water were found as well as small scatters of artifacts from 19th and early 20th century houses and farms that used to line the shoreline of Albemarle Sound. Remains of a sunken ship were found during the underwater survey.

“Regrettably, there were no finds of any kind within our survey area in the Scuppernong River,” he said.

Seibel explained that this kind of work is important to North Carolina because it can help the state understand the types of archaeological resources present at Hammocks Beach.

“The more important aspect of the work is determining which of the archaeological sites along the shorelines of the park are under the most environmental threat and providing recommendations about how the state can prioritize preservation actions to help protect the most vulnerable archaeological sites and help preserve them for future generations,” he said.

In addition to the archaeological survey work, Seibel said they’re including a shoreline assessment to let the state know the types of environmental threats the archaeological sites at the park are under.

The assessment includes looking at historic and present-day data to determine the level of shoreline erosion that has taken place over the past 100 years or more, as well as projections for future erosion and other threats. This information is being used to help assess which archaeological sites are at the most risk and provide recommendations to the state for preservation efforts.

Ropp said the survey is not only going to be the baseline to gather the data of what’s at these locations and what they look like, but also testing out the methodology.

Coming out of this work will be foundational data for these areas as well as a way to perform this work, and come up with a methodology that can be adjusted as needed.

Combining AECOM’s management strategy suggestions plus boots on the ground, “we can come up with a means to manage and mitigate and adjust to these coming changes,” Ropp said.

Southerly said this work is going to be valuable in the long term because the methodology can be further developed to collect data about the different types of shorelines that “you would assume would probably be very similar” but are different, like the Alligator River and Hammocks Beach.

“You’re still coastal, you’re on the sounds, but putting tools in the toolbox so to speak, and having a methodology, having techniques, knowing what works, knowing what doesn’t work, lets us and lets other archaeologists once these reports are published, look at it and adapt and evolve the sites and that alone — other than figuring out what we’ve got here in North Carolina — that methodology, those techniques that can go into the field that someone else can use can help sites elsewhere, help someone else manage the sites collect the data before the sites become inundated,” he said.

Within this project, Ropp explained they plan to look at known sites across the coastal counties to see where they are in relation to some of these climate projections, particularly with sea level rise. “There’ll be a lot coming out of this project beyond the survey that we’re doing on the shoreline.”

Ropp and Southerly are encouraging the public to share any history or information about Hammocks Beach and the sites in Tyrrell County. Email the team at archaeology@ncdcr.gov.

U.S. Forest Service officials are asking the public to provide feedback on a project that addresses damage caused during Hurricane Florence and will restore and increase the resiliency of the shorelines along the Neuse River.

Officials released an environmental assessment for the proposed Neuse River Recreation Sites Project in Croatan National Forest that would repair and enhance around 100 acres of Flanners Beach, Fisher’s Landing, Pine Cliff and Siddie Fields Recreation Sites in Craven County.

Visit the project website to review the environmental assessment and comment on the project by 11:59 p.m. Nov. 18.

Adaptive approaches for the living shoreline stabilization are to include gradual-slope finishing engineered for safety and stability as well as phased native ecosystem revegetation. Amenities at all recreation sites would be repaired, replaced, and enhanced as appropriate.

Powerful Hurricane Florence made landfall in September 2018 and caused catastrophic damage. High winds, flooding and a large storm surge eroded the Neuse River shoreline, toppled trees, and damaged infrastructure. The erosion created unstable cliff faces at the recreation sites and were closed in 2018 to immediately address public safety hazards.

Officials said the unstable cliffs are a safety risk to the public and infrastructure is at risk to catastrophic damage from future storms.

The 30-day public commenting period began Thursday, Oct. 19.

Contact Victoria Payne, NEPA Planner, Disaster Assistance Recovery Team, at victoria.payne@usda.gov with questions. Mark comments as “Attention: Neuse River Recreation Sites.”

Written comments can be submitted online via the project website, by mail to District Ranger Ron Hudson, Croatan Ranger District, 141 E. Fisher Ave, New Bern, NC 28560, or by Fax to 252-638-5628.

Comments submitted anonymously will be accepted and considered; however, anonymous comments will not provide the agency with the ability to provide the respondent with subsequent environmental documents.

Last in a series.

The week after Hurricane Florence devastated eastern North Carolina in September 2018, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center Executive Director Karen Willis Amspacher wrote in an online message to members and patrons that throughout the 13 unincorporated communities making up Down East and the entire county, “we’ve been putting back the pieces.”

But “in the midst of the damage and pain throughout Down East, the Museum has suffered far more damage than originally seen.” She continued that there were significant leaks in the facility, mold was growing on the carpet, floors were buckling and drywall was crumbling. 

By mid-October 2018, teams and equipment had been brought in to help manage moisture, and staff and volunteers had completely emptied the nearly destroyed building so the damaged floors, walls and roof could be replaced, Coastal Review reported at the time. The museum reopened May 2020, after the $3.4 million in repairs were completed. 

Hurricane Florence’s impact on Down East initially grabbed the attention of researchers, agencies, educators, students, advocates and others invested in adaptation and resilience, leading to research on ghost forests, sea level rise, inundation and flooding. They’ve formed the Down East Resilience Network to raise awareness and create a better understanding of the environmental changes to the area and find solutions. 

As part of that awareness effort, the network hosted a two-day community conversation Sept. 12-13 at the museum on Harkers Island to discuss Down East since the 2018 Category 1 storm and how to prepare better for “the next Florence.” 

Over the course of the two-day conversation, attendees were given tours of Cape Lookout National Seashore and Down East communities, they heard the science behind ghost forests and king tides, had discussions with representatives from the North Carolina departments of transportation and insurance, and area utilities.

There also was time for residents to voice their concerns including the everyday flooding plaguing Down East, the poorly maintained ditches throughout the area, and frustrations with new development. 

Upgrading transportation infrastructure

Department of Transportation Assistant State Hydraulic Engineer Matt Lauffer, Division 2 Engineer Jeff Cabaniss and Division 2 Deputy Engineer Jeremy Stroud explained during the conversation that the state agency is preparing for climate-related change.

Division 2 is responsible for eight counties, including Carteret, and manages preconstruction, planning and construction, and maintenance of roads, bridges and ditches and culverts along state routes. 

Cabaniss said the agency is one of the largest landowners in the state because it owns rights of way. 

NCDOT’s responsibility when it comes to drainage is two fold, he continued. First is to keep water off the road if possible and the other is to divert through pipes, culverts and bridges the water that is coming.

Since the department owns facilities in all communities, as communities face issues with flooding, so does NCDOT. “A lot of times, we have the ditches alongside the road. We can clean those out, but we can’t make (the water) go away from the road because that goes off the right of way. And we don’t have the permission, the funds or the people to make that happen,” he said. 

NCDOT removes debris from the roadways and to restore the network after emergencies and other catastrophic events, Stroud added.

But not all ditches are state-maintained, especially Down East where artificial drainage can also funnel water onto land as well as roadways.

To prepare for how environmental changes will affect transportation infrastructure, Lauffer said NCDOT is working with climate scientists to design projects that consider more hurricane surge and sea level rise, and the implications of those on a proposed facility, such as an interstate. Planners are also beginning to incorporate resilience methodology in new projects. 

 “We’re definitely looking at the hazards that can adversely affect that facility,” he said, and how to best design projects. 

The agency is using past flooding data for vulnerability assessments. An assessment that is nearly complete is for U.S. Highway 70 between the state ferry terminal at Cedar Island and Raleigh that will look at the vulnerability of that major corridor.

Cabaniss said that, on the maintenance side, NCDOT is replacing older, smaller drainage pipes. Recently, a 24-inch pipe in Davis was replaced with a 55-inch by 72-inch pipe. 

Stroud added that they get recommendations from the hydraulic unit for every pipe that is replaced, a requirement now for projects that receive federal funding. 

“If we have future events, we can show that we brought it up to the current standards,” he said. “Hopefully there is no damage to that structure, and even if there is, it’s not because we put an inadequate pipe size in that would not meet the criteria for that event.”

Lauffer said that after Hurricane Florence, there was a huge realization that NCDOT could do better to know what to expect during major storms and how they affect the larger transportation network.

To do that, NCDOT has partnered with other state agencies and researchers who have tools and programs in place to measure flooding across the state, like the Flood Inundation Alert Network. NCDOT is using that data to project what roadways could be inundated based on the forecast for a particular storm. The agency also has a system that continually monitors 15,800 major bridge structures and culverts statewide. 

“We have a better understanding of the vulnerability of our facilities and structures,” Lauffer said, which they’re trying to get a better handle on “so that we can potentially recover faster, respond better, and potentially save lives by knowing these things are coming.”

Girding utilities 

Heidi Smith, manager of energy services and corporate communications with Tideland Electric Membership Corp., which serves parts or all of Beaufort, Craven, Dare, Hyde, Martin and Pamlico counties, and Ethan Horne, field engineer with Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative’s resilience planning, both said the utilities they represent are working to prepare smarter. 

“We’ve just obviously had a lot of hurricanes. Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but you get smarter and smarter each time around, there’s always lessons to be learned,” Smith said.

Horne said that flooding is always a big issue, especially because it makes reaching lines when they’re down more dangerous and difficult, but Carteret-Craven Electric Co-op is going to be better with the next Florence, starting with upgrades to the main office in Newport. 

A new fuel system that holds 10,000 gallons of diesel, a new radio tower for better communications, “because we always have problems communicating from Newport down to Cedar Island, Harkers Island area, especially when the towers are down,” he said. The co-op is working on improving response to outages, putting in a new substation in Otway, upgrading lines, and talking about bringing in different contractors with specialized equipment for hurricane response.

Smith said there’s a lot of challenges for underground infrastructure, including inundation, falling limbs and trees in ghost forests, and fires that burn and burn for months, especially for places like mainland Hyde County that are losing population. 

There’s so much technology, but “Here’s what I’m going to tell you, you’ve got to be prepared. We’re getting people back on faster than ever before. Our lives are more electrified, it is more inconvenient but what is shocking,” she said, is that in her 31 years with the utility, she’s seen a lot of hurricanes, but during Hurricane Florence, she saw communities flood that had never been flooded before. 

“When you’ve been flooded before, you’re better prepared than if you haven’t been,” Smith continued. She explained that she witnessed 900 of 2,000 homes in a community flood and “people literally died sooner because of that, because they’ve never been through it before. They didn’t have the mental infrastructure. They didn’t have the physical infrastructure. They didn’t have the family infrastructure –nothing to make them through it. And we’ve got to better prepare people. Because preparation makes us better. Preparation helps us emerge and resume our lives much more quickly. And we’ve got to do it. And we’re going to help lead the way.”

Understanding insurance

Jessica Gibbs, regional director for coastal northeast North Carolina with the state Department of Insurance, said the department has many services and is available to answer any questions. 

“We’re there to help you understand it, help you make sure you’re getting exactly what you need, and you’re not being overcharged, and you’re not being double-covered.” She reiterated that experts in the department answer the calls, not a recording. There are also resources on the department’s website to prepare and recover from catastrophic events. 

Also with the Department of Insurance, Tim Crawley, consumer complaints analyst, told those in attendance that if you run across issues in making a claim, he’s the person you contact. 

Here on the coast, he said during the community conversation, “Most companies will exclude wind and hail, so then you have to chase the wind and hail policy down” and if you have a federally underwritten loan, they’re going to require you to carry flood insurance on your home as well. “Those are the challenges you’re having to face here.” 

He added that it’s important to make sure your coverage is in sync with the current real estate market and adequate for your dwelling – don’t just base it on your tax records.

“When a claim is filed for, especially here, you’re having a multifront attack on your property. You’ve got water coming up from the ground to flood, and then you’ve got the wind assault from above,” he said, and the insurance company is going to have to determine how the damage occurred. For example, if the floor or carpeting is soaked, and there’s a saturation line coming up the wall, the insurance company’s going to say that’s flood related and will have to go through the flood policy. 

“The home policy is a covered-peril policy,” Crawley said. 

That means it only covers those perils that are expressly stated in the policy. 

“We all think, well, I have insurance, so I’ve got everything from hurricanes to lightning, to alien invasion, to my kid drawing all over the house with crayons, you know. It is written as a covered-peril policy for a very specific reason,” Crawley said.

Then there’s also the language used in homeowners policies. “It says they will repair or replace. The word ‘repair’ is first for a very specific reason: They’d rather put X-number of shingles on your roof than have to (replace) your entire roof.”

Ryan Cox, president of Insight Planning & Development consultant services, said he defined a natural flood as moving water covering two or more properties, and that could be your property and the road, which is state property. “If the road and your property are flooded, then that is two or more properties, but that is the definition of a natural flood,” he said. “Flood is water moving across the ground, that’s a flood. If it’s from the roof, that’s wind and hail.”

Your insurance agent is also a great resource to find out if you have the right coverage, Crawley added. But, he warned, agents sell policies, they do not adjust claims.

“Once the claim is filed with the insurance company, it’s the adjuster that’s driving the bus at that point,” he said, adding that the agent has to step aside to let the claims organization take over.

Crawley said he tells everybody before any storm that their smartphone is their best tool. He encourages residents to take photos of their insurance policies and expensive or bigger items, like bedroom and living room furniture and electronics, and make sure those are saved in online storage. 

“As a former claims adjuster, the easier you make it on the adjuster, the faster you’re going to go through the process,” he said, so have your policy information ready when you file a claim.

Cox added that just because you are not required to have flood insurance, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get flood insurance. Many residents don’t get flood insurance because they’re not in a special flood hazard area, or 100-year floodplain. A 100-year floodplain means there’s a 1% chance of annual flooding, or a one-in-a-hundred chance every year that an area could flood. 

“The gamble is, where is it going to happen? It can happen in the western part of the state for flash flooding. It can happen in the central part of the state through flash flooding or hurricane. It can happen either here from storm surge, or it can happen as a combination of storm surge and riverine flooding,” he said, which is when water from the ocean or sound – storm surge – and riverine flooding meet. 

He encourages residents to have flood insurance, whether in a floodplain or not, “the worst is having to tell somebody that there’s nothing I can do for you because you didn’t have flood insurance,” Cox said.

Identifying what’s next

Organizers spent the weeks after the community conversation compiling notes collected during the two days of programming to identify concerns and what actions are needed. 

The following are some of the comments provided to and compiled by organizers and shared in a spreadsheet with Coastal Review: 

“One person says that recurring flooding Down East is driven not only by sea level rise, but also by poorly maintained ditches – not enough, filled with debris, etc.”

“The tours through Down East communities were eye-opening and having residents leading the way gave me a lot of perspective on the issues they’re facing.”

“I’ll admit that when I first heard about global warming thirty years ago, I thought I’d never live to see it or feel it. Obviously, I was wrong.” 

And one comment said the realistic expectation is that it’s not possible to be able “to protect every parcel” but they “don’t have to run for the hills.”

“Environmentalists aren’t going to let us dump [referring to water] into Sound” later goes on to say that she understands that it may impact sea life, but says that “water needs to go.”

The spreadsheet also detailed notes where action was needed, such as Down East needs to look at all the options for community sustainability and have a “seat at the table” when it comes to planning for roads and other infrastructure, and for a readiness, response, recovery plan to work it has to be developed with the community. 

Amspacher told Coastal Review after the event that she believed everyone who participated went away feeling that the conversation was positive for all involved.

“The community learned about resources for adapting to the changes, and the researchers and agencies gained a firsthand look at the issues Down East residents live with every day,” she said. “These two days were the beginning of many more conversations that have taken place since this gathering, and more are underway for the immediate and long-term future. Those who helped plan see it as an excellent first step in connecting needs and resources.”

Among those who helped plan the conversation were North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency Resilience Planner Holly White, Western Carolina University geology professor Rob Young, and lifelong Down East resident Chris Yeomans, a retired educator. 

White told Coastal Review that resiliency staff attended the recent meetings of community leaders Down East to listen to their concerns about flooding issues and other hazards impacting these areas. 

“We want to understand the local perspectives as a continuation of NCORR’s recent community work in the eastern half of the state through a disaster resilience program called RISE. Through hearing the perspectives of those that live in the region, we hope to determine if NCORR or other partners can be helpful in increasing the resiliency of the communities,” White said.

Young, who is director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western, told Coastal Review that he became involved in the network three years ago when he met Amspacher. 

She shared with him the issues she saw for Down East and how the unincorporated areas of the counties seem to have trouble getting resilience funding and organizing for projects, “Even though it is clearly one of the most exposed areas to coastal hazards in the state,” he explained.

Areas like Down East have a lot of trouble developing projects and getting resilience funds because it’s not an incorporated municipality. It’s really easy for the state to work with a municipality that has lots of capacity, like planning and GIS departments, “but working with an area that doesn’t have any of that, you have to go through the county. And if the county is either not interested or if the county doesn’t have the capacity, then those folks end up at the end of the line.”

Young said meetings like the community conversation are important “even though we didn’t walk out of there with the projects developed and money on the way” and because the state agency representatives showed up and listened, they were reminded what and where the needs are “because ultimately, they are going to have to drive some of these solutions” by working with county governments.

Yeomans, a retired Carteret County principal, spoke to Coastal Review in a follow-up interview from the front porch of his daughter’s home on Harkers Island that she just purchased. He was helping with odds and ends that needed fixing. 

He said he sees how vulnerable Down East is to storms and sea level rise. 

“The water is higher than it was 20 or 30 years ago,” he said. Adding it’s the changing environment is just part of nature, “but I think we humans have sped up that process.” 

His question, which appears to be on the minds of most Down East residents, is “How can locals maintain their heritage and maintain where they live. Be able to stay here and thrive, too.”

When he was a young boy growing up on Harkers Island, before Down East was “discovered,” he could see development coming. He observed it on the Outer Banks, and knew it was imminent for Down East, he said. 

Now, what gets his attention is development in the unincorporated communities, and the associated septic systems and well water, especially in low-lying areas where there’s sea level rise, which is saturating the ground. 

When does development maximize our ability to sustain the natural environment and human interaction? He asked. “When do we put up a ‘No Vacancy’ sign? Who’s going to make that decision?”

That concern, Yeomans continued, runs parallel to Down East resilience efforts. 

“My heart is Down East. I love the Down East people. I love our culture. And I want to see it protected as much as we can with the changes that are happening,” and those changes need to happen responsibly, and in a way that protects the environment and the Down East heritage, he said.

Second in a series.

Aerial photographs that capture ghost forests, pilings jutting up from the water in Hatteras Inlet, the narrow two-lane N.C. Highway 12 at North River Bridge, and oceanfront homes with waves lapping at the front steps were hanging in the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island in late June 2018 as part of a multimedia exhibit showing climate-related change.

“Rising: Perspectives of Change along the North Carolina Coast,” featuring 15 photographs accompanied by firsthand accounts, was on display when Hurricane Florence lingered over eastern North Carolina just a few months later in mid-September, amplifying and exacerbating the changes focused on in the exhibit. 

In the very room where the exhibit survived the storm, its co-creator Ryan Stancil and a gathering of Down East residents, community leaders and academics in September revisited that scene from five years ago when the storm hit and then, its aftermath. Stancil and Dr. Barbara Garrity Blake had collected the oral histories to accompany Baxter Miller’s photography for the exhibit funded by North Carolina Sea Grant.

“Five years ago, this world changed swiftly,” Stancil said Sept. 13 to those participating in the two-day community conversation, coordinated by the Down East Resilience Network.

The network is made up of researchers, agencies, educators, students, advocates and others invested in adaptation and resilience was formed three years ago to raise awareness of the environmental changes taking place in the region.

“Florence sank her teeth into Down East – gnashing at the banks, shoving water up through the marsh and into the 13 unincorporated villages,” Stancil continued. “She dumped nearly 30 inches of rain and left in her wake damage and flooding like we’ve never seen. Homes destroyed, business at a standstill and livelihoods in jeopardy.”

People Down East were battered and bruised, “But, if you know anything about Down East, you know the people are strong, self-reliant and resilient,” and in the days, weeks and years that followed, they held close to each other, neighbor helping neighbor.

“So much has changed since Florence came ashore,” Stancil said. “10 years ago, we were asking what was happening around us. Five years ago, we were asking what we could do to fix it. Today, we are asking, ‘How can we buy more time?’”

Stancil said that the museum’s executive director, Karen Willis Amspacher, has said that “Rising” had inspired the community conversation.

“Sure, ‘Rising’ might play a small part in why we’re here today, the truth is, today’s conversation was inevitable,” he continued.

“There is a different sort of storm brewing – one of eroding shorelines, migrating fish, intruding saltwater, and inundated roadways. And Down East is smack-dab in the middle of that storm’s path,” Stancil said. “The people who live here aren’t the only ones who know it.”

In the last five years, Down East has attracted the attention of most of the state’s academic institutions and state agencies, and there’s at least a dozen research projects taking place in the communities.

“I’m grateful to see the interest and engagement of so many researchers as we all work to open doors of communication. We must work together to better understand the science and its intersection with place and people and policy. I believe the work we are doing here today can be a foundation for resilience building, in unincorporated communities across North Carolina and beyond,” he said.

What is changing?

The fishing industry is having to navigate changes in water quality, development and once-reliable species migrating.

Hardy Plyler with Ocracoke Seafood Co. said he had been told several times long ago by an Ocracoke fisherman that fish populations are controlled by natural cycles and are influenced by climatic events — hurricanes, freezes, salinity changes, droughts — many things that are in the natural world that affect these fish over and above regulations by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

Fish also are influenced by environmental factors like pollution, agricultural runoff, municipal wastewater, and industrial pollution. When you have a big rainstorm in coastal North Carolina, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers wash off the farmland into sounds and rivers, he added.

Adam Tyler, owner of Harkers Island’s Core Sound Oyster Co., said one of the biggest challenges on the coast he’s seeing is development and hardened shorelines. He said that living shorelines, rather than seawalls or bulkheads, are an effective way to protect the coast and promote resilience.

Tyler said there’s a marshy property a half-mile from the water under development in Carteret County that he knows won’t perk, and is being backfilled. Tyler said he didn’t know how that could be allowed.

“And then I asked one of the guys who built the home down here, and he told me, he said, ‘son,’ he said, ‘When you know the right developer and you got enough money, anything can be done.’ That conversation was about six weeks ago,” Tyler said in mid-September.

Adding that the commercial fishing industry “always get blamed for everything,” Tyler said it’s not responsible for all the coastal environmental damage.

“It’s not all us. I’m not saying that we don’t bear some burden there, but it’s not all of us. It’s the people coming in here backfilling these marshes and destroying the ecosystem. I see that all the time.”

Tyler said his frustration with regulatory agencies encouraged him to transition to oyster farming to keep himself on the water and instill in his son the proud Down East heritage.

Raleigh’s Locals Seafood Market owner and co-founder Ryan Speckman said he’s seen the shrimp fishery change since 2010, and the company has been having a hard time getting the popular bottom fish — snapper, grouper, sea bass, triggerfish — that used to be reliable almost year-round.

Speckman said that, traditionally, they’d get their bottom fish from the southeastern part of the state, the coast from Carteret County south, but he’s seen more triggerfish in waters north of Hatteras than in the southeast during the last two years.

Because the Raleigh-based company sells fresh, local seafood bought almost daily from fishermen along the coast, Speckman said he hears feedback daily, including that some species once abundant on the North Carolina coast have moved north.

‘We don’t have to wait for these changes’

Ghost forests are another visible environmental change Down East, and in much of coastal North Carolina.

Duke University professor and ecosystem biologist Emily Bernhardt explained that these dead and dying trees are “an iconic symbol of rapid change” on the coastal plain.

“There’s always hurricanes blowing salt onto the landscape, and there’s trees dying. But in the past, those trees would come back,” Bernhardt said. “What we’re seeing now is that we’re having a lot of ghost forests forming, and the trees are often not growing back.”

When a coastal forested wetland is lost, and can’t grow back because the soil is too salty or too wet for trees to grow, it is a fundamental change to the ecosystem.

“The big question I’m interested in is, what is going to happen to the ecosystems and communities of the eastern coastal plain over the next century? What makes these systems and people and communities vulnerable? What is the impact that we’re already seeing? And that we can expect? And then the big question, which is not a scientific question, it’s a human question, is, what is going to happen next?” Bernhardt continued.

The conversation about rapid environmental change taking place in this country implies it’s going to happen in the future, Bernhardt said, but there are areas already subject to widespread tidal flooding, called recurrent or nuisance flooding. “We don’t have to wait for these changes.”

During hurricanes and tropical storms, areas Down East are extremely vulnerable to storm surge, which can bring not just water but also salt. Storm surge is a big component of how salt gets delivered to the system.

So is drought, which is a very confusing problem to explain to people, she said. Salt can penetrate the ground when it’s arid and when it’s extremely wet, and both are a risk for saltwater intrusion.

“We focus a lot of attention on hurricanes because they’re acute. But what we’re looking at with ghost forests is kind of more of a slow disaster. Those hurricanes might push you over the edge, but it’s a disaster that’s building over time as a result of the accumulation of salts in these exposed and vulnerable landscapes,” Bernhardt said.

Thermal expansion

Scientists have evidence that water levels are rising, another change affecting Down East now and in the long term.

“We’ve been measuring water level in many different ways, and yes, water levels are rising,” said North Carolina King Tides Project founder Dr. Christine Voss, a retired coastal scientist from University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences.

“Part of the whole sea level rise story is just the thermal expansion of water,” she continued.

Also affecting water levels are wind, the tides and the Gulf Stream.

Last year, federal agencies published a report saying that water levels are expected to rise within the next three decades, by 2050. “That difference for the East Coast is about 10 to 14 inches. And that’s kind of hard to comprehend,” said Voss.

King tides have always happened and are predictable, taking place when the moon is at its closest distance to the Earth, causing extremely high high tides, and extremely low low tides. “We use those high tide events to help us visualize what future higher sea levels will look like. It’s kind of giving us a glimpse of what future higher sea levels will look like,” Voss said.

In the last 20 years, sea levels have risen about 6 inches. Within the next 30, federal officials forecast sea levels up to a foot higher. 

Voss said other visible changes are related. “We’re having more and stronger tropical storms,” and know that these will be stronger.”

One of the biggest take-home messages, Voss said during the gathering, is that the changing environmental conditions are basically integrated into the coastal landscape, “and I’ll say in your seascape as well. You are the communities seeing these changes. And there’s a lot of complexity,” she said, referring to the numerous changes happening at once, including warmer temperatures and sea level rise.

Katherine Arnade is co-leader of the Sunny Day Flooding Project, which aims to monitor how often land is flooded due to sea level rise. Project scientists are measuring water levels and storm drains using special gauges they have developed. The sensors also take photos of the roadway and can measure flow in stormwater systems, including the contributions from rainfall and, in some cases, groundwater.  The first installation was in Beaufort in 2021.

“We’re committed to learning about flooding in Down East and collecting data that’s useful to your community for as long as long as we can,” Arnade said, adding the sensors will be there for at least five years. Right now, there are only four sensors in use but the program could expand.

Realtime sensor data is available online.

Priorities identified

Dr. Rob Young, a geology professor and director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, has been part of the Down East Resilience Network since its inception three years ago. Young recently worked with Cape Lookout National Seashore officials to assess its villages’ and historic buildings’ vulnerability and has piloted a program for vulnerability assessments of private homes Down East.

“I can’t tell you how many times in the last 24 hours I’ve had people come up to me frustrated with the nature of the new development that’s going on Down East, where folks are filling wetlands, building in places where we know that septic systems cannot possibly be perking,” he said the second day of the conversation.

Young said residents are frustrated. These folks who are generally suspicious of regulations, always seem to be regulated, while they see others not be held to the same standards. And elected county officials – the only local government representation residents of unincorporated Down East hamlets have – and county management were absent, despite being invited to the event.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the people who might answer some of those questions for us at the county level are not with us for these two days to help us find solutions or have that discussion. I don’t know how to fix that either,” Young said.

Young said his priorities are how to keep residents from being displaced by flooding, how transportation infrastructure and utilities will be maintained in the future, and how to deal with the public health implications of failing water treatment and septic systems.

“The final piece to all of this, I think, is trying to understand how we tap into some of those infrastructure dollars that have become available over the last couple of years that just don’t seem to make their way Down East,” Young said. “How can we tap into all of the new sources of funding available from the federal government that comes to the state and find a way to get some of those funds into a place like Down East, for meaningful projects? That’s what we really need to know, at the end of the day, from a meeting like this. We have to stop talking and start doing stuff. And we need our elected officials to really engage and help make that happen.”

Next: What is being done to prepare?

First in a series.

Nothing’s been the same since Hurricane Florence for the 13 unincorporated Down East communities in Carteret County.

The slow-moving Category 1 storm hovered over the state after making landfall Sept. 14, 2018, on Wrightsville Beach, causing record-breaking flooding and dumping dozens of inches of rain on eastern North Carolina.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the tropical cyclone cost $24 billion, or $29 billion in today’s dollars, with the total damage from Florence in North Carolina being more than the combined cost of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island, like much of Down East, was not spared. The 22,000-square foot facility suffered millions of dollars in damage.

After extensive repairs and being sidelined by COVID-19, the facility has been back open for a bit, but it isn’t back to normal.

To discuss the changes taking place over the last five years and to look ahead, the Down East Resilience Network coordinated in mid-September a two-day community conversation at the museum. 

The network made up of researchers, agencies, educators, students, advocates and others invested in adaptation and resilience was formed almost three years ago to raise awareness of the environmental changes taking place in the region.

To begin the conversation, tours were offered Sept. 12 of Cape Lookout National Seashore to learn about its resiliency strategies and of Down East communities to see the risks and realities of those living there. Attendees returned to the museum Sept. 13 to hear what’s happening with the commercial fishing industry, talks on the science behind flooding and ghost forests, North Carolina Department of Transportation infrastructure plans, and ways to navigate the ever-more-difficult insurance industry.

Guides on one of the Down East tours that hot September day were lifelong residents Chris Yeomans, Cheryl Lawrence and Richard Gillikin.

The trolley with about two dozen onboard meandered along narrow, two-lane roads lined with deep ditches.

Yeomans, a retired Carteret County educator who led the tour, began by encouraging passengers to observe Down East, “where we call home.”

He, along with Lawrence and Gillikin, pointed out throughout the two-hour tour where roads and properties tend to regularly flood, which seemed to be in more places than not, and the history of some of the older houses.

When the trolley paused on a corner in the unincorporated community of Marshallberg, Lawrence’s home of more than 40 years was just down the road.

She gestured out the window and said, “this is Core Sound.”

“I say I live on Core Sound, but actually, during a storm, I live in Core Sound,” Lawrence said. “I have sat on my front porch during a hurricane, and I have watched waves come across the banks from the ocean into the Sound, and I have had white caps in my front yard.”

She moved into her new home in 1981, and that summer, there was a strong northeast storm.

“From day one, I’ve always had flooding and never gotten help. I asked for ditches to be dug, we just can’t get the state to help us,” she said. And the flooding has changed over the years. It lasts longer and is higher, and when her yard floods, it “takes forever” for the water to recede.

In addition to the nuisance flooding that appears to affect everyday life for residents, the vegetation is suffering from saltwater intrusion, leaving a different kind of scar on the landscape.

“We have what we call ghost forests,” Lawrence said. Her road used to be full of greenery and now “the trees are nothing but sticks, no leaves or limbs or anything. The saltwater has taken over. I cannot plant flowers in my yard.”

Gillikin, whose family has lived for generations Down East, reiterated that everything has changed since Florence, especially the trees.

“I might hurt some people’s feelings here. I’m not so sure that I’m on board with global warming and all this mess, to be honest with you. But I do know things have changed. That’s all I can say. Places are flooding now that didn’t flood before,” Gillikin said.

“Trees are dying,” he continued. The “pines were just as green as you’ve ever seen a pine tree from top to bottom. Now, it looks like a nuclear bomb was dropped off here. People can say the hurricanes did it, but hurricanes have been around from the beginning of time as far as I know. When I grew up in the ’60s and ’70s we had hurricanes, and it never killed the trees like this.”

And the ditches along the roads rarely held water, but now they stay filled, Gillikin continued. “It’s an everyday deal. There’s water in these ditches all the time.”

Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, made a few points about what the passengers were observing during the tour.

He began by saying that while it’s not his job to convince anybody anything about climate change, “I can tell you one thing we do know about change, and that is that sea level is rising. That one’s about as straightforward as you can get. We’ve been measuring it from tide gauges for over 100 years, everywhere on the planet. The volume of the ocean, the amount of water in the ocean, is increasing and sea level is going up.”

The rising sea level is doing more than eroding beaches, it’s raising the regional groundwater table.  “We’re talking about 16 inches over the last three or four decades. In a place that is as flat and low as this, a foot and a half makes a lot of difference.”

The rising water table also means that when it rains, there’s less space for that water to seep into the ground. “You take a rain bomb that’s dropping an inch or two of rain on you, and it can’t go into the ground anymore the way that it used to, it has to run off,” he said. “What we’re facing Down East is this gradual rise in the water table. It’s also the driver of the ghost forests.”

Yeomans, earlier in the tour, had spoken of his concerns about what will happen when the septic systems and drinking water wells Down East are ruined, when the ground is saturated so that fish and shellfish habitat die because of stormwater runoff and failed septic systems.

Young responded that failing septic systems are a public health issue.

“I would be stunned if there’s an in-ground septic system in this community around here that’s functioning. I would be stunned. Maybe there’s some mounted septic systems. Maybe there are some that have been modified, but septic systems that perked 20 years ago, 30 years ago, they’re not perking anymore,” Young said. “Your septic system is not treating the effluent that you’re putting into that septic tank.”

Young called it a threefold problem.

“How do we help folks keep their homes dry? And that’s on the top of the list for me, individual people,” he said. “Can they elevate? Can they afford to elevate? What would it cost? Is there a way to help them do that proactively, not after the next storm when they’ve had water in their house?”

Yeomans also has been thinking about what can be done to prepare for a storm.

“Before the storm comes, why can’t we have resources in various staging areas, either at schools or at fire departments, or somewhere that will be relatively safe? We don’t want our resource to be washed away — things that can be there before the storm,” he said.

Yeomans told the tour group that the official storm shelter in the county is in Newport, which is several miles and bridges away, but the community will open Atlantic School for people in flood-prone areas or in mobile homes. He formerly served as principal there.

His suggestion to help Down East residents was to have a generator for the entire school and turn Atlantic School into a storm shelter for residents who aren’t financially able to prepare, and the elderly who need electricity for their medical care. It would also keep the air conditioning running to prevent books and other supplies from getting moldy, and to preserve the refrigerated food in the cafeteria.

“There’s resources at the school where when bridges are washed away, and roads are washed away, you can have access to those,” he said. “I know it’s a pretty big measure and is going to cost the money up front, but it can save some lives.”

Community night

Following the tour, the museum hosted a community night to look back on the fifth anniversary of the storm.

Harkers Island resident Corey Lawrence opened the discussion. He said in 2018, 11 days after the storm when the power was finally restored, he wrote a Facebook post to capture his feelings.

Five years later, from the podium inside the now-repaired museum in front of about 60 or so, he read from that post.

Lawrence said he appreciated how simple it is just to flip on a switch and have light, for the fridge to be cold, to have hot water, and to have the air conditioner running again.

“If there’s anything good that comes from these storms is people I have never seen before and know I’ll never see again that came from places like Rocky Mount and Wilson, and Louisburg. And they showed up with pig cookers and randomly set up wherever, and you get word that there’s food,” he said, his voice thick with emotion.

“I appreciate people that did things like that. I’ve been reminded to use my manners even more than I usually do. I’ve said ‘thank you’ after standing in a line and I never meant it more in my whole life,” he continued. “Patience is gold, and so is water, a warm plate of food, ice, and gasoline. I believe that angels were everywhere, and the saints still exist. Giving is better, and oftentimes is easier than receiving. I learned that serving others brings joy. That warm food is soul food. That ounce of prevention really is worth a pound of cure.”

The Rev. Robbie Phillips, former director of Carteret Long Term Recovery Alliance, told the crowd that “we are very much still in recovery tonight.” Five years later there are still people in the community who have not recovered, and might not ever recover. “To me, that’s staggering. Because 95% of the people in our community have (recovered), and they’ve long forgotten about the people who have not.”

The alliance was formed about five weeks after Florence and the organizers committed to helping until the last home is complete. “And I’m here to tell you tonight that the last home is not complete.”

As of mid-September, 623 families, or cases, had been to the alliance for help. Of those, 477 have been closed by working with agencies and partners, and the alliance directly closed 93 cases. There are still 146 cases open, with 73 being managed entirely by the alliance.

Phillips, a Presbyterian minister, said the biggest lesson she learned came shortly after Florence when Presbyterian Disaster Assistance met with the community.

“They gave us an image and I’ll take this with me always,” Phillips said. “They said a disaster, particularly like a hurricane, rips the roof off of a community, just like it rips the roof off of our homes, and it gives us an opportunity to stare into the community, like we’ve stared into our homes and find the weaknesses, find the things that need to be fixed. Folks, our roof on our community is still ripped off,” she said. “We are still staring in and finding the weaknesses, seeing where we need to fix things and adjust things. And I think we will be doing this for a very long time.”

State agency representatives and the audience discussed the greatest challenges for Down East, which included recovery inequity, infrastructure, insurance concerns, the role of federal recovery agencies, and how to get help on the county and state level.

More than one attendee spoke up about how deserted they felt by the county.

One resident asked if there were any county representatives attending the community night. Upon learning the answer was no, she said, “They need to come to the table with this community and have a real discussion about what we need here. As unincorporated communities in a large geographic area, how do we get our voice out there?”

Another resident added, “we need the county to be more active. We need somebody that will listen, that says, ‘hey, we’re really going to do what we say and when we can get this done.” He added that he’d been fighting for 20 years to get ditches fixed.

I’m living in the house I’ve been in for 67 years, and when I think about things changing, it’s changed,” he continued. “Because first of all, hurricanes, the frequency certainly has changed, the intensity has changed. So, something’s going on. I don’t know what, I’m not that smart. But I know it’s changed. And if we flood with a northeast wind, with just wind and rain, what do you think we’re going to have when a hurricane comes in?”

Next: What’s changed? What’s next?

Guest commentary

In 2018, Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington, North Carolina, taking 42 lives and costing more than $16 billion in estimated damage. Now, five years later, many residents and communities are still reeling from the storm’s floodwaters. Blue tarps remain on unpatched roofs, businesses have not returned and communities have experienced disproportionate recoveries. 

The immediate and residual impacts from hurricanes Florence and Matthew, Tropical Storm Fred and other subsequent unnamed flooding events have had long-lasting impacts on communities. As a result, these events have encouraged state leaders to take action to better prepare for future storms.

Environmental Defense Fund thanks leaders, as well as businesses, conservation groups and community members, for working to build a more flood-resilient North Carolina. Let’s look at how far we’ve come in the last five years. 

Leaders develop Flood Resiliency Blueprint 

Working in collaboration with state agencies, local governments and nongovernmental organizations, Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, and Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, led the authorization of the state’s first Flood Resiliency Blueprint. 

The blueprint will be used as a support tool to guide statewide decisions around resilience and is informed by advanced hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, which demonstrates how much water is flowing and where that water goes during a flood. Ultimately, this information will help guide investment of local, state and federal resilience funding toward cost-effective solutions to reduce flood vulnerability. 

The Flood Resiliency Blueprint will also provide accurate and timely information on flood risks and effective solutions for communities and landowners. This will help guide local efforts to manage and abate flooding within watersheds and river basins and help communities manage risks beyond traditional jurisdictional boundaries. In addition, it helps ensure funding is locally supported and regionally effective. 

Lawmakers expand funding for natural infrastructure

After Hurricane Florence, North Carolina’s state legislature appropriated more than $300 million toward flood mitigation efforts. Included was support to advance natural infrastructure projects and stream improvement efforts through programs at the state’s Department of Agriculture, Department of Cultural and Natural Resources (DCNR) and Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). 

The Stoney Creek effort is one example where DEQ’s Division of Mitigation Services has engaged private-sector environmental restoration firms to work with landowners and the town of Goldsboro. They have developed a watershed-scale approach to regional flooding using natural infrastructure projects, such as enhancing and restoring wetlands to store storm water and incorporating natural berms or in-ditch structures to slow the flow of storm water. 

Part of the $300 million also went to the DCNR’s Land and Water Fund to advance 17 proposals to implement natural infrastructure projects and to support the planning and construction of additional flood mitigation projects. 

Experts advance research 

State legislators and agency leaders have also advanced new studies through the University of North Carolina Collaboratory and state agencies to research the benefits of flood mitigation solutions and develop new datasets to inform the Flood Resiliency Blueprint and community solutions. 

For example, Dr. Barbara Doll from North Carolina State University led a 15-person research team to explore natural infrastructure solutions in the Neuse River Basin. The study found potential flood reductions of up to 45% in areas of high natural infrastructure adoption.

While Dr. Miyuki Hino from the University of North Carolina collaborated with colleagues and graduate students to examine floodplain management. Through her research, she found that for every building removed from the state’s floodplains, 10 new structures were built, raising concerns that floodplain buyouts are not keeping pace with new development. 

A look toward the road ahead 

Overall, these initiatives have been instrumental in helping North Carolina better prepare for the ongoing and growing threat of flooding and storm risk. We thank North Carolina leaders and collaborators for their recent efforts and ongoing commitment to address flooding. 

But even with this advancement, experts agree that many flood challenges still lie ahead. For instance, due to the Environmental Protection Agency v. Sackett ruling, millions of acres of North Carolina wetlands are now unprotected, leaving communities at risk of losing valuable, flood-reducing ecosystems. This Supreme Court decision shifts responsibility for the conservation and management of certain wetlands from federal agencies to the states. Whether and how North Carolina policymakers address the potential loss of wetlands, in addition to how much development occurs in the state’s floodplains, will significantly impact the story that is told after future storms. 

We call on leaders to prioritize state-level coordination and increase local capacity to identify and implement watershed-scale solutions, recognizing that flood solutions can’t be developed within traditional jurisdictional or landowner boundaries.

We also encourage leaders to ensure protection of wetlands and other natural flood defenses to enable communities, landowners and all North Carolinians to better prepare for and quickly recover from the next flood or storm.

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues. See our guidelines for submitting guest columns. Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The Down East Resilience Network is hosting a community conversation next week to look at how the region in Carteret County has changed, adapted, recovered and remembered since Hurricane Florence hit in September of 2018.

There will be excursions on Tuesday to either Cape Lookout or through Down East. Tuesday will close out with a community night dinner at Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island. On Wednesday, also at the museum, join in the “Community Conversation” to discuss environmental changes since Florence.

“This conversation will include information from state and federal agencies related to future storms and flooding, i.e. house-raising, road maintenance, drainage, flood insurance and other important topics,” organizers said.

The Down East Resilience Network, a group of researchers, agencies, educators, students and others invested in the adaptation and resiliency, was formed almost three years ago to raise awareness of the environmental changes taking place in the region.

Tuesday will begin with an optional tour of Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the surrounding area. Meet at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center on Harkers Island at 9:30 a.m. to board the ferry. Fee is $35 to cover transportation. Register online for one of the limited seats.

The Down East bus tour leaves from Smyrna at noon Tuesday to see planned and current projects, the wide expanse of ghost forests, road issues and other environmental changes over the past five to 20 years. Register online for the tour.

Tuesday will wrap up with the annual Community Night, “Lessons Learned from Florence and Isabel, Concerns for What Comes Next” starting with dinner at 6 p.m. and the discussion at 7 p.m. This program will focus on recovery, upgraded preparation measures, a long-term recovery update, and concerns over commercial fishing issues, crumbling roads, harbors, groundwater levels, cemeteries and landmarks.

The Community Conversation on Wednesday will begin with breakfast at 9 a.m. at the museum. Attendees will have time to view the “Living on the Edge” exhibit, which shows a chronology of the last century of storms on the coast and a changing landscape.

Related: Museum Exhibit Examines Century of Storms

Ryan Stancil and Baxter Miller, creators of the traveling exhibit “Rising,” a collaborative project combining oral history and photography, will lead a discussion starting at 9:15 a.m. on environmental changes Down East since Florence.

Related: ‘Rising’ Exhibit Documents Coastal Change

At 9:45 a.m. hear a panel of commercial and recreational fishermen and marine biologists discuss changes in what’s running along our shore and sounds.

A presentation on ghost forests will follow at 10:30 a.m., then a discussion about storms, flooding, sea level rise, data and projections is to begin at 11 a.m. The last presentation of the morning focuses on the importance of knowing risk factors for decision-making and will be at 11:30 a.m.

After lunch is served at noon, there will be a panel discussion on government response beginning at 12:45 p.m. At 2 p.m., attendees can explore adaptation strategies to ensure individual resilience from potential sources of funding for house-raising to navigating federal and private insurance.

The day will wrap up after the 3 p.m. discussion on priorities for Down East communities.

Organizers are inviting everyone to be part of the conversation. To register for any of the sessions, visit the Down East Resilience Network webpage.

Local governments in impacted and distressed counties are encouraged to apply for the $47 million the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency expects to award by this fall for housing that increases community resilience.

This is the third phase of the Affordable Housing Development Fund program, and the money is for financing multifamily or single-family housing rehabilitation and new construction outside the 100-year floodplain, officials said this week.

Funding is available for projects located in any of the federally identified most impacted and distressed, or MID, counties, with priority given to the six state-defined MID counties that are not currently supported by the fund, which are Harnett, Johnston, Sampson, Lenoir, Pitt and Beaufort counties, according to the website.

Bladen, Duplin, Jones, Pamlico, Pender and Scotland counties are strongly encouraged to apply for this third round, officials said.

The funds will be used to increase the availability of safe, affordable housing in areas of the state that experienced major damage from hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Most of these areas were already experiencing a housing shortage prior to receiving damage from multiple hurricanes. The award funds will promote rebuilding and replacing some of the lost housing stock.

Local governments interested in applying should submit letters of interest by June 27 ahead of the application period that begins June 28. Letters of interest are nonbinding but mandatory for applications.

An information session is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, May 24. Sign up for the session and learn more about the letters of interest on the Affordable Housing Development Fund website

Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Aug. 25 and awards will be announced in October. Eligibility requirements are included in the online manual.

The Affordable Housing Development Fund Program is supported by North Carolina’s Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery funding for hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

It is one of multiple housing programs overseen by NCORR through its Community Development Office.

The public can join in the virtual meeting of the state Citizen Advisory Committee set for 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday on proposed changes to the state’s action plan for use of federal mitigation funds.

For Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation funding, the committee is to advise the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency on the implementation of the Community Development Block Grant for Mitigation.

During this meeting, North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency representatives are to provide an overview of the proposed Substantial Action Plan Amendment 4 to the Community Development Block Grant for Mitigation State Action Plan. The public can submit comments on the proposed mitigation action plan changes until 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23. 

Register to attend virtually.

More information on the public comment period and how to submit feedback is available on the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency website.

Committee members include representatives from areas of North Carolina defined by HUD as “Most Impacted and Distressed” by hurricanes Matthew and/or Florence, as well as those with relevant technical and industry experience.   

The state Division of Marine Fisheries announced that it has distributed more than $7.6 million in federal financial relief to eligible members of fishing industries that sustained income losses or damages from 2018’s Hurricane Florence.

The state said it had received about $7.7 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to assist in the economic recovery of losses and damages caused by Hurricane Florence through direct payments to qualified participants.

The NOAA money was distributed Friday to 103 stakeholders deemed eligible for relief. Of those 103, there were 68 seafood dealers and processors who were awarded a total of $6.55 million, 26 for-hire fishing operations awarded a total of $454,659, four bait and tackle shops were awarded a total of $267,008, and five ocean fishing piers were awarded $349,093. Just shy of $93,000 was used to administer the relief program.

Officials said the amounts compensated for 100% of approved losses of for-hire operations and bait and tackle shops, 52.43% of approved losses of seafood dealers and processors, and 33.93% of approved losses of ocean fishing piers.

Financial payouts were based on the loss of revenue in the months of September, October, and November of 2018 relative to the previous three-year revenue average during the same time period, along with damages caused by Hurricane Florence, division officials said. Applicants were required to provide an affidavit, a North Carolina Substitute W-9, and supporting materials that documented revenue loss and property damage, according to the announcement.

Commercial fishermen and aquaculture operations were compensated by the State Funded Hurricane Florence Relief Program in 2019 and therefore were not eligible to apply for this program unless they were also a member of an eligible stakeholder group, officials said.

The Wilmington Housing Authority is one of four public housing agencies in eastern North Carolina to be awarded a portion of $14.5 million to help meet critical public housing needs.

Through the Office of Recovery and Resiliency Public Housing Restoration Fund, the awards are to increase the availability of safe, affordable public housing units in areas of the state that were heavily impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

In addition to the Wilmington Housing Authority’s award of $2.03 million, the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority was awarded $636,454, the Housing Authority of the City of Lumberton was awarded $5 million, and the Princeville Housing Authority was awarded $6.9 million.

These recipients are to use the funds to repair or replace damaged rental units or build new ones in safer locations with a lower risk of flooding.

Public housing projects from the 16 North Carolina counties federally identified as “most impacted and distressed” due to damage from hurricanes Matthew and Florence were eligible to apply for funds during the application period May 31 to Aug. 1.

Projects with unoccupied units and/or residents displaced due to storm damage were prioritized.

This latest round of awards is in addition to $9.6 million the office committed to Wilson and Lumberton projects. A total of more than $24 million in public housing funding has been awarded to date.

The Public Housing Restoration Fund Program is funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. The funding is appropriated to the state’s Community Development Block Grant program as disaster recovery grants for hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

The North Carolina agency responsible for distributing Hurricane Florence disaster relief handed out tens of millions in funding with limited oversight on how recipients spent the money.

The North Carolina Department of Public Safety, or DPS, did not independently verify how state agencies, the university and community college systems, and nonprofit Golden LEAF Foundation, spent $502 million in disaster recovery funds, according to a newly released report from the North Carolina Office of State Auditor.

That office also concluded that DPS, which distributed the funds, did not make sure recipients of $783 million had a way to track how the money was being spent and whether those entities were meeting their recovery goals.

“As a result, there was an increased risk that recipients could have misused funds without the misuse being detected and corrected timely,” according to the April audit. “Additionally, DPS was limited in its ability to know whether funds were achieving legislatively intended results and to take timely corrective action, if necessary.”

The funds — $942.4 million — were a result of the legislative-approved October 2018 Hurricane Florence Emergency Response Act.

This legislation led to the creation of the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, a DPS program responsible for providing general disaster recovery coordination and public information, outreach and application case management for residents, program and construction management services, audit, finance, compliance, and reporting on disaster recovery funds, and reporting the use, oversight and results achieved by those funds.

As of Jan. 31, 2021, DPS had distributed $783 million from the disaster recovery fund, money that was used to reimburse the costs of recovery efforts of state agencies, higher education institutions and a non-profit foundation.

Recipients of the funds were required to submit reports that included a summary of program activities and how much was spent to date to DPS on a quarterly basis.

An audit of quarterly reports from 14 recipients that administered 51 programs through January 2021 found that only 8%, four of the 51 programs, did not report what they would do with the funds for all programs, according to the report.

Sixteen of 51 programs totaling $262 million did not measure their progress on meeting their objectives.

DPS does not know whether $147 million disbursed to seven recipients used the money for repairs and renovations at public schools, universities and community colleges, counties and local governments, and volunteer fire departments. Or, whether $8 million allocated to higher education institutions was used to cover grants to assist students from disaster-declared counties pay for tuition, fees and emergency expenses.

Audit tests also show that it is unknown whether $11 million funneled to DPS was used to provide disaster housing recovery support programs for homeowners.

In his March 29 response to State Auditor Beth Wood, DPS Secretary Eddie Buffaloe Jr. wrote that the department is limited in withholding funds or providing oversight on grants.

“It is certainly our intention to comply with subrecipient monitoring standards and maintain proper program accountability within our legal authority,” he wrote.

The audit concludes, “This is not true,” saying that DPS did verify spending of recipients who turned in supporting documents between Nov. 1, 2018, through July 31, 2019.

The audit states that Hurricane Florence legislation required DPS to administer funds, which are defined as “to manage or supervise the execution, use, or conduct of.”

“Without monitoring, it would be difficult to ensure that the funds were used for authorized purposes or that the provisions and legislative intent of the Hurricane Florence Recovery legislation were carried out,” according to the audit. “The Governor, Legislators and the citizens of North Carolina should consider this clarification when evaluating DPS’s response to the audit finding.”

The state auditor recommends DPS do the following:

• Monitor recipients’ spending to ensure funds are being spent in accordance with the law.
• Develop policies and procedures to ensure each recipient identifies objectives for what they will do with the funds and track whether they’re meeting those objectives.

The audit also recommends that the General Assembly consider instituting monitoring requirements in the future for Hurricane Florence recovery funds or other emergency relief funds.

Workshops scheduled for later this month will allow residents of two eastern North Carolina regions to discuss with officials regional response and recovery strengths and weaknesses. 

Called “Public Workshop #1: Understanding Vulnerability from the Local Perspective,” the workshops are part of the state-managed Regional Resilience Portfolio Program that supports nine regional partnerships based on Council of Government boundaries in eastern North Carolina.

The Regional Resilience Portfolio Program is a component of the Regions Innovating for Strong Economies and Environment, or RISE, Program and is a partnership between the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, and N.C. Rural Center, in collaboration with the North Carolina Councils of Governments. RISE aims to support resilience in the storm-impacted regions of the state.

The Eastern Carolina Regional Resilience Portfolio Project is for the Eastern Carolina Council of Governments counties, which are Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow, Pamlico and Wayne counties. Workshops for this region are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. April 12 and again at 10 a.m. April 23. Register to attend one of the workshops by April 8

The Mid-East Commission Regional Resilience Portfolio Project is for Mid-East Commission counties, which include Beaufort, Bertie, Hertford, Martin and Pitt counties. Workshops for this region are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. April 14, both virtual, and again 1:30 p.m. April 23, a hybrid virtual and in-person meeting. Register to attend one of these meetings by April 8. 

Participants will have a chance to share personal experiences with disaster preparedness and recovery, and engage in small group discussions regarding urban, coastal and inland natural hazards during the workshops.

Afterwards, stakeholders will be invited to provide input on issues in their region via an interactive mapping platform and a survey, which will be available on this webpage after the workshops.

The state is funding the development over the next three years of five community floodprint reports to guide initiatives in areas of eastern North Carolina hit hard by hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, has committed funding to the N.C. State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab to create the floodprint, “a valuable tool for building future community resilience,” the state announced Friday.

The floodprint is a landscape planning approach developed by Coastal Dynamics Design Lab, or CDDL, to address land and water relationships. The planning process will incorporate issues such as flooding, recovery and equity. 

Coastal Dynamics Design Lab will work with five focus communities to develop a community master plan/floodprint and design proposals that can then be used to apply for grant funding.

Communities interested in participating can reach out to buyout@rebuild.nc.gov.

“Our partnership with CDDL will result in community-based plans that address resiliency and development challenges,” NCORR Director Laura Hogshead said in a statement. “We have already seen positive outcomes from the development of floodprints and refer to them when determining local needs for disaster recovery and community resilience.”

NCORR launched the collaboration in January using U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation funds.

Potential candidate communities for the floodprint process must be within the Most Impacted and Distressed, or MID, areas, as identified by HUD or the state. Other considerations include community interest and flood-vulnerable properties.

“Community floodprints are co-created with local input through public meetings and discussions, so the recommended strategies fit the needs of the people who live there,” said Andy Fox, co-director of Coastal Dynamics Design Lab.

“The new collaboration with NCORR is critical to scaling up our work to better serve people and places across eastern North Carolina,” Fox added. “The partnership builds on past successes working with NCORR staff and represents a significant opportunity to provide communities with the technical assistance required to expedite ongoing recovery efforts and attract the resources needed for long-term resiliency and full community health.”

The first of the five new floodprints will focus on Whiteville in Columbus County. Town leaders were contacted and offered the floodprint opportunity as a good fit for their community.

Floodprints have been useful for NCORR’s ReBuild NC Strategic Buyout Program, which buys eligible properties in areas at high risk of future flooding. The properties are purchased from owners who voluntarily decide to sell their property and relocate to a safer place.

To date, CDDL has designed four floodprint reports for North Carolina communities, including Lumberton phases one and two, Princeville and Pollocksville.

The completed floodprints have established the groundwork for actionable plans and have resulted in millions of dollars of additional grant-funded investments to implement the activities outlined in the reports, officials said.

“The partnership with CDDL will provide valuable tools as the Strategic Buyout Program expands in eastern North Carolina,” said Maggie Battaglin, NCORR’s buyout program manager. “The floodprint report for Pollocksville has already been useful as we begin to offer buyout options for flood-damaged properties in that community.” 

More information about the floodprint initiative is on the CDDL website. Learn more about NCORR and the Strategic Buyout Program at ReBuild.NC.Gov.

Financial relief is available to eligible seafood dealers and processors, ocean fishing piers, for-hire fishing operations, and bait and tackle shops affected by 2018’s Hurricane Florence through the Federally Funded Fishery Disaster Relief Program.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries will accept applications either by mail or delivered in-person to its Morehead City office until 5 p.m. April 18. Applications and supporting documentation that are submitted after the deadline will not be considered. 

North Carolina has been allocated a net amount of $7,589,618 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to assist in the economic recovery of losses and damage caused by Hurricane Florence through direct payments to qualified participants.

The division mailed applications to eligible licensed seafood dealers, ocean fishing piers and for-hire fishing operations. Seafood processors and bait and tackle shops can access the application through the division’s Economic Relief Programs webpages or at a division office.

Applicants will be required to complete the application, affidavit, NC Substitute W-9, and must provide supporting materials that document revenue loss and property damage such as estimates, receipts, bank statements, reports, personal trip tickets and proof-of-loss documentation.

Applications and supporting documentation must be delivered in person to the division Headquarters Office at 3441 Arendell St., Morehead City or mailed to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, Hurricane Relief Program, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, NC 28557. Applications and supporting documentation will not be accepted at other division offices.

Financial payouts will be based on the loss of revenue for September, October and November 2018 relative to the previous three-year revenue average during the same time period, along with damage caused by Hurricane Florence.

Commercial fishermen and aquaculture operations were compensated by the State Funded Hurricane Florence Relief Program and are not eligible to apply for this program unless they are also a member of an eligible stakeholder group.

For questions regarding the spending plan or the program, contact NCDMF staff at Hurricanerelief@ncdenr.gov or 252-503-3091.

A recently published study examining the effects of Hurricane Florence on the lower Neuse River reveals how one river system adapted to the type of coastal storm forecasted to be the norm of future hurricane seasons.

Jonathan Phillips, an adjunct professor in East Carolina University’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, began examining the lower Neuse and its estuarine sites a few days after Hurricane Florence trudged through eastern North Carolina in September 2018.

Phillips, who also holds the title professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky, focused in the study, “Geomorphic impacts of Hurricane Florence on the lower Neuse River: Portents and particulars,” on the storm’s effects on the river’s physical landscape, including shoreline bluffs, and the Neuse estuary, including ravine swamps and tributary swamps along the river.

What he found is that the river, specifically the largely undeveloped stretch between Kinston and New Bern, and its accompanying swamps adapted and recovered after the storm.

“There’s absolutely no reason to intervene in the recovery of the undeveloped shorelines,” Phillips said. “Their ecosystem services are just as good now as they were before the storm. They’re providing the same functions and values.”

Though Hurricane Florence was a Category 1 on the Saffir-Sampson Hurricane Wind Scale when it made landfall near Wrightsville Beach Sept. 14, 2018, it quickly broke records, becoming the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the Carolinas.

The combination of torrential rainfall, storm surge and wave action beat the already eroding estuarine shoreline bluffs in the lower Neuse, an area Phillips examined after hurricanes Bertha and Fran in 1996.

Those shorelines would continue to erode without the impacts from Hurricane Florence, Phillips said. Such erosion has been occurring since at least the 1970s, according to scientific literature, he said.

“What was different about Florence was, at least at the sites I looked at, was an unprecedented rate of erosion in terms of retreats of those bluffs — more than any other storm or single recorded incident,” Philips said. “One of the characteristics that happened during Florence was because the water was so high for so long. Usually, in terms of its effects on any particular location, a hurricane comes and goes in half a day or less. In this case, in the lower Neuse area, you had high winds, not hurricane winds, but high winds and high water for about four days.”

High waters and winds occurring for an extended period of time enabled what Phillips referred to as “wave attack” both higher up on the bluff and for a longer-than-normal period of time.

The result: an average of about 40 feet worth of shoreline retreat.

“When you’re talking about 12 meters, or 40 feet, of lateral retreat with bluffs that are typically about 10 meters — 30 to 35 feet high — that’s a lot of sediment,” Phillips said.

That sediment ended up in the ravine swamps, transforming them from the perpetually flooded swamps with a muddy, organic base they were prior to Hurricane Florence to sand-filled swamps.

Sand loss on the bluffs created what Phillips refers to as a “storm bench” or “storm platform,” which is formed when a layer of sand over top of a tight, clay base, erodes away.

In eastern North Carolina, Phillips said, it doesn’t take long for some kind of vegetation to colonize on most any surface.

New vegetation is growing in the sand that has filled some of the ravine swamps. It’s also growing on the storm benches.

“These systems, in terms of their geomorphology and hydrology and ecology are adapted to storms,” Phillips said. “They’re created by storms. They’re getting to experience tropical cyclones and nor’easters periodically. The difference is now they’re likely to experience more and more powerful and different in terms of the slower moving, wetter storms.”

He said that, in spite of Hurricane Florence’s record-breaking storm surge and the high stream flows created by the storm, environmentally speaking, there were no major geomorphic impacts to the lower river from Contentnea Creek, a major tributary of the Neuse, down to New Bern.

“There was very little change and that was because those systems have evolved during a period of sea level rise and they’ve developed in such a way that they’re perfectly suited to handle a lot of water coming from upstream or downstream or both,” Phillips said.  

“What you’ve got along most of that corridor is, rather than your classic complex of channels that flow all the time, ones that flow only sometime, wetland depressions, and wetlands that typically have water flow through them so it’s adapted to be able to temporarily store large amounts of water and release it gradually downstream through all that complex of channels and wetlands and depressions,” he continued. “The fact that it was able to do that during Floyd is attributable to the fact that those wetlands have been protected by Section 404 (of the Clean Water Act) by incorporating a number of those swamps for the Neuse River Gamelands.”

The storm’s impact on human infrastructure along the river was substantial.

Hurricane Florence was the third storm — following Matthew in 2016 and Floyd in 1991 — to cause major flooding in a handful of North Carolina’s coastal plain river basins, exposing the vulnerabilities of communities within those flood plains.

Responses to mitigating impacts to those communities from similar storms in the future have included government buyouts.

Nearly 650 properties damaged by hurricanes Matthew and Florence had by December 2019 been acquired in buyouts, according to North Carolina Sea Grant.

Academic studies since Florence have looked at ways to implement natural infrastructure, such as stream restoration, along the riverine landscape to abate flooding.

“In terms of planning and management I feel like we shouldn’t be like the proverbial generals fighting the last war,” Phillips said. “We have to be ready for new and different things and Florence was unprecedented in terms of the duration of the winds and the amount of water involved. But, we can’t really assume that other storms are going to be like Florence now. We’ve just got to be ready for anything basically.”

A new state program is working to boost resilience in regions of eastern North Carolina that were impacted by the September 2018 Hurricane Florence.

The Regional Resilience Portfolio Program “aims to build the foundation for a more resilient North Carolina by proactively engaging with community leaders to determine and plan for climate hazards,” North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, announced Friday.

“Collaboration between local leaders and government agencies is key to assessing needs and planning for future resilience,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “The Regional Resilience Portfolio Program is going to help North Carolina communities build back smarter and stronger than ever.”

The program is supported in part by a grant from the Duke Energy Foundation and will serve these council of governments regions: Kerr-Tar, Upper Coastal Plain, Albemarle, Mid-Carolina, Mid-East, Lumber River, Cape Fear, Eastern Carolina and Triangle J, except for Wake, Durham and Orange counties. A list of counties for each region can be found on the RISE website.

The portfolio program is under the umbrella of the Regions Innovating for Strong Economies & Environment Program, or RISE, which is managed by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, a division of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. RISE is in partnership with the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency and N.C. Rural Center, in collaboration with the N.C. Councils of Governments.

“We are building local-level resilience leadership,” state Chief Resilience Officer Dr. Amanda Martin said. Martin oversees NCORR’s resilience team and the RISE program.

“This partnership with counties, local governments and leaders from a variety of sectors provides each region with the resources to align projects with new funding opportunities from the recent federal infrastructure package and other sources. The goal is to break down barriers for communities wanting to invest in future growth and stability,” she continued.

A $1.1 million U.S. Economic Development Administration grant funds the program with support from both NCORR and N.C. Rural Center. The Duke Energy Foundation committed $600,000 to offer accelerator grants to the regions for priority projects identified as an outcome of the program.

“Local community involvement is key to identifying projects that will successfully support future vitality. Community leaders and residents know which roads flood, for example, and how such events expose the community to danger when they occur. When we meet with communities, we begin with that local knowledge and then evaluate those community climate hazards and plan next steps or projects to reduce or erase them,” Martin added.

Residents, nonprofit organizations, businesses and community leaders can sign up to participate in the development of their region’s climate vulnerability assessment and projects portfolio by subscribing to RISE Program updates. 

Croatan National Forest officials are proposing a project to address Hurricane Florence damage to recreational sites on the Neuse River and are seeking comment from the public.

The Croatan Ranger District has proposed the Neuse River Recreation Sites Project that would repair and enhance around 100 acres of Flanners Beach, Fisher’s Landing, Pine Cliff and Siddie Fields recreation sites in Craven County.

The 2018 hurricane caused high winds, flooding and a large storm surge that eroded the Neuse River shoreline, toppled trees and damaged infrastructure. The recreation areas were closed immediately to address public safety concerns.

The Croatan Ranger District is preparing an environmental assessment to look at ways to stabilize the Neuse River shoreline erosion from Hurricane Florence to ensure public safety while meeting Croatan National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan, or forest plan, preferred conditions and objectives for increasing recreation opportunities.

The project calls for adaptive approaches such as site-specific living shoreline stabilization techniques including but not limited to gradual slope finishing engineered for safety and stability, and phased native ecosystem revegetation. Amenities at Flanners Beach, Fisher’s Landing, Pine Cliff, and Siddie Fields recreation sites would be repaired, replaced and enhanced as appropriate.

The proposed action and scoping documentation can be found on the project website. Officials will accept public comment for 30 days beginning Nov. 29.

Submit comments in writing by email to sm.fs.R8nccrocom@usda.gov, by fax to 252-638-5628 or hand delivered to the Croatan Ranger District at 141 E. Fisher Ave., New Bern, N.C. 28560. Business hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, excluding holidays. Include “Neuse River Recreation Sites” in the subject line of your email or fax. Electronic comments may be uploaded as Microsoft Word documents, PDFs, rich text format, text or html files.

Written comments should include a name and address, comments or thoughts on the proposed action with supporting reasons, and a signature or other means of identification verification. For organizations, a signature or other means of identification verification must be provided for the individual authorized to represent your organization.

In accordance with regulations, all comments received, including those submitted electronically, will be placed in the project file, will become a matter of public record, and will be available for public inspection. Anonymous comments will be accepted and considered but the agency will not be able to provide the respondent with subsequent environmental documents.

Contact Victoria Payne, Hurricane Recovery NEPA Planner, at victoria.payne@usda.gov for questions.

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency this week committed to funding more than 1,000 new, affordable housing units in regions of state hit hard by hurricanes Matthew and Florence, including coastal North Carolina.

About $53.5 million of the state’s share of federal Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds are to be used in a deal with the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, public housing authorities in the cities of Lumberton and Wilson, and Cumberland County government to increase safe, affordable housing opportunities for low- to moderate-income households, the state announced Tuesday.

“New affordable housing units are planned for communities throughout eastern North Carolina including coastal communities, pending satisfactory environmental review and HUD approval of the projects,” Laura Hogshead, director of the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency told Coastal Review. “Building resilience in eastern North Carolina is a critical goal for ReBuild NC programs, and includes increasing the availability of affordable housing through the construction of new housing outside of vulnerable floodplains. NCORR is currently partnering with three subrecipients of HUD CDBG-DR funds: N.C. Housing Finance Agency, public housing authorities in the cities of Wilson and Lumberton, and Cumberland County.”

Pending environmental review and approval, construction of the new housing is expected to be completed before 2026. The units are to be offered as rentals for eligible households. More information on the projects will be made available on NCORR’s ReBuild NC website.

“Safe, affordable housing is key to long-term recovery and resiliency in areas impacted by Matthew, Florence and other natural disasters,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement. “This funding commitment underscores our efforts to rebuild smarter and stronger for North Carolina families.”

As of Tuesday, NCORR plans to fund the following individual projects pending environmental review and approval:

N.C. Housing Finance Agency projects

• New Bern – 60-unit development.
• Wilmington – 72-unit development and 84-unit development.
• Shallotte – 72-unit development.
• Jacksonville – 72-unit development.
• Goldsboro – 48-unit development.
• Fayetteville – two, 80-unit developments and a 72-unit development.
• Rocky Mount – 64-unit development and 50-unit development.
• Whiteville – 60-unit development
• Lumberton – 66-unit development and 72-unit development

Other projects

• Cumberland County project in Fayetteville – 12-unit development
• Housing Authority of the City of Lumberton project – 72-unit development
• Wilson Housing Authority project in Wilson County – 32-unit development

Cooper established the agency after Hurricane Florence to streamline disaster recovery programs statewide and help communities rebuild smarter and stronger.

Through its recovery and resiliency programs, NCORR has committed $285.2 million to homeowners for repairs and reconstructions, small businesses for recovery, local governments for infrastructure, and N.C. Housing Finance Agency for the construction of new affordable housing in areas impacted by Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, according to the state. Learn more about NCORR’s programs at ReBuild.NC.gov.

It’s been three years since Hurricane Florence and five years since Hurricane Matthew – both of which wreaked havoc in North Carolina, damaging or destroying homes and disrupting lives. Those whose homes were most severely damaged are in some cases still rebuilding. Others remain in limbo, waiting for promised assistance from the state.

Brenda Hite works as a certified nursing assistant and lives in an older mobile home close to Bogue Sound and Broad Creek in Carteret County. Florence destroyed her roof and days of rainfall associated with the storm poured into the home’s interior.

Despite repairs, conditions inside make the structure still partly uninhabitable, Hite said. Although the home has two bedrooms, she said unrepaired damage and a still-leaky roof force her to sleep in the living room, which, along with the adjoining kitchen, are the only rooms fit to occupy.

Hite applied in June 2020 to Rebuild NC, the state’s long-term disaster recovery program administered by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. A caseworker assessed her home and told her that she would qualify for a replacement home if she could show that damage from the storm totaled more than $5,000.

Hite told Coastal Review that she provided all the required documents possible, but she received no paperwork for partial repairs to her home performed by another state agency, NC STEP, or Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power, work she considers substandard and incomplete. NC STEP says it “provides basic, partial repairs to make homes safe, clean and secure to help North Carolina homeowners with minor damage from Hurricane Florence get back in their home quickly,” according to the agency’s website.

Getting receipts for the work was “like pulling teeth,” she said, and her caseworker told her in July of this year that should expect an award letter from Rebuild NC.

“I never got any paperwork of the work they’ve done — they did all theirs on iPads and tablets, so I didn’t receive not one piece of paper,” she said.

Then Hite’s case manager told her she had missed the deadline for documentation, but Hite said she had proof in the form of an email that she hadn’t missed the deadline.

Then in August, Hite received another notice that more documentation was needed.

Most recently, Hite said Rebuild NC told her again Oct. 7 that she should expect an award letter and a follow-up contact in the next 30 days to go over details and discuss floor plans and color choices for a modular home because of a shortage of mobile homes.

Hite continues to wait, but she remains skeptical.

“That’s what’s so frustrating about this,” she said. “I’m doing everything they’ve asked me to do and I don’t see that they’re doing anything for anybody. This is my second caseworker. The other one quit.”

Greg Dail of North Topsail Beach was also promised financial assistance based on his losses from Hurricane Florence.

“In fact, we were solicited to join the program,” Dail told Coastal Review in an email. “But no monies have been forthcoming, and from what I’m reading on social media, I’m not optimistic.”

Dail, 67, is retired and disabled as a result of rheumatoid arthritis, and his wife Rachel works as a nurse. He told Coastal Review in a phone interview that the storm blew the roof off their home.

“Our house was completely destroyed,” he said. “This was a very slow-moving storm, so it rained inside the house for about six hours.”

Dail said he had paid about $100,000 out of pocket for repairs. He said it shouldn’t take months or years to process these claims, even with the coronavirus pandemic.

“We have insurance. This put us in a financial hardship, but we recovered. The thing about it is, it’s just bureaucratic headaches, you know?” Dail said.

Like Hite, Dail has had caseworkers come and go. He thought the process was nearly complete, with all inspections and paperwork completed, and then a new caseworker contacted him.

“She said, ‘Well, we need to come out and inspect your house.’ Oh really?” Dail said.

“There are some people in dire need, a hell of a lot more need than me. I’ve got a roof over my head, and I will recover eventually — I hope. But the people who are in worse shape than I am are also still being strung along, and the frustration lies in — again — the process has just taken, way, way too long.”

Nearly all the dozen or so reviews posted on the Rebuild NC Facebook page echo Hite and Dail’s frustration.

“The exhausting application process and LENGTHY review (well over a year) turned out not to be worth my time,” Sara Jayne Anderson Cailler of Wallace posted on the agency’s social media page. “They strung us along for 15 months with countless requests for information, copies of multitudes of documents (sent multiple times because they claim they never got them), driving to their offices to deliver documents, more emails and phone calls than I care to count. Six (yes, SIX) different case managers throughout the process. Today we got notice that we are INELIGIBLE. If I had to do it all over again … I WOULDN’T. Very disappointing AND discouraging.”

Burgaw resident David Sandmeyer posted a similar review on the agency’s Facebook page: “We applied in July 2020 and have not received any updates. Our case worker rarely responds to our requests for updates and when she does it is always the same answer ‘It is under review.’”

Laura Hogshead, director of the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, recently told Coastal Review that the agency had completed construction on 667 homes and has awarded more than $198.3 million to 2,274 applicants for long-term recovery from hurricanes Matthew and Florence. Rebuild NC is NCORR’s largest hurricane recovery program.

The agency’s Homeowner Recovery Program is funded through a federal Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program, or CDBG-DR. The state program includes an eight-step process that follows HUD’s guidelines and requirements for the use of the federal funds for long-term housing recovery. The steps include application, eligibility review, duplication check, inspection and environmental review, grant determination, contractor selection, construction and completion.

The Homeowner Recovery Program has a budget of $150.84 million for those affected by Hurricane Matthew and $352.72 million for Hurricane Florence.

The funding is intended to be a last resort for residents with low-to-moderate income and to supplement, but not duplicate, funding received by other federal, state and local recovery assistance programs.

“Often, these homeowners need considerable time and assistance in gathering documentation, getting access to the deed on their homes, and catching up with property taxes in order to effectuate construction,” Hogshead said.

The state Office of Recovery and Resiliency employs state employees and contractors to staff the Homeowner Recovery Program. State employees lead the project management operations, which include housing program management and applicant services, as well as program delivery operations, such as construction oversight and delivery.

Case managers employed by vendors are supervised by state employees. Case managers are responsible for staffing ReBuild NC centers throughout the state, working one-on-one with applicants to ensure they understand the application process, their responsibilities, and the responsibilities of the program.

Case managers are to maintain regular contact with applicants and provide status updates on their cases, Hogshead said in an email response to questions.

“Once the applicant moves into the construction phase, each applicant is assigned a Construction Liaison. The Construction Liaison is in contact with the homeowner bi-weekly to check on progress, respond to questions or concerns and ensure proper construction coordination is taking place.  The General Contractor assigned to the applicant’s project works with the Construction Liaison to keep the applicant apprised of progress,” she said.

Hogshead said all external contractors are to document progress, updates and interactions with applicants through a system called Salesforce, “and these logs are closely monitored in order to meet federal regulations and HUD standards.”

NCORR’s Project Management office and Program Delivery office manages the applicant’s progress through the eight steps of the project.

“NCORR has implemented timeliness milestones for our staff and vendor staff to follow, and these milestones are monitored consistently. That said, every homeowner’s path through the eight steps is dependent on that homeowner’s responsiveness and ability to provide required documentation and other factors, such as whether or not asbestos and lead are found in the home prior to construction,” Hogshead said.

The state is responsible for ensuring that applicants move through the eight steps as quickly as possible while being compliant with federal requirements, she added.

Timelines for individual cases vary because of factors including staff processing, construction estimates, material availability and applicant engagement.

Hogshead said it was important to note that each HUD grant, the one for Matthew and the one for Florence, is available for a minimum of six years. “Recently, recognizing the effects of the pandemic, HUD extended the Hurricane Matthew grant, which was awarded in 2017, for two full years. Additionally, HUD did not offer and sign a grant agreement with North Carolina for nearly two years after Hurricane Florence made landfall in N.C., meaning that the state could not begin recovery efforts until that grant was executed in June 2020. “

She said the pandemic had caused delays for Rebuild NC contractors in obtaining materials, and manufacturers have been unable to produce high volumes of manufactured housing units. “These circumstances are unfortunately out of the program’s control.”

The agency is working to identify solutions to the materials and labor shortages, she said, “but these delays are seen across the country in every CDBG-DR grantee program, as shown by HUD’s decision to extend the grants by two years.”

She encouraged applicants with questions to contact their construction liaison or the program’s construction hotline at 919-444-2761.

Eight residences in New Bern flooded during 2018’s Hurricane Florence will be demolished.

The state and Federal Emergency Management Agency approved $964,806 to help the city of New Bern acquire, demolish and remove the residential structures. FEMA’s share of the cost for this project is $723,605 and the state’s share is $241,201.

“The City of New Bern has been on a long road to recovery since Hurricane Florence,” said Amanda Ohlensehlen, Community & Economic Development manager in a statement. “The announcement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) will provide these homeowners the assistance they need to move out of the floodplain to reduce their risk in the future. The program supports the city’s resilience initiatives to improve community preparedness and mitigation against the effects of future disasters.”

Once the structures located within a Special Flood Hazard Area are removed, the parcels will be converted to an open space in the natural floodplain. Purchase of the properties will also help the homeowners to relocate to an area where they won’t face an ongoing flood risk.

“We appreciate the continued partnership in assisting all homeowners across the State, especially those impacted so hard by Hurricane Florence. It is always good to provide residents with an opportunity to move out of harm’s way and save lives and money over the long-term through this process,” said Steve McGugan, state hazard mitigation officer in a statement.

FEMA covers 75% of eligible costs and the remaining 25% is paid for by the state. The federal share is reimbursed to the state which disburses the funds to local governments.

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds projects that reduce risks from repetitive hazards. This mitigation planning breaks the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction and repeated damage.

Zena Underwood and her husband Mark bought in October 2011 what they thought was the perfect house for their young family on Holly Lane in Swansboro.

Not long after the first-time homeowners moved into the four-bedroom, single-story house at the bottom of a hill next to a creek, they learned from their neighbors that there was a history of repeat flooding.

“After the first time it flooded with us there, we had neighbors show us photos of cars parked in the street in front of our house with water up to the windows,” Underwood, a 36-year-old business owner and mother of two, recently told Coastal Review. “I was so upset. We were stuck, too — young, doing OK, but certainly not in a position to buy another house, or to keep fixing the one we were in over and over. Flood insurance was just too expensive. Also, (we) found out the neighbor had so many claims that their flood insurance provider dropped them.”

Now in a different home on higher ground, the Underwoods got relief through a state-funded program managed by the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management’s disaster recovery section, although that help didn’t come until more than a year after Hurricane Florence in 2018 had severely damaged their home and destroyed belongings and after yet another flood in 2019.

As a result of Florence, everything in the house below 2 feet high had to be ripped out and tossed — drywall, flooring, furniture, cabinets, personal belongings. Demolition revealed a cracked foundation. Sinkholes formed in the yard.

Marcia Evans, communications specialist with the Office of State Budget and Management, told Coastal Review that the Underwoods qualified for the state assistance because, in addition to the damage sustained during Hurricane Florence, the property was subject to recurring flooding and Onslow County had recommended the family for assistance.

The State Acquisition and Relocation Fund, or SARF, provides relocation assistance up to $50,000 for homeowners whose primary residence has been approved for buyout under the state 2018 Disaster Recovery Act. To qualify, buyout homes must be in a flood-prone area where elevation is not feasible or where acquisition of the structure would minimize flood risks or support stormwater mitigation. The State Emergency Management Act part 6 addresses emergency assistance funds and the governor’s authority to set up programs to distribute them.

Underwood told Coastal Review that she and her husband heard about the program after reaching out to town officials in Swansboro, local media and officials at the state level, “trying to get someone to help. Someone to look, see that the drainage was not working, or something was not right. There was just nowhere for runoff water to go and more and more neighborhoods kept going in. It was only going to get worse over time.”

The couple attended a meeting with other Onslow County residents, including their next-door neighbor, whose home had also flooded repeatedly. Families were presented with the options of assistance for relocation, elevating the house or repairs for homes that could be fixed and had no record of flooding before Hurricane Florence. The Underwoods selected relocation assistance.

Before being awarded the SARF funds, Underwood had penned a letter to the Office of State Budget and Management pleading for help. She explained that what attracted them to their house was the neighborhood, which was close to the schools and had lots of children around. She had a son who was just beginning to walk when they bought the home. A few years later, they welcomed a baby girl.

“We could see our little family here. Again, we were young, excited and inexperienced. We didn’t research the address, talk to neighbors about the history, etc. We made them an offer and they accepted. We are NOT in a flood zone. This is an important note. We did not have flood insurance,” she wrote.

First signs of a problem

After moving into the house and experiencing a few thunderstorms, the Underwoods began to see signs of a problem. Often, they would have to park up the street and wade through deep water to get home.

“Once I got a call from my husband at work telling me I should park at the top of the hill when I got home, and there would probably be water in the living room. He was right. That was the first time we had to replace the floors. Again, not in a flood zone. No flood insurance,” Underwood wrote.

There were two other rainstorms that brought water to their front door, and “then we had Hurricane Florence. We flooded again, with no flood insurance. And no huge nest egg of savings, so we were faced with two options. Walk away from the house, take the hit as a foreclosure and walk away, lose everything we had worked for. Or just fix it, again,” she said, adding that the damage was worse than ever. The walls, cabinets, furniture, beds, toys, clothes, appliances – all ruined.

With two kids, five pets and a business based in their home – Underwood owns her own event consulting and florals business — they didn’t have a choice but to fix it.  

Then during summer 2019, they experienced flooding again, this time during a thunderstorm. Floodwater reached the front door in under an hour.

Underwood wrote that when a came letter later that year asking her family to attend a meeting, they jumped at the opportunity. 

“We need this. This home needs to be demolished. As sad as that makes me to say, the millions of memories we have made here, I still believe that no house should be here. It will continue to flood. This drainage issue can’t be fixed adequately until they can dig under where we are. They recently came out to check the drain and discovered a very large sinkhole. Right beside my driveway, where my kids have played for years. The ground is literally washing away around our home,” she wrote.

The family was notified by the Office of State Budget and Management in December 2019 that they were preapproved for SARF housing support for up to $50,000, because the residence was to be purchased by the county or state for hazard mitigation related to the recovery efforts from Hurricane Florence.

In a vote taken Feb. 17, 2020, Onslow County commissioners signed off on the purchases of Underwood’s home and her neighbor’s. The county received funding from North Carolina Emergency Management in 2019 through the Disaster Recovery Act of 2018. The funding was made available to property owners not eligible for federal recovery programs that also met certain income and residency requirements, according to the meeting minutes.

Jessica Rhue, director of planning and development for Onslow County, told the board at the time that county staff had been working with the Office of State Budget and Management for six months on coordinating the buyouts. With county commissioners’ approval, the Underwoods’ home became town property and cannot be redeveloped.

Evans told Coastal Review that the Office of State Budget and Management works closely with Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management, or NCEM.

The state, through the Office of State Budget and Management Disaster Recovery Section, put out the invitation for bid in late December 2019 to demolish the Underwood home and two others on behalf of Onslow County, pursuant to a disaster recovery grant NCEM awarded the county for housing recovery.

The land has since been cleared.

Within six months of the commissioners’ meeting, a few people had come to take photos and perform an appraisal, an offer was presented and accepted, and the family had moved out.

“It was a nice and easy process and the representative that was assigned to help us has been so patient and helpful,” Underwood said. “We drove by recently and noticed the two sinkholes have grown since we left. One was right under our son’s room, the other — the large one — was next to the driveway.”

Underwood said that her family wasn’t ready to buy a new house so quickly and options were few, so the state extended the buyout assistance payout portion for them until the end of 2020.

“Then there were no homes available in Onslow County that met the criteria — we can’t be in a floodplain. Then COVID, so it was extended again. We are hoping to finish it all up at the end of this year,” she said. 

Phillip Smith, senior project manager with the disaster recovery division, explained in an interview last week that the program that helped the Underwoods was for those who suffered flooding damage from hurricanes. 

“When we buy out a property, they of course have to find a new place to live, and we also require that new place to be outside of a flood zone,” so they don’t get flooded again, he said. Land that is flood-free is usually more expensive than property that floods frequently. So, the program provides up to $50,000 to make the difference in land values.

“When we buy a property, we have it appraised – what we call a retrospective appraisal — and we’ll go back and figure out the value of the property prior to the hurricane before any flood damage. So they’re getting the value of their property before the hurricane and then we offer the $50,000 on top of that funding,” he said.

For example, if the buyout property is appraised at $150,000, the homeowner would get that $150,000 and SARF will provide up to $50,000 to cover the difference for their next home.

Smith explained that the flood maps have been revised since hurricanes Matthew and Florence because those were such unusually devastating storms that the flood maps weren’t accurate.

“Zena was getting flooded — she lived at the bottom of the hill next to a creek — after every rainstorm,” Smith said, adding the water from the neighborhood above her was funneling to her house and a sinkhole was developing between her and her neighbor’s house.

Smith said that since the SARF program deals mostly with primary residences, much of the work has been from riverine flooding in interior counties, rather than vacation homes on the immediate coast.

Although there are similarities between the state program that helped the Underwoods and others like ReBuild NC, there are differences. State Acquisition and Relocation Fund monies are dispersed through the Office of State Budget and Management while ReBuild NC, which as its name indicates is a rebuilding program, falls under the Department of Public Safety. ReBuild NC also has access to SARF but the funds are used differently.

Also, ReBuild NC primarily uses federal funds. Generally, state funds have less red tape, so Smith’s office can respond to families that don’t fit into federal programs. “To work with our group, you can’t qualify for federal,” he said.

Smith added that at the time, the Underwoods’ home was not designated as part of the 100-year floodplain, “that’s one of the big distinctions between where we can help. Federal can only help within the 100-year floodplain.”

Smith added that the program through the Office of State Budget and Management has helped 50 families relocate and has helped more than 400 families with repairs, elevation and reconstruction.

“I think it does so much good. We encounter a lot of situations where people have had their homes destroyed or have been enduring regular flooding, and it just don’t make sense to keep repairing them over and over,” he said, adding there’s not too many places where you can get a grant like this to be somewhere safe and free from flooding.

Underwood encourages anyone who finds themselves in a situation like hers to reach out to their town’s planning and zoning officials.

“Be the squeaky wheel. Sometimes plans need to change and be modified over the years to accommodate growth and development within communities. Go to the meetings, get the contact, send emails. Take pictures, post online. Keep pushing for someone to listen and take notice of a problem,” she said.

Currituck County has been approved for a $1 million grant to elevate seven homes with a history of flooding caused by hurricanes and other storms.

The state and Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the hazard mitigation project grant of $1,040,864 to improve disaster resilience in the coastal county, FEMA announced Thursday.

The seven homes are in Corolla, Barco, Moyock, Grandy and Currituck. Funding through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program became available as the result of a federal disaster declaration following Hurricane Florence in 2018.  

“Currituck County is pleased to accept Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds on behalf of these deserving families,” said Donald I. McRee Jr., interim county manager, in a statement. “The mitigation of repetitive loss properties is a priority of both the Outer Banks Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan and State of NC Hazard Mitigation Plan, and we are grateful for the opportunity to enhance our community resilience to coastal hazards.”

By elevating the homes in a Special Flood Hazard Area to the base flood elevation and local freeboard requirements, the costly repetitive cycle of flood damage and repairs will be interrupted. The elevated structures will be placed on a range of possible foundations, specified by a licensed professional engineer during a feasibility study and may include piles, columns, curtain walls with footings or concrete masonry units.

“The State appreciates continued partnership in assisting all homeowners across the State, especially those impacted so hard by Hurricane Florence. Supporting the elevation of these homes allows us to assist both the homeowners and the county simultaneously,” said Steve McGugan, state hazard mitigation officer. “The next step is for the state and local governments to procure a contractor, which may take several months. Once a contractor is selected, the property owners will be advised of the project timeline.”

FEMA’s cost share for this project is $780,648, or 75%, and the state share is $260,216, or 25%. The federal share is reimbursed to the state which disburses the funds to local governments. 

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds go to projects intended to create long-term solutions to reduce risks from repetitive hazards. A recent study by the National Institute of Building Sciences found that for every dollar spent on federal mitigation taxpayers save $6, according to the state.

For more information on North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Florence, visit NC DPS: Hurricane Florence 2018 and FEMA.gov/Disaster/4393.

Homeowners who live in one of 27 designated counties and have an income that is at or below certain levels may be eligible for additional financial assistance to repair damage caused by Hurricane Florence in 2018.

The financial assistance is through the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Economic Opportunity.

Eligible homeowners must live in Anson, Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Greene, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland or Wayne county to qualify. Assistance is to be distributed by a regional community action agency.

Call the NCDHHS Office of Economic Opportunity at 919-527-7256 to learn more. Spanish-speaking callers can also call for assistance and learn more on the NCDHHS website.

Homeowners must meet income eligibility requirements. If applying prior to Sept. 30, household income must be at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. If applying after Oct. 1, household income must be at or below 125% of the federal poverty level. Officials encouraged homeowners to call now to see if they’re eligible.

“As we enter another hurricane season, it is vital we get these funds into the hands of those who need it most,” said Marionna Poke-Stewart, director of the NCDHHS Office of Economic Opportunity, in a statement. “We encourage anyone who believes they may be eligible for help with repairs due to Hurricane Florence to call our office.”

The funding cannot be used for costs already reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or covered under contract with insurance. Additionally, it can neither duplicate FEMA assistance nor health, automobile, homeowners, renters or property insurance. Applicants must be able to attest that proposed repairs are needed due to the impact of Hurricane Florence.

Beaufort County has been approved for more than $1.6 million to acquire, demolish and remove 19 residential structures in Washington that were flooded after Hurricane Florence in 2018. 

North Carolina and Federal Emergency Management Agency approved the $1,603,745 to purchase the structures within a Special Flood Hazard Area in Washington.  

Once the structures are removed, the property will be converted to an open space in the natural floodplain. Purchase of the properties will also help the homeowners relocate to an area where they won’t face an ongoing flood risk, according to FEMA.

“The completion of FEMA’s review and approval of the program is good news for these property owners and the communities where they live,” said Steve McGugan, state hazard mitigation officer. “The next step is for the state and local governments to move through the procurement of a contractor, which will take a couple of months to complete. Once there is a contractor in place, they will need to mobilize and set up their final project management timeline so property owners can be advised on the approximate date work will be completed on their property.”

FEMA’s share of the cost for this project is $1,202,809 and the state’s share is $400,936. FEMA covers 75% of eligible costs and the remaining quarter is paid for by the state. The federal share is reimbursed to the state which disburses the funds to local governments. 

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds projects that reduce risks from repetitive hazards. Hazard mitigation includes long-term solutions that help reduce or eliminate rebuilding costs from future disasters. This mitigation planning breaks the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction and repeated damage. 

For more information on North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Florence, visit ncdps.gov/Florence and FEMA.gov/Disaster/4393. Follow on Twitter @NCEmergency and @FEMARegion4.
 

The state and Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, will use $6.5 million to acquire more than 30 flood-prone properties in Pender County, officials announced Wednesday.

Located in Currie, Rocky Point, Hampstead and Burgaw, the 31 properties are susceptible to flooding from Moores, Beckys and Holly Shelter creeks, the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers and the Atlantic Ocean.

The state will use funds from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, made available after 2018’s Hurricane Florence, to acquire the properties. These properties will be converted to open space in order to conserve natural floodplain functions.

“The completion of FEMA’s review and approval of the program is good news for these property owners and the communities where they live,” said Steve McGugan, state hazard mitigation officer, in a statement. “The next step is for the state and local governments to move through the procurement of a contractor, which will take a couple of months to complete. Once there is a contractor in place, they will need to mobilize and set up their final project management timeline so property owners can be advised on the approximate date work will be completed on their property.”

FEMA’s share to acquire the properties is $4,913,358 and the state’s share is $1,637,786. FEMA reimburses 75% of eligible project costs and the remaining 25% is covered by the state. The federal share is paid directly to the state to disburse to local governments.

Funding from the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program is used by states to mitigate future hazards, which can include projects to help communities eliminate or reduce disaster-related damage.

For more information on North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Florence, visit ncdps.gov/Florence and FEMA.gov/Disaster/4393.

North Topsail Beach officials say the town now has federal approval to begin Hurricane Florence dune restoration work that was supposed to have begun Nov. 1, 2020.

The project was delayed by a Federal Emergency Management Agency requirement for an environmental and historical review. Planned work includes hauling sand by truck in areas delineated as phases 2,3 and 4. Approval came Friday during a multi-agency conference call, the town announced Tuesday.

Work to restore the dunes to their conditions before Florence hit the North Carolina coast in September 2018 is to begin where a project that followed Hurricane Matthew in 2016 left off, near  4400 Island Drive, and continue north until the environmental window closes in spring for sea turtle nesting season. Any work not completed is to resume in November.

The town has an online interactive map to allow property owners to check in which phase their property lies.

The public comment period ends at 5 p.m. Thursday on amendments to state action plans for communities impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence through the state Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR.

The additional public comment is requested on proposed amendments to three action plans for spending U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery and Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation funds in parts state impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence, according to officials.

The proposed amendments will simplify programs and spending across the grants, including more than $947 million in federal funding for homeowner disaster recovery, affordable housing, property buyout and other programs.

The current HUD-approved action plans and draft amendments are available for review on the NCORR website. Public comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov, or by mail to NCORR Public Comments, P.O. Box 110465, Durham, N.C. 27709.

Gov. Roy Cooper established NCORR after the September 2018 Hurricane Florence to make disaster recovery programs statewide more efficient and help communities rebuild smarter and stronger.

So far, the state has invested more than $3.6 billion in state and federal funding to support recovery from hurricanes Matthew, Florence, Dorian and Isaias. Learn more about NCORR programs at https://www.rebuild.nc.gov/.

The state is looking for input from the public on how to spend recovery and mitigation funds in areas of the state impacted by hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

The state Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, will be accepting public comment until Jan. 7 on proposed amendments to three action plans for spending U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery and Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation.

The proposed amendments would include modifications to the Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Florence and Mitigation action plans previously approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, and aim to simplify programs and spending across all three grants provided by HUD.

The total disaster recovery and mitigation grant funds total more than $947 million in federal  funding for homeowner recovery, affordable housing, property buyout, and other programs.

All three action plans and the draft amendments are available for review online. Public comments are strongly encouraged to be submitted by email to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov. Those wishing to submit comments may also do so by U.S. Postal Service to Attn: NCORR Public Comments, P.O. Box 110465, Durham, N.C. 27709.

The Cooper administration established NCORR following the September 2018 Hurricane Florence to streamline disaster recovery programs statewide and help communities rebuild smarter and stronger. So far, the state has invested more than $3.6 billion in state and federal funding to help the state recover from damage caused by hurricanes Matthew, Florence, Dorian and Isaias.

Learn more about NCORR’s programs at https://www.rebuild.nc.gov/.

State and Hyde County officials will be on Ocracoke Island Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to document damage from hurricanes Florence and Dorian.

The state Department of Safety’s Emergency Management Hazard Mitigation Branch personnel will assist the county gather the required documentation for Federal Emergency Management Agency to be able to evaluate and issue award decisions on damaged homes.

State personnel will help by collecting the FEMA-required photos and remaining documents for the more than 200 Ocracoke homeowners who have applied for FEMA funding to elevate their home and bring it back into code compliance.

State staff will be in marked vehicles and NC Emergency Management-logoed shirts. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the agents will not knock on doors, but will take front, back, left and right view exterior photos of the homes as required to meet FEMA’s funding regulations.

This effort is to round out the work already submitted by Hyde County staff in the aftermath of Florence and Dorian, according to officials.

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Flood Mitigation Assistance Program, and Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program all include property elevations as an eligible project type. Communities, not individual survivors, are eligible for mitigation grants. To qualify, homeowners must meet all eligibility criteria and then apply through their local community, which applies to the state of North Carolina.

In the coming months there will be opportunities to share feedback on proposed projects at Croatan National Forest to repair damage caused during Hurricane Florence and increase resiliency to future storms.

The public can join the mailing list to be notified about opportunities to comment on the environmental analysis developed for each project, receive updates on hurricane recovery efforts and the status of recreation areas currently closed due to public safety hazards, the National Forests in North Carolina announced Wednesday.

To join the mailing list, email sm.fs.R8nccrocom@usda.gov with “Hurricane Florence Recovery Projects” in the subject line; mail to Croatan Ranger District, Attention: Hurricane Florence Recovery Projects, 141 E. Fisher Ave. New Bern, NC 28560; or by facsimile to 252-637-9113 by Nov. 27.

Up to 36 inches of rain was dumped on the Carolinas when Hurricane Florence made landfall in September 2018. The combination of strong winds and flooding resulted in major damage throughout the Forest, including natural resources, recreation sites, heritage sites, facilities, roads, bridges, and trails.

Many of the recreation facilities and roads on the Croatan were closed due to public safety hazards. Extensive work is needed before they can be reopened for the public.

The following are the proposed projects that include, but are not limited to:

• Trail reconstruction and realignment
• Recreation site cleanup and reconstruction
• Bank stabilization
• Hazardous fuels reduction
• Wildlife habitat restoration
• Road maintenance
• Bridge reconstruction

Business hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, excluding holidays. Individuals interested in the projects will be added to the mailing lists for each one.

For more information, contact the Croatan National Forest at 252-638-5628.

Updated to include statewide awards

The Dare County Board of Commissioners approved during its regular meeting last week a $1 million grant from the state to help assuage the financial strain caused by last year’s Hurricane Dorian.

Like many counties and local and tribal governments, Dare County has been facing budget impacts caused by hurricane damage and applied for the  state-funded grant through the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, or NCORR, program, State Grants for Financially Distressed Local and Tribal Governments.

Governments can apply for grants of up to $1 million as short-term assistance to pay for everyday operating expenses or provide additional support for disaster recovery. Information on the grant application process is on NCORR’s ReBuild.NC.gov website.

“Our communities are committed to rebuilding smarter and stronger and these funds will help foster new partnerships and make North Carolina more resilient against future storms,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a release.

Communities are also able to apply for zero-interest loans through NCORR, though the 2020 loan application period has closed. Another application period will be announced in the coming months for the revolving loans of up to $2 million. These loans are to help with disaster-related expenses while local governments wait for reimbursement from federal disaster response, recovery and resiliency programs such as those from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If approved, the loan principal must be repaid upon receiving federal reimbursements.

Clawson said that he identified what items the county needed that met the criteria outlined in the application.

“One of them was a vehicle for emergency management, and another one was if you had Hurricane Dorian costs that had not been reimbursed by FEMA or the state, and we have both of those. And then the rest, the grant application allowed you to use non-hurricane related — just straight up operating expenditures — you can use debt service, you can do payroll, I picked payroll,” he said.

The county, which applied for the grant Sept. 9, will use $55,000 for an emergency management vehicle that has been requested but not included in the FY2021 budget, $166,456 for debris costs from Hurricane Dorian that was ineligible for reimbursement, per FEMA, and $778,544 for economic relief to general fund, to be used for general payroll obligations, according to the county.

County commissioners approved a budget amendment for the grant and the memorandum of agreement during the meeting.

More than 40 local and tribal governments have been awarded about $50 million in grants and loans to help with operating costs and recovery expenses since the NCORR program was launched last year.

“Hurricanes damage not only individual homes, but also buildings and infrastructure that are critical for community stability and welfare,” said NCORR Chief Operating Officer Laura Hogshead in a statement. “Our office is committed to building local government partnerships that will support long-term disaster recovery throughout the state.”

Carteret County also received $1 million in grant money earlier this month from NCORR because of the impact recent major storms had on the budget.

“As a result of the hurricanes’ negative economic impact on the County’s operating budget, the award is a pivotal resource for our County. FEMA reimburses local government for direct cost incurred from disasters. It does not reimburse local governments for lost revenues, and these revenues pay operating expenses and debt service obligations.” said Dee Meshaw, Carteret County assistant manager, in a statement from the county. “By alleviating the need to use general fund money to pay for these debts, it will allow the County to be more resilient against future storms and continue to financially support future projects and improvements for our community.”

Pollocksville is using the $500,000 grant awarded in 2019 funds to reduce debt service, retain the services of a full-time employee to help with disaster mitigation and resiliency, and to cover additional accounting expenses and financial services, according to NCORR.

“The grant has been a financial lifesaver for our town,” said Mayor James V. Bender Jr.

In late 2018, Cooper established NCORR in the Department of Public Safety after the state experienced two devastating hurricanes in as many years.

The North Carolina General Assembly established the state recovery grants for county governments, incorporated municipalities and tribal governments to provide assistance under the Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Dorian Presidential Disaster declarations, according to the state.

NCORR announced in January that more funding was available through the grant and loan program established in 2019.

Cooper signed legislation Nov. 18, 2019, directing $10 million for NCORR to disperse as zero-interest loans that governments can use for recovery-related expenses while waiting for reimbursement from various federal programs. Additionally, $5 million was set aside for local government grants to help communities impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Those funds supplement $9 million in grant and loan funds for local governments that Cooper signed into law on September 2019.

The agency during the first round of funding in 2019 awarded more than $22.4 million in grants and loans to 22 local governments struggling financially because of costs related to Hurricane Florence.

The grants can be used to cover operating budget expenses not related to a disaster, such as payroll and payments to vendors for goods and services not related to disaster response and recovery, where nonpayment would result in a negative financial outcome. The grants can also be used for disaster response and recovery expenses denied for federal reimbursement, disaster-related repairs to facilities and infrastructure denied for federal reimbursement and debt service payments.

The following are the NCORR grants and loans to date for Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, counties and towns and reason for funding:

Grants 2019

• Cape Carteret: $500,000 for administrative expenditures such as payroll and debt service payments due to disaster recovery.
• River Bend: $300,000 for inspection specialist and a public works technician, vehicle used for the inspections and enforcement of building ordinances.
• Atlantic Beach: $500,000 for debt service payments, part-time building inspector.
• Emerald Isle: $370,000 for debt service payments.
• Navassa: $375,000 for stabilization of water and sewer fund.
• North Topsail Beach: $250,000 for debt service payment to USDA.

Loans 2019

• River Bend: $1 million for FEMA projects for debris removal, repairs to building, emergency response.
• Beaufort: $1 million for FEMA projects for debris removal, emergency response, cemetery clean up, additional payroll.
• Boiling Spring Lakes: $2 million for FEMA infrastructure projects.
• Jones County $2 million for FEMA Projects for debris removal, emergency response, utilities repair, inmate housing.
• Pamlico County: $2 million for FEMA projects for debris removal.
• Emerald Isle: $2 million for FEMA projects for debris removal.

Hurricane Florence Grants

• Belhaven: $97,500 for part-time building inspector.
• Oriental: $86,593 for Public Works position for three years, vehicle for disaster recovery support.
• Vandemere: $80,167 for bobcat excavator.
• Navassa: $500,000 for payroll obligation, debt services obligations, vendor payments.
• New Bern: $328,500 for resiliency consultant, truck.
• Morehead City Fire-EMS: $174,000 for equipment for water search rescue team.
• River Bend: $363,000 for debt services, payroll obligations.

Hurricane Dorian Grants 2020

• Hyde County: $500,000 for administrative functions to assist with disaster recovery, affordable housing study and $2,214,000 for budget shortfalls, individual assistance costs, housing recovering contractors.
• Dare County: $1 million for disaster expenses denied by FEMA, general payroll obligations, emergency operations vehicle.
• Carteret County $1 million for debt service obligations.

Loans 2020

• Topsail Beach: $2 million for FEMA beach nourishment fund project.
• Hyde County: $2 million for FEMA debris removal from Hurricane Dorian.
• Pollocksville: $1.66 million for FEMA project for elevation of main sewer pumping station and also a project to relocate town hall/train station.

The following are the loans and grants awarded statewide as part of the program:

Grants 2019

• Fair Bluff: $500,000 for administrative positions to assist with disaster recovery for three years.
• Pollocksville: $500,000 for debt service payments, engineering support .
• Robbins: $500,000 for debt service payments, computer equipment, equipment for waste water treatment plant.
• Boardman: $200,000 for administrative expenses such as payroll, utilities, construction expenses for town hall.
• Jones County: $1 million for debt service payments, emergency management position to assist with disaster recovery.
• Maysville: $450,000 for debt service payments, general payroll , radio read meters.
• Lumberton: $500,000 for debt service payment for water and sewer fund.
• Bladenboro: $500,000 for administrative expenses such as payroll and debt service payments.
• Trenton: $405,000 for sewer construction, repairs to city buildings.
• Elizabethtown: $500,000 for debt service payments, code enforcement officer, economic development manager, consultant.
• Chadbourn: $375,000 for general payroll obligations, water sewer repairs, assistant town manager, backhoe.
• Tabor City: $25,000 for position to Support Disaster Recovery Coordination.

Loans 2019

• Fair Bluff: $700,000 Debt Services and FEMA HMGP obligations for the town.
• Boardman: $130,000 FEMA HMGP Project obligations.
• Jones County: $2 million for FEMA projects for debris removal, emergency response, utilities repair, inmate housing expenses.
• Lumberton: $2 million for FEMA projects for debris removal.
• Robbins: 1,600,000 for various FEMA projects to include wastewater treatment repair, emergency response, and pump station repair.

Grants Florence 2020

• Marion: $245,773 for funds for administrative functions to assist with disaster recovery, affordable housing study.
• Tabor City: $ 475,000 for position to support disaster recovery coordination.
• Cerro Gordo: $358,085 for administrative expenses such as payroll, bonds, utilities water and sewer fund expenses.
• Jones County: $1 million for repairs to the water pump station that was denied by FEMA.
• Town of Fair Bluff: $500,000 for drainage equipment.
• Hoke County: $235,215 for equipment for water search rescue team.
• Rose Hill: $188,000.00 for debt services, payroll obligations.
• Wallace: $500,000 for debris removal, debris management consultant, and community development officer.
• Wilson County: $406,000 for debt services.
• Red Springs: $500,000 for consulting services, debt service obligations, payroll obligation.
• Pembroke: $280,050 for disaster recovery coordinator.
• Clarkton $96,000 for excavator.
• Maysville: $500,000 for payroll obligation, debt services obligation.
• White Lake: $155,000 for position to support disaster recovery coordination.

Loans 2020

• Princeville: $2 million for various FEMA projects to include town hall repairs, senior center construction and repair costs.
• Lumbee Tribe of NC: $2 million for construction and engineering costs for FEMA projects.
• Marion: $450,120 for FEMA project for Lincoln Avenue bridge reconstruction.
• Elizabethtown: $2 Million For FEMA Project for repair of local cemetery.
• Red Springs: $1,024,608 for FEMA projects for debris removal, emergency protective measure, repairs to buildings.
• Jones County: $2 million for FEMA project for buyout.

Two years ago this month Hurricane Florence hit the coast of North Carolina, leaving in its path billions in damage.

A large, slow-moving Category 1, Hurricane Florence made landfall the morning of Sept. 14, 2018. The eye crossed Wrightsville Beach at 7:15 a.m. and the storm hovered for two days producing a record-breaking, 30-plus inches of rain in some areas in the state, according to the National Weather Service.

A May 2019 report from the National Weather Service states that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Centers for Environmental Information estimates that wind and water damage caused by Florence totaled around $24 billion. Damage losses in North Carolina due to Florence’s winds, freshwater flooding and storm surge flooding totaled $22 billion. There were 15 direct fatalities in North Carolina due to Florence, 11 due to freshwater flooding and four to wind.

Gov. Roy Cooper created the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency shortly after Hurricane Florence to help residents in storm-impacted areas.

“We are committed to helping people rebuild their lives in areas hit hard by multiple storms in recent years,” Cooper said last week. “We have made significant progress on recovery, but the increasing number and intensity of storms shows the importance of building back smarter and stronger.”

NCORR, in the Department of Public Safety, manages programs statewide that include homeowner recovery, infrastructure, affordable housing, resiliency, strategic buyout and local government grants and loans.

NCORR Chief Resilience Officer Jessica Whitehead told Coastal Review Online that under Cooper’s leadership, “Our state has implemented a three-pronged approach that includes developing statewide strategies for climate change, using disaster recovery funding to rebuild more resiliently, and securing additional federal grant funding to assist local governments with resilience planning and projects.”

She explained that this approach will help the state continue to not just build back stronger, but use science to bounce forward.

“We can look to damage totals from hurricanes Laura and Sally in the Gulf this year to know North Carolina could experience more costly damage from even bigger storms, especially as climate change makes more intense storms possible. We are already into the Greek alphabet for names for this hurricane season, with a nearly non-stop series of storms hitting multiple coastal regions,” she said.

In total, North Carolina has invested more than $3.5 billion to help survivors of hurricanes Florence and Matthew. Of that, $2.27 billion went to Florence recovery, according to the N.C. Disaster Recovery Summary Factsheet Sept. 11. 2020.

NCORR also serves to administer nearly $1 billion in Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, disaster recovery and mitigation funding, as well as state disaster recovery funds.

HUD issued the Federal Register Notice outlining requirements for use of the $542 million in Florence CBDG-DR funds appropriated to North Carolina 500 days after Hurricane Florence made landfall. NCORR worked on the required action plan during that time and was able to submit the plan to HUD within 24 hours of the Federal Register Notice publication.

In April, North Carolina became the first among states with 2018 federal disaster grants to receive action plan approval, which allowed the state access to the $542 million in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery, or CBDG-DR, funds for Hurricane Florence, according to NCORR.

“I am proud that North Carolina was the first state in the country to have our action plan approved to access additional federal funds following Florence and am committed to rebuilding smarter and stronger to ensure that our communities are as resilient as our people,” Cooper said.

NCORR launched the Homeowner Recovery Program in June to help homeowners with repairs, reconstruction and elevation of storm-damaged homes. The state has received 2,302 applications for the program since Sept. 11.

The application period will remain open at least through the end of the year. Homeowners who sustained damages due to Hurricane Florence, Hurricane Matthew, or both storms can apply online for the ReBuild NC Homeowner Recovery Program or call 833-ASK-RBNC for more information.

As of Sept. 11, local governments impacted by Hurricane Florence have been awarded $21.6 million through Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, Expedited Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to buyout properties that have experienced repeat flooding, according to states the N.C. Office of Recovery & Resiliency Fact Sheet Sept. 11, 2020.

Among the steps the state has taken to recover from Hurricane Florence, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Disaster Assistance Program has processed 7,518 applications, with a total of $233.7 million going to farmers back in business. The state Department of Environmental Quality’s Hurricane Florence Commercial Fishing Assistance Program has paid $11.6 million to commercial fishermen and shellfish harvesters to make up for income lost due to the storm. North Carolina Department of Transportation reopened more than 2,500 roads and bridges that were damaged due to Florence, per NCORR.

Through FEMA grants, National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP, payments and low-interest disaster loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, more than $2 billion in funding has gone to survivors and communities to help the state in the last two years, according to FEMA.

As of Sept. 10, FEMA grants, low-interest SBA disaster loans and NFIP flood insurance payments for Hurricane Florence survivors total $407.8 million in loans approved by SBA for homeowners, renters and businesses affected by the hurricane and NFIP paid $632.7 million to flood insurance policyholders across the state.

Survivors in 34 counties have received $133.9 million in FEMA grants for home repairs, temporary housing and replacing essential household items.

FEMA provided no-cost housing to 656 households approved to live temporarily in travel trailers or manufactured housing units in Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender and Robeson counties. By June of 2020, the 656 households had moved into longer-term housing.

FEMA provided $628.9 million to reimburse state and local governments and certain private nonprofits in 51 affected counties for eligible activities and disaster-related costs. An additional $197.1 million has been provided by the state.

FEMA obligated $21.6 million through its Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to encourage the state and local governments to fund projects that help communities eliminate or reduce disaster-related damage.

State and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have approved more than $25.9 million to reimburse the North Carolina Department of Transportation for costs related to Hurricane Florence.

The total from FEMA’s Public Assistance cost-sharing program includes more than $23.1 million for NCDOT’s removal of more than 192,900 tons of debris from the 2018 storm from state roads and public property in coastal counties of Beaufort, Carteret, Craven and Pamlico, as well as Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Harnett, Jones, Lenoir, Pitt and Robeson counties, FEMA announced Friday.

Another $2.8 million covers repairs to roads and culverts damaged by hurricane-related flooding in Durham, Franklin, Granville, Person, Vance, Wake and Warren counties.

The agencies said the approval brings the total to more than $48.6 million to reimburse NCDOT for Hurricane Florence-related expenses.

FEMA’s total share for the projects is more than $19.4 million and the state’s share is more than $6.4 million.

The state and Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, have approved reimbursing North Carolina Department of Transportation $6.3 million for debris removal costs following Hurricane Florence, bringing the total reimbursement to more than $44.2 million.

The $6.3 million cover the removing hurricane-related debris in Brunswick, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Sampson counties. More than 14,500 tons of hurricane-related debris were removed from NCDOT roads and public property. FEMA’s total share for this project is more than $4.7 million and the state’s share is more than $1.5 million.

FEMA’s Public Assistance program is a cost-sharing program that provides grants for state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations to reimburse the cost of debris removal, emergency protective measures and permanent repair work.

FEMA reimburses applicants at least 75% of eligible costs and the state covers the remaining. The federal share is paid directly to the state to disburse to agencies, local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations that incurred costs.

Updated  3 p.m. Monday to include the opening of the ReBuild NC Homeowner Recovery Program

The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency opened Monday a new application period for eligible homeowners who suffered damage from hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

Through NCORR’s ReBuild NC Homeowner Recovery Program, homeowners may be eligible for assistance if they owned and occupied a home during these disasters. If homeowners have received assistance from other sources, they may still be eligible for help through the Homeowner Recovery Program, according to officials. Homeowners who have already applied to ReBuild NC do not need to reapply.

“The damaging impacts of Hurricanes Florence and Matthew can still be seen in many North Carolina communities today,” said Gov. Roy Cooper. “The Homeowner Recovery Program can help homeowners rebuild smarter and stronger to make them more resilient against future storms.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the application is online and the website has been redesigned to include additional resources for homeowners.

Additionally, NCORR is looking for feedback on proposed amendments to previously approved spending plans for grant funds in areas of the state affected by hurricanes Matthew and Florence.

North Carolina received $236 million in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s, or HUD, Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR, funds for Hurricane Matthew recovery. The state has already awarded $185.4 million of that funding to help communities rebuild.

The public comment period for Substantial Action Plan Amendment 6 for Hurricane Matthew CDBG-DR is open until June 24. The public comment period for Substantial Action Plan Amendment 1 for Hurricane Florence CDBG-DR is open until July 10.

Both action plans and the draft amendments are available for review on the ReBuild NC website. Public comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov or by U.S. Postal Service to NCORR Public Comments, P.O. Box 110465, Durham, N.C. 27709.

Cooper established NCORR after Hurricane Florence. The office administers programs that support homeowner recovery, affordable housing, mitigation, buyout, local government grants and loans and resiliency. Through its ReBuild NC program, NCORR has committed $185.4 million in Hurricane Matthew recovery funds to help storm survivors. To date, North Carolina has provided more than $3.5 billion in state and federal funding for Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence recovery.

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• Subscribe to NCORR and ReBuild NC updates

The following is a series of essays by students at Brunswick Early College High School in Bolivia on their personal experiences during Hurricane Florence in 2018 and their perceptions of climate change. This is part of a series for the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative. For more information, go to pulitzercenter.org/connected-coastlines.

A State of Helplessness

By Daniel Van Skiver

Hurricane Florence truly put the “disaster” in natural disaster when it tore through in 2018. Many felt the destruction and were left with nowhere to turn after their homes were ripped apart or flooded. I am one of these people.

Florence left me in a state of helplessness and, being one of the many people in Brunswick County with financial problems, there was no way out. My home was left in an almost unlivable state, my bed was soaked through from a hole in my bedroom roof, and the problem did not stop with the passing of the hurricane. The water damage brought infestations of bugs and rotted away other parts of the house that had been untouched. If I had not been able to stay with my brother I would have most likely been out on the streets, a living arrangement that would last the next 7 months as me and my dad looked for a house.

This kind of damage is tragic, but it seems to be more common with every year. As a coastal area this kind of water damage occurs almost every year during hurricane season and displaces more and more people who cannot afford that kind of a loss. The storms seem to get worse by the year as temperatures globally continue to become more unstable and the environment gets mistreated and ignored. These disasters may be rough, and I would know firsthand, but they might only be a small part in a larger-scale issue that not enough people are concerned with.

Climate change is a very real and very dangerous threat, and not only due to hurricanes. With rising global temperatures comes droughts and extreme heat waves and rising sea levels. For agricultural-based areas, this means an endangerment of an entire way of life. Crops will shrivel and die, leading to more poverty and less preparedness for the next storm season. Furthermore, rising sea levels will lead to worse flooding than we have ever seen before. These floods do not only hurt us, but our wildlife as well. As water washes onto shore and destroys more areas, it also contaminates our water supplies. This hurts the plants and animals that make our community so beautiful and only worsens the effects of climate change.

Florence took my house away, just as many storms have done to many people before, but if we don’t act to undo our part in these worsening disasters then we might end up losing entire communities.

A Life-Changing Event

By Bella Digiacomo

Webster’s definition of a hurricane is, “a tropical cyclone with winds of 74 mph or greater that is usually accompanied by rain, thunder and lightning and that sometimes moves into temperate latitudes.” I believe this is correct, but does not include any of the emotions people feel during a hurricane, or details about the effects and damages of a hurricane.

Hurricane Florence was a life-changing event that really opened my eyes toward reality. Florence, although devastating has taught me many life lessons, it showed me the good and the bad of situations. How did one event cause a whole chain reaction in my life? In sum, it all started when my Mom had called a family meeting deciding if we should evacuate or stay put, the vote came to an even split. We ended up evacuating to Winston-Salem where it was so peaceful, it was as if no one knew there was a hurricane. Seeing how peaceful Winston-Salem was, we made plans with our family that was going to get hit by Florence to meet up at our hotel. We all met up for dinner at Five Guys, and honestly it was such a great way to end a stressful day. After a few days of stressing and exploring Winston-Salem, mom decided to finally go back home, but once we got there we realized it was not such a great idea.

Our whole street was flooded with muddy water, it was up to my aunt’s hips, so around 5 feet of water, and it was only going to rise over time. After continuous warnings to not drive through the muddy water, mom thought she could do it, but halfway there the car began to sink and water began to rise. My siblings rapidly grabbed their life jackets as my grandpa began to jump out of the window to push the car out, he tried but didn’t succeed until our neighbors walked into the water to help.

The engine gave out so the only thing mom could do was steer the wheels to face straight ahead. The struggle continued after we got out. People were crying about such little things, everyone was so emotional. The next mission was to get out of our house due to the muddy water still rising, luckily our grandmother lived down the road at a higher platform, so the water would take longer to reach us. Days later, the whole neighborhood was evacuated, people were standing on the roofs of their homes to avoid the water from getting to them. We all had to squeeze into small trucks, and boats to get passed the flooded highway, but once we finally got settled in and it all ended, we were forced to fix our homes and sell them. This should have taken about a year, but with everyone’s help it only took months. This taught me that sometimes the people you would think would be there for you won’t be there in your most desperate times. It also showed people come together in a state of emergency and will try to help in any way.

Climate change was such a large factor in this hurricane, and according to Science Daily, “They predicted Hurricane Florence would be slightly more intense for a longer portion of the forecast period, rainfall amounts over the Carolinas would be increased by 50 percent due to climate change and warmer water temperatures, and the hurricane would be approximately 80 kilometers larger due to the effect of climate change on the large-scale environment around the storm.”

Climate change made an increase in flooding, and instead of just wind damage it became water damage as well. If climate change continues in the future, a normal rainy day could become another flood warning and hurricanes would be a constant unavoidable loop.

Still Feeling the Effects

By Lindsey Clark 

In the late summer of 2018, Hurricane Florence ripped through the Carolinas and devastated many homes, including my own.

There was 7 feet of water on the inside and 14 feet of water on the outside.

It has almost been a year and a half since it has happened, and we still feel the effects of it today. It hurt each part of the family differently and was so heartbreaking. We lost all of our old family photos, clothes and our home. It was difficult to build back up again and to try to get back on our feet. We felt stuck and felt like we had nowhere to go and did not know where to turn.

You really do not realize how much you have until it is taken away from you. Thankfully a family friend allowed us to stay at their house until we got back on our feet, which took months. It was crazy to see the people taking advantage of the ones that were without homes; because while we were searching for houses to rent, the prices were extremely outrageous. Even though some were taking advantage of others, there were many who donated and helped out ones who lost their homes.

My sister school, Bolivia Elementary set up these stations for people to go into the school and get cleaning supplies, food and clothes and it really helped us out. It was just amazing for them to do that! It is very nerve racking for me when there is a bad storm or another hurricane because I always think that there is going to be some freak accident where my house gets damaged again and we will have to start all over again. On top of that, my dad is in law enforcement — so when there is a storm he has to stay and wait it out with the rest of his team. That is scary because he is out in horrible conditions and something could happen.

In these past years I have been able to see a difference in the amount and strength of the hurricanes. They are happening more and more, and they are becoming more powerful due to the rising temperature of the ocean due to climate change. They are coming in one after the other, causing major damage to our infrastructure and it cost so much to fix these issues. During Hurricane Florence, the rain washed out many of our roads, and Highway 17 still has damage to it. There are still roads that we cannot go through because they are so damaged.

We need to do something about this before it is truly too late, because it is only going to get worse from here. This is especially important to people who live on the coast because it is our way of life and hurricanes disrupt that. Hurricanes cause erosion of the beaches which is not good for the sea life as well. We need to take care of what we have before it is gone.

Florence Shook Me Mentally

By Corban Cardenas

In August through September 2018 came catastrophic Hurricane Florence. The hurricane caused over 23 billion dollars in damage with a little over 50 fatalities. The hurricane flooded many parts of the Carolinas including a town in North Carolina, Leland. This was where I was when the major flooding and strong winds were taking effect. Florence not only completely destroyed my first home in North Carolina but it also shook me mentally.

Florence poured into a small community called Stoney Creek and with the strong winds combined with the powerful rain, it destroyed the septic tank in the community and flooded the community with a mixture of sewage and rainwater. Over the course of five days, through my bedroom window I watched as Florence tortured my mind by slowly filling the neighborhood with water. It started as puddle to lake-deep water that drifted my car off.

After the water, the power had finally gone out when we ran out of gas for the generator, my family decided to leave to my grandma’s house a couple streets down. Overnight, out of curiosity, I left to check on the house and soon found myself staring at my house completely underwater. This destroyed me because this was my first house in North Carolina, so many memories were formed and saved here. All the Christmases and birthdays now gone in 24 hours. My mission was to keep my family happy and smiling so I did everything in my power to make them laugh, from filming dumb videos to doing mini stand up. My mother however did not like this and we would argue because she saw me as heartless for not showing any remorse for what was reality. I still pushed through the pain and kept my reasons to myself. I stuffed all the sadness and confusion down and continued my mission to make them happy. After one week and a half of missions to spark smiles and in return receiving arguments, the water was completely gone. I could finally stop thinking about how the house could be and actually find out myself.

I ran to my street only to find myself in a post-apocalyptic wasteland; cars flipped in the street, broken windows and torn walls, papers flying everywhere. While walking through the silence, I stumbled across a notebook. The notebook was mine, the book contained all the songs I have ever written. It was drenched and torn up. This shattered my heart, this notebook had years of memories, now gone. I kept it and searched for my house.

I found my home, the front door was wide open, the fridge was in the living room. Picture frames shattered on the floor and tables flipped. Luckily, the water did not reach the upper floor, but the first floor was destroyed. I went upstairs and thought to myself about what had happened and everything I saw and took in. I thought to myself, everything and anything will come to an end eventually. The smiles I was creating on my little sisters faces had a beginning and an end. I was yelled at and argued with my mother who I worked hardest to make happy. Those arguments came to an end. A building that I called home, came to an end. I tried so hard to keep the smiles alive, that when the fell to a frown it hurt worse. The more arguments I tried to end quicker the more took place. Finally, the home I kept telling myself would be okay, was demolished from the inside.

I realized that the most important thing to understand in life is that you should not go through so much pain to keep things alive before the end, you should appreciate and enjoy every moment while it is still alive. The notebook served as a realization that memories are a past and not present. I should work on the present and enjoy every moment. Ever since Florence, I have been enjoying every moment with everyone and everything. I have been writing, producing, and helping people produce music. Florence had such an impact on my mentality, I have changed how I view the world and how I should live my life. Life is short, time is fast, there is no replay or rewind. Enjoy every moment as it comes.

Read more

• NC’s Turning Point For Climate Science

The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center on Harkers Island will open at 10 a.m. Friday, after being closed since the September 2018 Hurricane Florence that caused millions of dollars in damage to the building.

“It’s been a long road, but with the help of hundreds of volunteers and thousands of dollars in contributions, we are home – stronger than ever,” museum director Karen Amspacher said.

Hurricane Florence damage repairs ended up costing about $3.4 million because of roof damage and the 30 inches of rain that led to major mold infestation, according to a release Monday. Immediately after, all museum contents were removed to avoid damage to the artifacts, collections and equipment that had all safely survived the storm.

“It was a museum nightmare,” said Pam Morris, collections manager for the museum. “We have all our belongings stored from here to Charlotte, but everything is back now, safe and sound, and it is amazing to see it all together again.”

Core Sound has undergone a complete rework on the inside with new exhibitions, an expanded education area and updated community exhibits. Experiences at Core Sound range from a Coast Guard display in the tower to a documentary of 120 years of hurricane history in the side gallery, with a new waterfowl hunting exhibition in the main Core Sound Heritage gallery.

“Our insurance paid off and we’ve had help from many sources including the Golden Leaf Foundation, the Cannon Foundation, the State of North Carolina and many others, but it has been the generosity and commitment of our members and our community that has allowed us to maintain operations, programming and events during this extended recovery period. We could not have done it without them,” Amspacher said.

While the building was undergoing repairs, the museum operated from 806 Arendell St. in Morehead City, and the outreach location will continue to feature a Museum Store, an art gallery, Core Sound quilters room, art classes, children’s programming, and the headquarters for all museum activities.

“We will be keeping 806 as our Outreach location now that we are back in the museum. This location will help us introduce visitors to the county to Core Sound and that will be important as we reopen. The museum is truly ‘at the end of the road’ on Harkers Island and sometimes it takes real encouragement to get folks to make the trip,” Amspacher explained. “We are determined to retain the important place Core Sound’s 806 location has become and we will continue to use that space as a preview of the good work happening ‘at the end of the road. ‘”

Plans were to open the museum April 1 but the coronavirus closures delayed that schedule and canceled plans for a month-long celebration of events. The museum will open Friday, in compliance with all COVID-19 guidelines and will reschedule events later in the summer when crowd limits will allow.

Hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday.  Hours at 806 Arendell St. are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, call the museum at 252-728-1500, visit www.coresound.com or email museum@coresound.com.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries is asking for feedback on a draft spending plan to help seafood dealers and processors, bait and tackle shops, for-hire businesses and ocean fishing piers that can document lost revenue or damages due to the 2018 Hurricane Florence.

The $7.7 million in funding is through federal fisheries disaster aid for Hurricane Florence, officials announced Wednesday. The spending plan must be approved by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries for the state to receive the funding.

The public can submit written comments by 5 p.m. May 28  through a form on the webpage or by mail to Hurricane Florence Federal Fishery Disaster Assistance Comments, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557. The division will not accept comments submitted by email.

The draft spending plan proposes disbursing the funding through direct payments to those stakeholders that can document lost revenue or damages due to Hurricane Florence. These stakeholders were not compensated by earlier state-funded payments to commercial fishermen and shellfish harvesters. The draft spending plan and other information about the Hurricane Florence federal fishery disaster declaration and assistance can be found online.

In a 2019 Hurricane Florence Fisheries Damage Assessment report, NOAA Fisheries estimated $38 million in damages to vessels and business, $56.5 million in lost revenues and 3,500 fishing-related job losses.

The state appropriated $11.6 million to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries to help commercial fishermen and shellfish harvesters with income losses from harvest reductions. Gov. Roy Cooper won a federal disaster declaration for the state’s marine fishing industry, beginning the process of federal disaster assistance. The state Division of Marine Fisheries was notified in March 2020 eligibility for $7,728,000 in federal fishery disaster assistance after NOAA Fisheries approves the spending plan developed by the state.

North Carolina’s action plan to spend $542 in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funds for Hurricane Florence has been approved.

The state Office of Recovery and Resiliency announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, approved the plan that was submitted and approved first out of 27 grantees for this federal disaster recovery allocation.

“Many North Carolina families are still struggling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence, and even in the midst of a pandemic we’re the first state in the country to receive approval on a plan to start drawing down these funds. I’m proud of our team working so hard through these challenging times to get people the help they need as quickly as possible,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement.

Approval of the action plan is a required step in a technical process that all grantees must follow. The state must now receive a federal grant agreement from HUD before it can spend the funds to help storm survivors.

Hurricane Florence made landfall Sept. 14, 2018, and caused an estimated $22 billion in damages statewide. Cooper established the recovery and resiliency office following Hurricane Florence to streamline disaster recovery programs statewide and help communities rebuild smarter and stronger. The office administers programs that support homeowner recovery, affordable housing, mitigation, buyout, local government grants and loans, and resiliency.

Through its ReBuild NC program, office has committed $189.7 million in Hurricane Matthew recovery funds to help storm survivors and remains on pace to administer all funds within federal guidelines. To date, North Carolina has spent more than $3.5 billion in state and federal funding for hurricanes Matthew and Florence recovery.

Gov. Roy Cooper has secured $7.7 million in federal fisheries disaster assistance, part of a $65 million appropriation by Congress for fishery disasters nationwide in 2019, his office announced Friday afternoon.

State fisheries experts will work with federal fisheries authorities to create a spending plan for the $7.7 million once more details on the timing of the grant funds is finalized by the federal government.

When Hurricane Florence hit in September 2018, the storm poured 3 feet of rain on Eastern North Carolina over a four-day period, causing widespread flooding that disrupted fishing and destroyed boats, gear, and buildings critical to fishing businesses.

The 2019 Hurricane Florence Fisheries Damage Assessment report states that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries estimated $38 million in damages to vessels and business and $56.5 million in lost revenues.

“Protecting our fisheries is a priority for North Carolina, and these funds will help the industry recover from increasingly devastating storms,” said Cooper. “We know we must rebuild smarter and stronger and these funds will help our fisheries do that.”

In response to the storm the state appropriated $11.6 million to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries that was distributed to commercial fishermen and shellfish harvesters to help compensate for income losses from harvest reductions.

When his administration sought and won a federal disaster declaration for the state’s marine fishing industry in December 2018, that began the process for the federal disaster assistance announced Friday. The declaration of disaster was a necessary step for Congress to appropriate the fishery disaster assistance.

The public can submit comments through 5 p.m. March 8 on how the state will use more than $500 million in federal funds to implement disaster recovery programs throughout areas impacted by the storm.

ReBuild NC is looking for feedback on the state’s draft action plan for administering $542 million in Hurricane Florence recovery funding provided to the state through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR, program. The draft action plan is available for review on the Rebuild NC website. Printed copies of the draft plan are also available by calling 984-833-4344.

“This funding will make a tremendous difference for people whose lives were forever changed by Hurricane Florence,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement. “I encourage North Carolinians in the impacted counties and beyond to submit their feedback on the plan so that we can provide the best possible recovery programs for storm survivors.”

Public comments can be submitted by email to publiccomments@rebuild.nc.gov or by U.S. Postal Service mail to: ReBuild NC, Attn: Florence Action Plan, P.O. Box 110465, Durham, N.C. 27709.

ReBuild NC is the state’s long-term disaster recovery agency administered by the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. In addition to assisting hurricane survivors with home repairs and reconstruction, the office administers programs that include resiliency, affordable housing, mitigation, buyout, and local government grants and loans.

ROCKY MOUNT – The nonprofit North Carolina economic development group Golden LEAF has announced more than $2.5 million has been approved for disaster recovery projects for Ocracoke Island and other coastal North Carolina communities affected by recent hurricanes.

Golden LEAF’s board of directors approved the grants during their meeting last week, the organization announced Monday.

“Golden LEAF is dedicated to the long-term economic advancement of North Carolina,” Golden LEAF President and CEO Scott T. Hamilton said in a statement. “Our Board and staff work hard to get funding out the door and at work in the communities we serve.”

The following projects were approved for funding:

Hurricane Dorian

• $500,000 to Hyde County to build a new EMS station on Ocracoke Island. The existing station was flooded during Hurricane Dorian.
• $125,000 to Hyde County to replace the trams used to support the passenger ferry. The trams were destroyed by floodwater on Ocracoke during Hurricane Dorian.
• $900,000 to Hyde County schools for the repair and elevation of several buildings at the Ocracoke School campus, which was flooded by Hurricane Dorian.
• $278,000 to the Ocracoke Foundation of Hyde County to support the replacement of the main dock in the Community Square. The dock was destroyed during Hurricane Dorian.
• $277,400 to the Ocracoke Foundation to support repair of the Ocracoke Seafood Co. building. The building, maintained by the Ocracoke Foundation, was damaged during Hurricane Dorian.

Hurricane Florence:

• $50,000 to the Bald Head Island Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental research and education group, for the replacement of windows and the repair of a conference room area damaged as a result of Hurricane Florence.
• $300,000 to Pender County for the relocation of the boiler and other electrical components from the courthouse basement, which was flooded during Hurricane Florence.
• $34,727.97 to Swansboro  for the the replacement of a backup generator at the public safety building. The existing generator failed during Hurricane Florence.

Hurricane Matthew:

• An increase in funding to an existing award by $70,164.92 to Beaufort County to address increased costs for installation of two backup generators at critical water facilities. The county nearly lost water during Hurricane Matthew.

The announcement also included grants for job-creation projects in Catawba and Watauga counties.

The foundation also has a special initiative available to help connect dislocated workers to jobs to address urgent workforce needs. Applications are due by noon March 6.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization established in 1999 to receive a portion of North Carolina’s funding received from a 1998 settlement with cigarette manufacturers. Its Disaster Recovery Grant Program is funded through state appropriations to make grants to governmental entities and 501(c)(3) nonprofits to repair or replace infrastructure and equipment damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Matthew, Florence, Michael and Dorian.

Learn more

• www.goldenleaf.org

Reprinted from the Carteret County News-Times

EMERALD ISLE — Bogue Banks’ next beach nourishment project is ready to roll, with dredging and pumping of sand set to begin the first week of February, a little earlier than originally planned.

Greg Rudolph, manager of the Carteret County Shore Protection Office, met Wednesday with town and county officials, representatives of county beach engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol and dredge contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co., of Illinois, for a preconstruction session.

He said everything went well, and “kicked off” the $28.2 million Phase 2 Hurricane Florence sand replacement project in western Atlantic Beach, all of Pine Knoll Shores, a small part of Salter Path and a part of western Emerald Isle.

“The one caveat is that when you hear a date, you have to remember that it’s kind of like building a house,” he said. “You can know a lot of things, but you can’t know, for example, exactly when the electrical contractor is going to show up and wire the master bedroom.”

Rudolph said an area at The Circle district in Atlantic Beach will serve as the “main staging area for the land-based pipe that will move the sand east-to-west down the island as it is pumped ashore from the borrow site” in the ocean off the town.

The company’s smaller dredge, the Liberty Island, will arrive onsite first and will generally progress and “leapfrog” east to west from Atlantic Beach and continue into Pine Knoll Shores, Rudolph said Thursday.

“At some point in mid-March the larger hopper dredge, the Ellis Island, will relieve the Liberty Island and continue leapfrogging down the beach to finish the effort in west Emerald Isle before the (Thursday) April 30 environmental window closes for the sea turtle nesting season and other biological resources,” he added.

Rudolph said Great Lakes should begin mobilizing land- and water-based pipe, heavy equipment and personnel this month.

Once things get underway, the dredges will travel and discharge sand through a buoyed pick-up pipeline offshore that transitions to the preconstruction dry beach via a submerged pipeline assembly, Rudolph said.

 A secondary elbow connection is used to transport material in one direction (east), then the other direction (west) along the beach to complete approximately 1- to 2-mile sections as lengths of pipe are added and subsequently broken down.

Heavy equipment spreads the sand and shapes the constructed beach.

The project will involve 1.995 million cubic yards of sand. Western Emerald Isle, Salter Path, Pine Knoll Shores and western Atlantic Beach will receive 345,000, 140,000, 990,000 and 520,000 cubic yards of sand, respectively, along 9.5 miles of beach.

A conventional dump truck holds about 12 cubic yards of wet sand, Rudolph said, so the total sand involved equates to about 167,000 dump truck loads.

The Liberty Island has a maximum capacity of 6,540 cubic yards and the Ellis Island has a capacity of 14,800 cubic yards under optimal conditions.

In a post on the Carteret County Shore Protection Office website, Rudolph added that project engineers will use prepositioned stations along the beach to monitor progress and verify volumes of sand added in those locations.

Regarding the financial aspect of the project, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved $34 million to reimburse Bogue Banks towns for sand lost during Hurricane Florence in September 2018, and that money will be available if needed to pay for this project when bills come due at completion. Alternately, it could be used in a future project.

The county completed Phase 1 of the Hurricane Florence sand replacement project in April 2019, placing about 1 million cubic yards of sand on beaches in eastern Emerald Isle, most of Salter Path and all of Indian Beach.

The project to begin in February will be funded largely by about $12 million from the beach nourishment fund, which gets half of the money from the county’s occupancy tax, and $15.3 million from $18 million the North Carolina General Assembly set aside last year to help local governments nourish beaches after Hurricane Florence, which robbed Bogue Banks of about 3.6 million cubic yards of sand.

Unlike in the past, the towns will not have to pony up money for the February-through-April project. The towns will, however, reimburse the county for money the county “up-fronted” for the project last year. All that reimbursement money to the county will come from funds reimbursed to the towns by FEMA for the cost of replacing sand lost during Florence.

North Carolina and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials announced Thursday more than $54.9 million in hurricane- and tropical storm-related public assistance grants have been approved for Emerald Isle and Holden Beach.

The grants are to reimburse expenses to renourish public beaches in the coastal towns which were damaged by storm surges during Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael in 2018. Emerald Isle is to replenish with more than 2 million cubic yards of sand and more than 377,000 square yards of plants damaged during Hurricane Florence. The sand equals more than 20 times the amount of concrete in Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium and the volume of plants covers 78 acres, according to the announcement. Holden Beach will replenish more than 389,000 cubic yards of sand damaged during Tropical Storm Michael.

FEMA’s Public Assistance program provides grants for state and local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations to reimburse the cost of debris removal, emergency protective measures and permanent repair work. Public Assistance is a cost-sharing program. FEMA reimburses applicants at least 75% of eligible costs, and the remaining 25% is covered by the state. The federal share is paid directly to the state, which disburses funds to agencies, local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations that incurred costs.

FEMA’s combined share for the Emerald Isle and Holden Beach projects is more than $41.2 million and the state’s share is more than $13.7 million.

The state and FEMA have approved more than $72 million to restore North Carolina beaches since the 2018 storms. In September 2019, more than $18 million was approved to restore beaches in the towns of Indian Beach and Pine Knoll Shores.

Health care providers in several North Carolina counties, including a handful on the coast, affected by Hurricane Florence have been awarded grants from the state Department of Health and Human Services Office of Rural Health to be used for disaster preparedness, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday.

Sites in Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Onslow, Pender, Robeson, Wayne and Wilson received the funding. In addition, these sites reported service to Moore, New Hanover, Richmond, Sampson and Scotland counties, for funding reach in 23 of the 34 FEMA-identified counties.

Funded through a $1 million grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the 23 grants awarded to sites in the 18 counties provide up to $50,000 for infrastructure-related capital needs, emergency supplies and equipment to sustain services during emergencies and natural disasters as well as generators, shelter supplies, storage containers, building repairs, refrigerators, freezers, portable coolers and cots.

“Health providers at all levels are working to ensure they are ready for disasters, and this money strengthens the safety net in counties across the state as they prepare for the next storm,” said Cooper in a statement.

The grants will support safety net health care providers, including rural health centers and nonprofit rural health clinics, federally qualified health centers, health departments and small rural hospitals, with service sites impacted by the storm.

Office of Rural Health supports safety net health care providers in rural and underserved areas of North Carolina, who offer access to care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. The populations they serve include a substantial share of uninsured, Medicaid and other vulnerable patients.

The following providers received the disaster preparedness funding:

• Agape Health Services, Washington             
• Angier Medical Services
• Benson Area Medical Center
• Black River Family Practice
• Bladen County Hospital
• Carteret County Health Department
• Columbus County Health Department
• CommWell Health – Angelic House
• Duplin County Health Department
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, Cape Fear
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, Dunn
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, New River
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, Raeford
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, Southport
• Goshen Medical Center, Inc, Whiteville
• Hoke Hospital
• Hyde County Health Department
• Jones County Health Department
• Lee County Health Department
• Pender County Health Department
• Robeson County Health Department
• Wayne County Health Department
• Wilson Community Health Center

State officials and the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Friday that the Craven County Board of Education has been approved for more than $4.1 million to reimburse Hurricane Florence-related costs.

The money approved through FEMA’s Public Assistance program will go to offset expenses from cleaning mold at the county’s elementary, middle and high schools that flooded during Hurricane Florence in 2018. The funding also goes toward costs related to using four county schools as shelters during the storm.

FEMA reimburses applicants at least 75% of eligible costs and the remaining 25% is covered by the state. FEMA’s share for this project is more than $3 million and the state’s share is more than $1 million.

FEMA’s Public Assistance, a cost-sharing program, provides grants to state and local governments and some private nonprofit organizations to reimburse the cost of debris removal, emergency protective measures and permanent repair work. The federal share is paid directly to the state, which disburses the funds.

Craven County’s school board was approved for more than $5.3 million for Hurricane Florence-related expenses.

Learn more

• N.C. Department of Public Safety Florence relief
• FEMA Florence relief

RALEIGH –The North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund has raised in the last year $5.9 million, helping more than 5,000 North Carolina families, the governor’s office announced Thursday.

“When Hurricane Florence devastated North Carolina, people across the country gave their money and their time to help,” Cooper said. “Donations and volunteers are a huge part of our ongoing work to recover and rebuild, and we’re grateful for the assistance.”

Donations since the September 2018 hurricane include $1 from an 8-year-old boy in Georgia, $412,412 from Stephen Colbert and the Late Show, $1 million from United Healthcare and $1.5 million from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina. Survivors of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Hurricane Sandy in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and Hurricane Irma in Florida also contributed to relief efforts.

In addition to financial help, more than 168,000 volunteers gave more than 3.4 million hours of their time by staffing storm shelters, serving meals, delivering emergency supplies and cleaning out flooded homes.

The Golden LEAF Foundation and the North Carolina Community Foundation serve as the grant-making organizations for the N.C. Disaster Relief Fund.

As of Tuesday, the Golden LEAF Foundation has used donations to the Relief Fund to make grants totaling more than $5.4 million to 48 nonprofit organizations and local government entities serving 25 counties. Golden LEAF reports that more than 5,000 households have received assistance from these funds so far.

The North Carolina Community Foundation in April allocated an initial $1 million in disaster relief grants using a combination of funds from the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund and Foundation’s own Disaster Relief Fund. Grants were made to 26 nonprofit organizations serving nine affected counties to help those communities recover.

See the complete list of grants awarded to date.

NORTH CAROLINA — Through the coming weeks, state officials will hold a series of community disaster information sessions in more than a dozen communities to provide updates on recovery resources that are available in hurricane-affected areas of eastern North Carolina, the state Department of Public Safety announced Friday.

Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, North Carolina Emergency Management and the state departments of Environmental Quality and Health and Human Services have partnered to provide the information sessions to be held from 6-7:30 p.m. at the following locations:

• Monday, Aug. 26: Lumbee Tribe Southern Spirit Community Building, 1872 Back Swamp Road, Lumberton.
• Tuesday, Aug. 27: Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (R.E.A.C.H.), 2389 West Wards Bridge Road, Warsaw.
• Tuesday, Aug. 27: St. Luke AME Zion Church, 91 Main St., Maysville.
• Thursday, Aug. 29: First Baptist Church, 521 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Bladenboro.
• Thursday, Aug. 29: St. Peter AME Zion Church, 617 Queen St., New Bern.
• Tuesday, Sept. 3: St. Stephens AME Church, 501 Red Cross St., Wilmington.
• Tuesday, Sept. 3: Mattamuskeet Early College High School Cafeteria, 20392 US 264, Swan Quarter.
• Thursday, Sept. 5: Faith Tabernacle of Praise, 413 NC 101, Beaufort.
• Thursday, Sept. 5: Columbus County Dream Center, 403 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, Whiteville.
• Monday, Sept. 9: First Baptist Church, 302 Moore St., Fayetteville.
• Monday, Sept. 9: Johnson Chapel AME Zion Church, 1882 Lincoln Road NE, Leland.
• Tuesday, Sept. 10: St. James Pentecostal Church, 210 Montague Road, Currie.
• Tuesday, Sept. 10: St. Augustus AME Zion Church, 318 North St., Kinston.
• Thursday, Sept. 12: St. Julia’s AME Zion Church, 112 Kerr St., Jacksonville.
• Date TBD: Missionary Baptist Association, 296 N. Trent Road, Merritt.

Learn More

• Hurricane Florence Recovery

TOPSAIL BEACH – A $5 million state grant initially earmarked for a nonprofit has been shifted to the beach towns on Topsail Island.

Senate Bill 95, signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper earlier this month, reallocates equal shares of the grant among North Topsail Beach, Surf City and Topsail Beach.

The bill was ratified June 26 to cut the Resource Institute from receiving any portion of the state Division of Water Resources grant, a move sought by the towns’ officials who have questioned why a Winston-Salem-based nonprofit with little coastal experience would get the funds to oversee projects throughout the island.

“When you look at the state providing this resource where the towns had to do a majority of the work, there really wasn’t a need for a third party to be involved and the towns should benefit by getting the full amount,” said Topsail Beach Commissioner Steve Smith.

Each town must use their respective portions – more than $1.66 million each – for hurricane recovery projects.

Resource Institute, or RI, earlier this year asked for a 12% cut, or $600,000, of the grant for administrative costs to cover grant management, project management, technical assistance and oversight over the life of the project.

RI works with other nonprofit organizations, local governments and private entities to aid in the planning, design and engineering of projects. It also helps find funding sources for those projects.

The nonprofit was initially granted the funding a little more than a year ago, with the instruction to use the money to work with coastal local governments and engineering firms to explore and develop ways to extend the life of beach renourishment projects.

State lawmakers later changed the wording of the language in the state budget after Hurricane Florence blew ashore in North Carolina last September, putting the focus on Topsail Island, where town governments and engineering firms would work together to “develop, plan, or implement projects intended to mitigate the impacts of future hurricanes on Topsail Island.”

Though Resource Institute has done some work on coastal projects, a majority of the institute’s work has historically dealt in inland stream- and wetlands-restoration projects.

This fact led to an onset of questions and rumors as to why the nonprofit – based more than 200 miles west of the coast – was getting a multi-million-dollar grant to work on coastal storm mitigation projects.

By early March, each town pared down their lists of prospective projects to three and submitted them to a task force chaired by an RI representative and five voting members, including one sitting member of each town board, a representative of RI and North Carolina Coastal Federation Director Todd Miller.

Later that same month, Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow, amended Senate Bill 95 to shave $1.6 million off the grant and redirect it to North Topsail Beach.

Surf City and Topsail Beach officials followed up by making a similar request of Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick.

Now that the towns are set to get an equal share of the grant, they are responsible for submitting a report by Oct. 1 to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources and the Fiscal Research Division.

According to the law, the report must include:

• A list of participating local governments, engineering firms and other partners in the grant-funded proposed projects.
• A list of proposed projects, including estimated costs of each.
• Documentation showing the resiliency of beach nourishment projects

“I think the three towns have a list of projects and they’ll go to the Division of Water Resources and go through them,” Smith said.

Smith, who is also chairman of the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, said the towns need make sure what they submit meets the state’s criteria.

Dune restoration topped North Topsail Beach list of priorities. The town lost an estimated $22 million worth of sand from the dune system stretching along the town’s 11-mile shoreline during Hurricane Florence.

Both Surf City and Topsail Beach identified stormwater improvement projects as their top priority.

North Carolina will receive a $12.2 million grant to expand crisis counseling services to Hurricane Florence survivors in 28 counties, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday.

The grant is a continuation of an initial $3.5 million awarded to the Hope 4 NC program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hope 4 NC was created to address the behavioral health needs of those affected by Hurricane Matthew and now subsequent hurricanes. The program employs local licensed clinicians and professional counseling staff to connect directly with survivors in their communities.

The grant provides direct support to residents of Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Greene, Harnett, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Wayne and Wilson counties.

“Along with physical damage to homes and businesses, storms like Florence take an emotional toll,” Cooper said in a statement. “This grant will help meet the need for mental health services as North Carolinians work to rebuild.”

Cooper’s office said that since Florence hit, Hope 4 NC had connected with 90,000 people in the 28 counties, with support from nearly 200 crisis counselors. More than 10,000 individuals had received more involved risk assessments, half of which were referred for more intensive mental health services.

“Disasters are stressful, there is no right or wrong way to feel, and North Carolinians will continue to experience the impacts of these hurricanes long after the storm,” said Kody H. Kinsley, DHHS Deputy Secretary for Behavioral Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities IDD. “We are committed to ensuring survivors fully recover mentally and physically, while working to build lasting resiliency in their homes and communities.”

Those in need of assistance can call the Hope 4 NC Crisis Counseling Services Hotline at 1-855-587-3463 (FIND).

Learn More

• Behavioral health after a hurricane
• Other resources for those affected by Hurricane Florence

RALEIGH — Attorney General Josh Stein filed Thursday a lawsuit against an out-of-state tree service company for alleged price gouging in southeastern North Carolina, his office announced.

The lawsuit was filed against Canary Tree Service, a Jacksonville, Florida-based tree removal company, and its owner Justin Hartmann, alleging that they price gouged Wilmington-area homeowners after Hurricane Florence. This is the seventh price gouging lawsuit Stein has filed after Hurricanes Florence and Michael hit the state in the later months of 2018.

The complaint alleges price gouging incidents with four Wilmington-area homeowners that were excessive amounts for tree removal work, and a fifth homeowner who was offered an inflated quote for a job, according to the release.

Two homeowners were charged $9,500 for 14 hours of work, about $679 per hour. A third homeowner was charged $4,500 for six hours of work, around $750 per hour. A fourth homeowner was charged $14,000 for 30 hours of work, or $467 per hour, though another company estimated that work to cost about $2,400. A fifth homeowner was quoted $750 for removing a small tree, work that was ultimately completed in less than an hour by a neighbor.

None of the consumers were provided written notice of their three-day right to cancel, a requirement under North Carolina law.

Stein is seeking temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctive relief against the defendants, along with restitution for victims, civil penalties, attorney fees and other relief.

“My office will not allow price gouging to go unchecked,” said Attorney General Josh Stein in a statement. “These out-of-state operators took advantage of homeowners rebuilding after Hurricane Florence. That’s against the law, and my office will hold them accountable.”

He has already reached settlements with seven defendants involved in in two lawsuits, totaling $234,006 in restitution and $154,971 in money companies are barred from collecting from homeowners.

RALEIGH – When Hurricane Florence made landfall in September 2018 as a Category 1, the amount of rainfall, not wind, ended up being the storm’s major force, began Natalie Nelson during her presentation of “Water Quality of Hurricane Florence floodwaters: Knowledge Gaps and Challenges” at the 21^st annual conference of the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute.

Nelson said that the rainfall was observed over a four-day period just after Hurricane Florence made landfall and throughout the Piedmont and coastal plain, the total rainfall amount ranged from 2 to 36 inches.

“With this huge amount of rainfall, we also saw really devastating flooding,” she said.

The principal investigator of the Biosystems Analytics Lab in the biological and agricultural engineering department at North Carolina State University, Nelson was one of the dozens of speakers presenting to the hundreds of scientists, students, consultants, officials and representatives from nonprofit organizations and government agencies attending the conference March 21-22 at the McKimmon Center at North Carolina State University.

North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute, or NCWRRI, is a multi-campus program of the University of North Carolina System and is a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey. NCWRRI is one of the 54 National Institutes of Water Resources authorized by the Water Resources Research Act in 1964 to administer and promote federal and state partnerships in research and information transfer on water-related issues, according to the website.

The two-day conference featured several presentations on ongoing and completed research. Topics included wastewater treatment, economics of water resource management, stormwater management, restoration efforts, public health, water utility management and contaminants. Four free, concurrent workshops closed out the conference March 22, each with a different focus: water literacy, sharing water data, managing a shared waterway and drought information for water managers.

Nelson, who led other sessions during the conference, said during her presentation that as the hurricane began to make landfall, her team of University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and N.C. State University researchers led by N.C. State University assistant professor Angela Harris, discussed what they could anticipate in terms of different effects on water quality as a result of the widespread floods.

The researchers asked if there would be an increase in concentrations associated with different contaminants because of the increased connectivity of the waterways to different contaminant sources. Or instead, because there was so much water associated with the floods, would the contaminants dissolve?

The two essential aims of the project were to assess how Hurricane Florence flooding affected microbial and chemical contamination and identify the relative effects of different land uses on contaminant loading, Nelson explained.

She said there are many variables that might affect water quality on different timelines for this research. The researchers also found no clear guidance for this kind of work, including what types of sites should be prioritized and what kinds of baseline information needs to exist.

This means that there is often no water quality data that exists prior to a certain extreme event, making it difficult sometimes to gauge whether a contaminant signature is related to the flood or was present before flooding.

Samples were collected over different times and locations across eastern North Carolina. Those samples are being analyzed for a full profile of contaminants, then the team will identify spatial relationships between contamination, flooding extent and land use. The first phase of sampling took place Sept. 21-28 at 46 sites and the second in October at 43 sites. There were plans to sample again this month and in August.

“The idea with future sampling is that we really want to have a better baseline,” she said. The plan is to collect samples after a one-week period of no rain to be able to separate the effects of surface water runoff from base flow.

The large team of researchers that includes Nelson plans to analyze a wide range of contaminants from within the waters including microbiological contaminants, nutrients, emerging chemical contaminants and pathogens.

That information will then be used to make connections among different land use types, flooding dynamics and what has been observed in terms of the different contaminant signatures, she explained.

Venue for Developing Partnerships

Nelson told Coastal Review Online that North Carolina WRRI offers a range of opportunities to discover the breadth and depth of water-related research taking place in the state and offers the chance to find new people to collaborate with.

“I still feel like a newcomer to North Carolina, so I try to take advantage of any opportunity to learn more about North Carolina’s waters, as well as to share my own experience in water resources research,” said Nelson, who earned her doctorate at the University of Florida. “North Carolina WRRI is the perfect venue for gaining greater exposure to the work of professionals committed to improving water management in our state. Events such as NC WRRI are critical to ensuring that water researchers and practitioners connect and develop new partnerships.”

Susan White, executive director of NC WRRI and leader of North Carolina’s Sea Grant and Space Grant programs at North Carolina State University, said in an interview that at the conference this year there were about 375 participants, a significant increase compared to recent years.

“For more than 20 years, our NC WRRI conference has been a key gathering for researchers, from citizen scientists to undergraduate students to international experts,” she said. “It also is designed to share data and policies from local, state and federal agencies. Representatives of community organizations and the public at large also seek information on water quality and quantity topics.”

The conference hosted 10 universities, nearly 20 local governments, almost 50 private businesses and more than 15 nonprofit organizations, plus there were more than a dozen state and federal government agencies present. The conference provides required annual education hours required for professionals, including engineers, soil scientists, geologists and landscape architects.

“We are receiving and evaluating surveys to understand key points that attracted new and returning attendees,” she said, adding that the free workshops were a highlight.

“We are truly excited that the NC WRRI conference is so welcoming to students. For many, it is their first professional experience in sharing their research,” she said. “Some even moderate sessions, thereby taking first steps in building a network. The conference also hosts a mentorship program and career-oriented roundtable discussions.”

In recent years, the team organizing the WRRI conference “has been working to increase the diversity of the presenters and attendees, and to provide elements of inspiration, be it keynote speakers who have experience in communities across the country, or from nearby elementary-age artists,” White continued. “The diversity of attendees is mirrored in the spectrum of presentations and the organizations that come together for the benefit of the state.”

This year’s keynote speaker was Vernice Miller-Travis of Skeo Solutions, Inc., a consulting firm based in Virginia that specializes in environmental stewardship, social equity and economic opportunity. During the March 21 luncheon, she spoke on the importance of successfully reaching communities impacted by a project or plan during her address, “Community engagement: Thinking outside the box or just plain common sense?”

The senior adviser for environmental justice and equitable development on Skeo’s Community Planning and Revitalization team discussed her work in New York, Maryland and North Carolina.

“We’ve come to think about building productive community relationships, that this is really, really critical work for any kind of project that you’re working on, no matter how complex it is, building community relationships is really important,” Miller-Travis told attendees.

Priorities That Can Be Addressed

White explained that NC WRRI works with partners across the state to provide an unbiased, research-based approach to address a range of water issues.

“Through strategic planning and engagement with our advisory committee, we ensure that our research and outreach efforts are directed toward pressing priorities that we have capacity to address,” she said.

Additionally, NC WRRI research and outreach results are used in varied ways that the public may not initially realize.

“We share our results and recommendations with managers for large public water supplies, as well as with owners of private water wells,” White explained. “Water quality research topics may range from E. coli to emerging contaminants and algal blooms, all issues that have been in the news and are of interest to residents across the state.”

She added that the work of WRRI reveals a variety of factors that affect water quality. “For example, sediment-control measures and careful planning for appropriate landscaping at construction sites and stream restorations can reduce runoff into nearby streams,” White said.

“Our multi-campus format allows us to fund research by a variety of teams, who may be engaged with diverse partners across the state,” White added. “In addition to the USGS funding, we also administer research programs funded by consortia of municipalities and other water utilities that need data and recommendations on critical topics regarding drinking water and storm water.”

MOREHEAD CITY — Gov. Roy Cooper’s office announced Friday that a second round of assistance checks is on the way to North Carolina commercial fishermen affected by Hurricane Florence.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries is distributing checks from $11.6 million available under the Hurricane Florence Commercial Fishing Assistance Program. The latest distribution includes 1,002 checks totaling more than $7.23 million to fishermen to help compensate for October and November harvest reductions due to Hurricane Florence, according to the governor’s office.

“When the storm hit, coastal communities suffered tremendous damage to homes, businesses, schools and their entire economy,” Cooper said in a statement. “Helping the commercial fishing industry recover is critical for the people and places who rely on it for their livelihood, and these funds are an important boost.”

Cooper’s office said the program is designed to help make up for losses to the state’s $96 million commercial fishing industry, according to 2017 figures from the division, that were related to the storm. It’s part of a package of Hurricane Florence relief efforts Cooper signed into law Dec. 3, 2018. Hurricane Florence severely disrupted North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry throughout fall 2018. The storm destroyed boats, gear and buildings critical to fishing businesses.

The first round of checks to fisherman went out in February and included 678 checks totaling more than $3.2 million to help compensate for a reduced September harvest. Of those, Dare, Carteret and Hyde counties received the largest dollar amounts distributed at $567,234.40, $466,618.01 and $443,151.22, respectively.

In the latest round, Dare, Carteret and Onslow counties received the largest dollar amounts distributed at about $1.47 million, $1.16 million and $1.07 million, respectively.

The distributions are based on reported commercial fishing landings in September, October and November 2018 as compared to the same months in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The state collects records of all marine fish and shellfish sold at North Carolina docks.

Cooper’s office noted the federal disaster declaration for the state’s marine fishing industry that can help with additional relief for commercial fishing families.

Learn More

• Hurricane Florence Commercial Fishing Assistance Program distributions by county

WILMINGTON — A University of North Carolina Wilmington symposium 6-8 p.m. Wednesday will focus on the aftermath of Hurricane Florence and its impact on vulnerable populations during an April 3 panel discussion with relief and recovery experts.

To be held in McNeil Hall, Room 1005, the eighth annual Taking the Pulse on Poverty symposium, “The Disparate Impact of Hurricane Florence,” the panel will discuss how the natural disaster affected vulnerable populations across the southeastern part of the state and how the Cape Fear region is helping its community rise above inequality, according to an announcement from the university.

Panelists include the following:

• Jordyn Appel, community food access coordinator of Feast Down East.
• Amanda Boomershine, associate professor of Spanish and linguistics in the UNCW Department of World Languages and Cultures.
• Cedric Harrison, founder of Support the Port.
• Steven Still, emergency management director for New Hanover County.
• Tommy Taylor, executive vice president of United Way of the Cape Fear Area.

The College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Health and Human Services, the Watson College of Education, the Office of Community Engagement, the Department of Public and International Affairs, the Department of Sociology and Criminology and the School of Social Work collaborated on the symposium.

EMERALD ISLE – Weather and sea conditions last week forced work to pause, but the Post-Florence Renourishment Project for Bogue Banks is well underway, the Carteret County Shore Protection Office announced Monday.

Phase 1 of the project, which includes part of Emerald Isle, Indian Beach and Salter Path, is expected to use 945,446 cubic yards of sand from the offshore dredged material disposal site associated with the Morehead City Federal Navigation Project. Emerald Isle is to receive 617,131 cubic yards, Indian Beach 617,131 cubic yards and the unincorporated area of Salter Path 56,410 cubic yards along the 5.2 miles of shoreline in three areas, or reaches, according to the shore protection website.

Work was completed March 17 on Indian Beach and Salter Path, or Reach 3, where the project began March 8, and the first load of sand was delivered March 18 to Reach 2 in Indian Beach. Temporary pipes have been put in place on the beaches as part of the project, the first of which was in Indian Beach in February.

County Shore Protection Manager Greg “Rudi” Rudolph told Coastal Review Online last week the project should be in Emerald Isle, or Reach 1, about April 1, the final leg of Phase 1.

“Productivity has been outstanding – the sand quality, the weather, the lack of mechanical issues, and the avoidance of turtles have all been in our favor. Only takes one of those factors to go sideways to derail things for a while,” Rudolph said. “The difference between the beach now in the nourished areas compared to the non-nourished areas is very, very noticeable – almost shocking really.”

Rudolph shared details about the project in late February with the Emerald Isle Business Association in the town board of commissioners’ meeting room.

“The first phase of the project is $20 million. This is a big deal,” Rudolph told the crowd of almost three dozen.

“We have until April 30 to do the project,” he added, explaining that the timeline for renourishment projects is based on when turtles are nesting and in the water.

Rudolph joined a panel of speakers to answer questions about Hurricane Florence recovery and what to expect for the tourism season, especially regarding beach renourishment and the status of rental property, hotels and condos, in Emerald Isle.

Rudolph explained that the plan with the Bogue Banks renourishment project taking place now is to repair the half of the dune that was carved out by the storm and create a flat spot, or “towel space,” he said.

Rudolph said that his staff monitors the beach every May or June before hurricane season and again after hurricanes hit and knows how much sand is lost.

An application is in for Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement, but “fortunately, one-half of the county’s occupancy tax goes toward the sole purpose of nourishment,” Rudolph said.

Carteret County hotels, motels and short-term rentals collect a 6 percent tax that is used to fund beach renourishment and tourism marketing for the county. Collections totaled nearly $7.6 million for the year ended June 30, 2018, according to the Carteret County Finance Office.

After the renourishment projects were finished in the 2000s, the fund was allowed to grow.  “After Florence hit, we had the data, we had the permit, we had the money in hand. Within a couple months, we had a nourishment contract. We didn’t have to take out a loan, we didn’t have to do any of that,” Rudolph added. The bid for the contract is from Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredging.

The dredge Liberty Island arrived in Morehead City Harbor from Charleston, South Carolina, the morning of March 8 and began work on Phase 1, which includes what Rudolph called the “dog leg,” through the eastern end of Emerald Isle, Indian Beach and Salter Path. Phase 2, planned for next winter, will be the remainder of Emerald Isle, Pine Knoll Shores and possibly part of Atlantic Beach, according to the website.

The second dredge, the Ellis Island, should arrive in early April. Built a year ago, the dredge is the biggest in the country, holding up to 15,000 cubic yards per load. Rudolph compared that to the haul of a dump truck, which is about 12 cubic yards. “The whole project is about a million cubic yards.”

Rudolph said part of the dredging contract is to plant sea oats and bitter panicum on the dunes as part of the second phase next year.

But, “It’s no guarantee the funding will come next year,” he added. “If we don’t get FEMA reimbursement at all or the timing isn’t right, then we’re going to have a cash flow issue, but we’re going to worry about that after we get sand on the beach here within the next couple of months.”

For individual oceanfront property owners looking to plant or install a sand fence to renourish their dune, Rudolph gave the go-ahead, but with the caveat the effort may be damaged at some point during the planned renourishment project.

The nourishment schedule will affect rebuilding public beach accesses before the busy season.

Alesia Sanderson, director of the town’s Parks and Recreation, who attended the meeting, said that all but 12 walkways in town had undergone annual inspections and were brought up to standard.

She said that the eastern end of the beach was most damaged during the hurricane, leaving many of the walkways broken at the crest of the dune and some just hanging with sometimes a 20-foot drop.

With the renourishment project wrapping up by April 30, there’s “a real time constraint on us for a couple of reasons. It’s going to be difficult to find someone to build 12 walkways between April 30 and the beginning of our peak season, Memorial Day, and that’s if we find available contractors willing to submit competitive bids,” Sanderson said.

She added that they are in the process of making those 12 walkways safe, “Basically tearing out all the wooden structure. From there, (beach) nourishment will be complete and then we’ll push sand up to where the termination point is so that every walkway that the town of Emerald Isle has will be open and usable.”

While it won’t be ideal because it will be more difficult to pull a wagon or push a beach cart, the accesses “will not hinder any of those visitors in the houses that are not oceanfront, they’re still going to be able to access the beach as they normally would,” Sanderson said.

Readying Accommodations

Heidi Barlow, president of the business association, said before kicking off the discussion, “All of us work in different industries, but we all work in the same community … we felt like bringing the professionals here to you to field the questions directly on disaster recovery and what our future looks like here on the island.”

In addition to Rudolph, the panel included Emergency Management Coordinator Jenn Sawyer, who is also the planner for Carteret County Emergency Services; Emerald Isle Police Chief Tony Reese; Emerald Isle Mayor Eddie Barber; Woody Warren, Bluewater Vacation Rentals and Sales owner; and Jim Browder, executive director of Crystal Coast Tourism Development Authority.

Looking ahead for the county, Browder said 75 percent of the hotels could be open by June, “but that’s probably a bit optimistic.”

He said that the home rental situation is much better than that of condominiums and townhomes.

Warren added, “I feel as far as single-family homes and duplexes, that by far the greatest majority of those should be completed by summertime.”

Officials were worried that condominiums would not be repaired in time, but Warren said several Emerald Isle condominium units were expected to be ready by June.

As for home purchases, Warren said that in September he would have predicted there would have been a fallout with a lot of contracts, but 2018 ended up being a good year.

“2019 has started out a little bit slower … maybe the houses that are being built or getting repaired will be ready by the spring,” he said.

Browder said stores and restaurants here should plan for a longer season.

“Early indications look that we’re having a little bit higher demand for the normal high season,” he said, adding that they’re seeing a bit more activity from Easter to May, “More interest than we’ve had in the past. We’re hoping our season spreads a little bit … but should plan for a slightly longer season rather a peak season.”

He said that the beach town has an “incredible number of repeat customers visiting the same places for 20 to 30 years. They’re excited about coming back.”

Florence ‘A Lot Different’

“This particular storm was a lot different than some of the more recent-history storms we’ve had,” said Sawyer with county emergency services when reflecting on the county’s response.

She said that in typical storms, the worst damage is limited to specific areas, but Hurricane Florence affected the entire county.

“Carteret County is unique compared to other counties across the state. We’re extremely long, were almost 100 miles of coastline, so there are challenges there and … the impacts were countywide,” she explained, including to infrastructure and accessibility.

“There were a lot of moving pieces, it was dynamic, and it was challenging for the fact that most of us have not seen a storm of this magnitude in recent history,” Sawyer said.

Town officials have discussed building a public safety center, Reese told the group.

“What we’re looking at now is the possibility in the future of designing a building that would house public safety and permit us to keep our operation center here on the island,” the police chief said.

Reese said the focus for police immediately after the storm was to assess damage and identify safety concerns. That work began before the hurricane had completely passed, and during the storm, teams began removing trees from roadways and trying to get the town ready to be reopened to the public.

Reese explained that Bogue Banks mayors decide when to reopen the island.

“It doesn’t do us any good to open up Emerald Isle if Indian Beach and Pine Knoll Shores are not going to allow people in their town, now we’re backing up cars down the highway and that’s just not a good thing,” he said.

The police chief said one of the reasons the town weathered the storm so well was its evacuation response.

“The fact that we were able to get somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the folks off this island freed up the town emergency services to focus on dealing with the storm rather than having to run rescues for those who decided to remain in town, or were stuck because of flooding or tree on their house,” he said.

The town also put in place a curfew, which Barber said was an important decision. “I also think that having the curfew at nighttime once we allowed residents back over … I felt it was in the best interest in public safety to have a curfew since so many didn’t have electricity.”

Warren agreed because, with access cut off to the island, vacationers who couldn’t use their short-term rentals could then collect on travel insurance.

Reese added that the police department must enforce the curfew.

“When we see someone on your property, it takes an officer off the street to figure out what’s going on,” He said. “Don’t be scared to call me and we will work with you to get you where you can leave your property safely … “We want to work with you, give you all the time you can, just need to communicate with us,” he said.

Barber told the crowd that the town signed a contract before the hurricane with a company to collect debris. “So far we’ve spent over $2,100,000 in debris removal, and that’s a lot of money the town has spent on debris removal, and we’re still waiting to get the money reimbursed from FEMA.”

In addition to being prepared for debris removal, the town was proactive months before the storm by signing a contract for pumps to alleviate street flooding, Barber said.

The town had pumps secured months before the storm, but they didn’t expect there would be 31 inches of rain, Barber added. Additional pumps were secured but with the road closures between Emerald Isle and Wilmington, the pumps didn’t get to the town as quickly as needed.

Following the meeting, Barlow told Coastal Review Online that the overall feedback from the meeting was positive.

“Many were unaware of the number of hotels and rentals that are still shut down from the storm along with the process in place for the beach renourishment including the planting of the dune grass.  I believe these were the big key takeaways for most,” she said. “The town recovery as far as the beach access repairs and number that may not be restored before the season was also enlightening.”

RALEIGH – For coastal North Carolina, where many communities are still reeling from the effects of last year’s storms, the top local requests for help from the General Assembly so far fall in two interrelated categories: sand and money.

With the cost estimates for beach repairs, inlet dredging and infrastructure upgrades far outstripping state and federal resources, local governments are looking at ways to raise more money on their own.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow, said there’s a growing worry about the economic impact of damaged beaches and out-of-commission vacation properties going into this year’s tourist season.

“There are some coastal issues, some beach issues we’ve got to take a look at, especially as it relates to tourism, because some of those beaches got beat up pretty bad,” Brown said Thursday in an interview with Coastal Review Online. He said it’s a concern for all coastal counties because of the tax revenue that could be lost.

Brown said the last hurricane-relief bill, which passed in December, included $18.5 million in state funds for beach and coastal infrastructure repairs, and this year there will be a need for additional money to keep rebuilding efforts going.

“There’s a lot of work being done down there, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.

Brown added that he was hopeful that disaster-relief legislation introduced last week in the U.S. Senate can move quickly to free up additional federal assistance.

Sales Tax Measures

Meanwhile, there are two local bills and potentially more on the way aimed at helping coastal communities raise revenue to move forward on needed work.

In a bill introduced Tuesday by Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, Carteret County would have the option of once again asking voters to adopt a countywide quarter-cent sales and use tax to cover the costs of inlet and waterway dredging and maintenance.

County voters rejected a similar effort in 2016 with 58 percent voting against the additional sales tax. Assistant County Manager Dee Meshaw said that in the 2016 referendum the county also intended to use the funds for inlet and waterway needs, but existing law didn’t allow the ballot question to state that specifically.

“We have a tremendous amount of waterways that need dredging,” Meshaw said Tuesday.

The bill mirrors legislation introduced by Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, that passed the House by a wide margin in 2017 but was never taken up by the Senate.

The new legislation, which would only apply to Carteret County, would allow the funds to be used only for inlet and waterway dredging and maintenance and require the ballot question to indicate that.

In Brunswick County, officials are looking to a meals tax to raise funds for beach and infrastructure work.

Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, said in a recent interview that he expected at least two and as many as five Brunswick County communities to take advantage of a bill he introduced early in the session to allow the county’s municipalities to adopt a half-cent meals tax. The additional tax would require approval through a referendum that could be held as early as this year.

Iler said there was a lot of work to be done on the Brunswick County coast, and the idea is to give local governments another way to fund repairs and improvements. He said Southport and Oak Island had asked for the legislation, but other communities could also take advantage of the option.

Southport Town Manager Bruce Oakley said Monday that he didn’t have a firm estimate of what a new meals tax would bring in if approved. The money would go to infrastructure repairs and improvements, he said.

While some measures to address the extensive list of coastal repairs and beach restoration work may figure into the next round of hurricane-relief legislation and this year’s state budget, legislation introduced last week would help fund Department of Environmental Quality oversight and management of the projects.

In legislation introduced last week by Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, the Division of Coastal Management would be able to use up to 2 percent of the fund annually to cover two positions: a beach and inlet project manager to oversee all activities related to beaches and inlets, and a manager to oversee financial management of water resources grants. The bill would also direct some of the fund be used to develop and maintain a database of all dredge material disposal sites in the state.

More Coastal Bills in the Que

Although it’s been a slower-than-usual start to the session, bill filing has begun to pick up.

Last week, McElraft introduced legislation that would give local control to Beaufort for the navigable waters around the unincorporated region of the Rachel Carson Reserve and extend local authority over anchoring of boats and operations of boats and vessels in navigable waters to the towns of Atlantic Beach, Bogue, Cape Carteret, Cedar Point, Emerald Isle, Indian Beach, Morehead City, Newport, Peletier and Pine Knoll Shores.

The following bills have also been introduced this session:

• H169 would adopt the loggerhead turtle as the state’s official saltwater reptile.
• H52 would clarify easement rights along the oceanfront properties to allow the town to build looped waterlines to improve water quality.
• H44  would allocate $7.5 million for the completion of renovations at Fort Fisher and allocate $500,000 to plan facilities for the state’s Underwater Archeology Branch of the Office of State Archaeology to be located at the fort.
• H245 includes a provision that would extend from 15 to 30 days the amount of time the Coastal Resources Commission has to respond to contested cases petitions.

DURHAM — The state is making “significant progress” in recovering from Hurricane Florence that hit six months ago, the state Department of Public Safety announced.

Hurricane Florence survivors in North Carolina have been provided as of March 1 more than $1.2 billion in federal assistance, including from National Flood Insurance Program insurance payments; Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for temporary rental assistance, basic home repairs and other needs not covered by insurance; and U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans for homeowners, renters and businesses.

“Hurricane Florence was a devastating storm that swamped homes, businesses, farms, schools and entire communities,” said Gov. Roy Cooper in a statement. “But the devastation was quickly followed by amazing acts of bravery and kindness from first responders, volunteers, and neighbors helping neighbors, and impressive cooperation among local, state and federal partners to get help to those in need. People hit hard by Florence are determined to recover and we’re determined to rebuild North Carolina stronger and smarter.”

FEMA provided more than 2.7 million meals and 2.6 million liters of water to the state before Hurricane Florence hit. North Carolina Emergency Management’s Business Emergency Operations Center was working with private sector partners to provide resources and services following the storm and $20 million in cash donations to volunteer organizations to aid North Carolinians.

“Much progress has been made. We know much work remains and FEMA and its federal partners will continue to support North Carolina along the way,” FEMA’s Federal Coordinating Officer Albie Lewis, who is overseeing federal efforts in this disaster, said in a statement.

Learn More

• Statewide Disaster Recovery Summary as of March 1 

The blue tarps that dotted the landscape from Carteret to Brunswick counties are disappearing, businesses are reopening, but as communities reliant on tourism prepare for the season ahead, they’re faced with the reality that the damage to local economies from Hurricane Florence is still unfolding.

This year, as coastal counties and towns in North Carolina consider annual budgets, the damaged beaches, closed hotels and countless of yet-to-be repaired rental units are expected to drive down occupancy rates and, with them, the key source of funding for beach re-nourishment and coastal flooding repairs at a time of need.

Last year, a running tally of the costs to repair beaches, clear inlets and fix berms and flood control infrastructure reached a staggering $352 million. State officials reviewing the costs said it would be difficult to get close to the amount needed without a mix of federal, state and local funding. They estimated the state’s share at close to $163 million. But determining the local match is difficult because the required cash outlays for towns vary according to the type of project and the source of funding.

Those requirements and whether communities can meet them are now an even bigger question mark because for most communities affected by the storm, occupancy taxes are the main source of funds for beach re-nourishment and berm-replacement projects.

Tough Choice, Or No Choice

Chris Gibson, co-founder of engineering firm TI Coastal, said communities along hard-hit Topsail Island are going to be squeezed by the need to protect homes and infrastructure and a reduction in the revenue used to pay for it.

Some of the homes along the island will have a lower rental value because of damage to the beaches and some won’t be able to open this year at all, he said.

Still, in towns like Surf City, where the destruction of a protective berm has put homes and infrastructure at risk, waiting until there is certainty of federal reimbursement isn’t an option.

“They don’t have a choice,” Gibson said. “What do they do? You can’t just let your street be under water.”

Surf City plans to truck in sand over the winter, mainly to protect infrastructure while it works on a long-term solution. Gibson said communities must be proactive or face the prospect of getting behind the curve and losing more properties and more of the tax base.

With the destruction of Surf City’s main berm, about 90 percent of its front-row properties are exposed and out of compliance from setback requirements that could prevent them from being rebuilt if damaged in a storm.

Losing those houses would have an impact well beyond the coast, he said. “If you look at Pender County, 70 percent of the tax base is east of U.S. 17,” Gibson said.

Gibson said he believes the legislature could provide some assistance as it works out funding for a statewide storm damage mitigation fund set up during the last session.

Fewer Rooms Available

During a recent legislative review of how the hurricane season affected the tourism economy, Whit Tuttle, vice president for tourism at the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, said the loss of lodging inventory was a top concern. Tuttle said that a recent survey showed that the inventory of commercial lodgings in the state’s southeastern region dropped 11.5 percent from September to November.

“That’s going to impact us as we head into the season,” he told members of a natural and economic resources oversight committee earlier this month. “We’re not going to be able to handle the typical volume of visitors that come to the area.”

Harder to measure, but probably more behind the curve is the area’s growing rental home inventory. Tuttle said many rental owners are dealing with a labor shortage and can’t make repairs. It’s been tougher for them to hire contractors because they’re competing with larger, commercial operations, he said.

“The rental industry is going to be hit harder than the commercial lodging industry,” he said.

Committee member Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said she’s concerned about the number of rental houses still waiting for repair work to start.

“I don’t know if they’re going to be ready,” she said.

In a response Thursday, McElraft said the legislature could provide additional money for beach repairs as well as help with advertising, expenses local governments typically pay for in part through occupancy tax revenues.

“I am hoping to get some money put into the Coastal Storm Mitigation Fund to help beach towns rebuild the public trust beaches, the economic engine for coastal areas and for the state,” she said.

An Off-Season Boost

For now, the long-term effect on occupancy tax revenues is difficult to determine, in part because the storm recovery efforts have boosted off-season occupancy rates.

“A lot of that business that they’re seeing now is with recovery workers,” Tuttle said, adding that it’s important to remember that if the workers stay longer than 90 days, their accommodations no longer have to collect occupancy taxes.

Jim Browder, executive director of the Carteret County Tourism Development Authority, said officials had expected to lose a bigger share of occupancy tax collections because of the storm. At least a third of the county’s hotels remain closed for repairs, but the arrival of construction workers, insurance adjusters and others here as a result of Hurricane Florence, just as the tourism season had wound to a close, provided some balance.

“It filled the void on some of the occupancy we had lost on tourism,” Browder said. “We have a lot more occupancy going on right now than we would typically have this time of year. But going forward into the spring, we’re not sure how it will affect as these individuals leave.”

The county charges a 6 percent tax on hotel and motel rooms and cottage and condo rentals. The revenue is split to cover tourism marketing and beach re-nourishment expenses.

Hotels only represent about 15 percent of the total rooms available in Carteret County, which Browder described as unusual for the North Carolina coast. Cottages, condominiums and other rentals provide the remainder of the rooms available for vacationers and their status isn’t as clear as that of the dormant 200-room DoubleTree hotel on the oceanfront in Atlantic Beach, where like the Inn at Pine Knoll Shores and the Bask Hotel, the Quality Inn and the Holiday Inn Express, all in Morehead City, storm repairs continue.

“The good news is that wonderful new products will be coming online, but we’re not sure exactly sure when,” Browder said, adding that the outlook for cottages and condos is much less clear.

“That’s the hard part in trying to determine how big an impact it is: We really don’t have a grasp on when everybody’s going to be back online,” he said.

Atlantic Beach Mayor Trace Cooper said that while he expected a drop in revenues, ample funds had built up over past cycles to allow moving ahead with re-nourishment projects.

For now, he said, it’s hard to judge what the impact will be countywide.

“We’re all in a wait and see mode,” he said. “The big question is what happens to tourism in the spring.”

In a normal year, occupancy tax revenues would grow by about 3 percent, but this year the expectation for now is for no increase. Some of that is attributed to high off-season occupancy because of both recovery workers and people unable to return home in temporary housing. The real test will come during tourism season, he said.

“It’s not hard to move the needle in November,” he said. Once May and June numbers come in, he said, the picture will be much clearer.

Farther south, New Hanover County is also seeing stable occupancy rates.

Kate Murphy, spokesperson for New Hanover County, said occupancy taxes are consistent and growing in all areas and municipalities except Wrightsville Beach, where Florence made landfall, and where the closure of the 150-room Blockade Runner has had a pronounced effect.

The hotel’s owners recently announced that part of the hotel is to reopen in February and a second section later this spring. Damage was extensive at the hotel, and repairs were required in nearly every room, according to the announcement.

Coastal Review Online Editor Mark Hibbs contributed to this report.

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper Wednesday wrote to President Donald Trump urging him to end the ongoing federal government shutdown that Cooper said is interfering with North Carolina receiving funding for continued Hurricane Florence recovery efforts and threatening the state’s farming economy, the governor’s administration announced.

“While we continue the short-term recovery with FEMA’s help, our critical long-term work to rebuild stronger and smarter is delayed with every day that federal funds are held in Washington,” Gov. Cooper wrote in the letter.

The far-reaching impact of the shutdown includes not having access to the $168 million award of Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development. In April 2018, the state was notified of the award that is to be used to make the state’s flood-prone areas safer. The state remains unable to use these funds until guidance is published in the Federal Register, which cannot happen while the federal government remains shuttered, according to the release.

A HUD appropriation for 2018 storms including Hurricane Florence was enacted as part of the Federal Aviation Administration re-authorization bill in September but awaits allocation. The $1.68 billion will be shared by North Carolina and other states recovering from natural disasters but without guidance, the states are left waiting to learn how much funding will be received and how best to use the funds for recovery and mitigation. The shutdown also limits access to HUD experts needed to help with rebuilding efforts in the state.

In addition, North Carolina farmers are without help from federal agriculture experts.

“The government shutdown is also threatening the livelihood of our farmers, many of whom were swamped by the same hurricane waters that destroyed homes and businesses,” Cooper wrote. “Help from the US Department of Agriculture for hurricane affected farms is unavailable, and farmers hoping to plan for this year’s planting season are running out of time.”

Hurricane Florence hit North Carolina Sept. 13, slowly moving across the state over several days, dumping 8 trillion gallons of rain. Many parts of North Carolina hit hard by Florence were still working to recover from Hurricane Matthew, which hit the state just two years prior.

“The people of North Carolina are strong and are working hard to rebuild. But we are equally determined to hold the federal government to its promise of help,” Gov. Cooper wrote to President Trump. ” During your visit following Hurricane Florence, you promised me the 100% support of the federal government in North Carolina’s recovery. This shutdown makes that promise harder to keep. Please work with Congressional leaders to end this shutdown so our communities can rebuild quickly and effectively.”

BEAUFORT – Two Duke University Marine Lab undergraduates stood last month behind an aquarium, facing about a dozen kindergarten through fifth-graders, all members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain, seated at tables in the elementary school cafeteria, where the Beaufort Elementary Unit is based.

Serving as a wave tank, the average-sized aquarium had a few inches of sand sloping across the bottom, mostly covered in water. A brick was on the thicker side, meant to mimic a hardened shoreline, parallel to a wooden block slightly submerged in the water, which was used to make the waves.

Barbara Lynn Weaver, a junior majoring in plant biology, told the club members that the brick represents a hardened shoreline, which could also be made of concrete or wood, and that people put these in their yards where the water meets the land because they want to keep their soil dry and keep it from eroding.

Taylor Walker, a senior majoring in marine science, said, “We’re going to make some waves and we’re going to see what happens when you have water going against something hard,” as she lifted the rectangular piece of wood to make waves that lapped against the brick.

Walker and Weaver were at the elementary school, to demonstrate a hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, project, along with fellow classmates Isabel Harrington, a junior majoring in environmental studies, and Haven Parker, a senior studying environmental science and policy, who were leading the arts component of the project.

As part of their Conservation Biology and Service Learning class, the Duke students designed the project to help kindergarten to seventh-grade students learn about the science behind storm surge and express their hurricane experiences. The undergraduate students also engaged with students at Beaufort Middle School Nov. 30 and visitors to the Dec. 1 Waterfowl Weekend at Core Sound Heritage Center and Waterfowl Museum on Harkers Island.

Weaver told the Boys and Girls Club members at the elementary school that when there are big waves, the energy has to go somewhere.

“So if it’s going to hit a wall, where is that water going to go?” she asked the kids, explaining that the wave will either go straight up, which causes splashing, or the energy will cause the waves to go over the wall and wet the dry ground.

“Taylor and I have another kind of shoreline that we really like, called a living shoreline, which you guys are going to get to help us build,” said Weaver, adding that a living shoreline is made out of two things, oysters and marsh grass.

The brick was removed and the students helped “plant” marsh grass, which was actually just plastic aquarium grass, and oysters, or more specifically, oyster shells. Weaver told the group that oysters are bivalves, like clams and mussels.

“The funnest fact I could possibly give you,” Weaver began, is that bivalves eat by sucking water in, instead of biting things like sharks do. “And instead of chewing it like we do, they spit it back out, but instead of spitting it back out of their mouths, bivalves suck all that water in, and poop out anything they don’t want to eat … but that means they’re pooping out soil. That’s kind of funny, but if you have a live oyster that’s cleaning the water, it’s sucking that water in and pooping soil out.”

Julia, a fourth-grader, stepped up to the aquarium and demonstrated how the living shoreline worked.

“Pay close attention to what’s happening in this upper beach, you may see it might get a little wet but overall the grass is staying in place, the oysters are staying in place, and the water isn’t splashing up like it was before,” Walker said.

Oysters and plants slow the waves down. “The thing is, you can’t stop a wave from coming. If there’s really big hurricane wave, it’s going to be powerful enough to go over the wall, like we saw before, but you can slow it down, and you can slow it down using the plants,” Weaver said.

Walker added that some of the fish and crabs we eat lay their babies on living shorelines and then they grow up so that we can eat them “It’s very important to have this around instead of a brick wall where no organisms like to live.”

Harrington and Parker were nearby working with a different group of club members who were exploring through art their experiences during Hurricane Florence.

The students used a range of paper colors meant to represent the different temperatures for a Hurricane Florence heat map mural. The outer colors of blues, greens and purples represent cooler temperatures while the inner temperatures are hot colors – red and yellow, Parker said.

As the groups were wrapping up their activities, club member Julia said she learned during the activity about living shorelines and that oysters clean the water and the marsh grass helps the grass stay.

Third-grader, Kendra, who drew “Go Away Florence” as her art project, added that she learned about oysters and that the living shoreline will help the environment because it will help clean the ocean and help get the trash out.

Harrington told Coastal Review Online before the club members filed into the cafeteria before the service project began that they ask the students two different prompts: What would you say to the hurricane? What would you say to the community to give them hope? and encourage them to draw or write their answer.

Harrington, a Bucknell University student who attended Duke for the semester, said most tell the hurricane to “go away” and are concerned about WiFi, or losing their internet connection. “But a lot of the kids are hopeful, have a happy joyful spin on it.”

Parker said that with the two groups they worked with previously on the Hurricane Florence heat map mural, she noticed the kids often bring up pets when asked about their experience. “I think they find it easier to talk about their pretty traumatic experience with the hurricane by anthropomorphizing their pets. … We ask them about their pets and ease into asking about their experience.”

Harrington explained that the point of the activity is to help kids be able to talk about the hurricane, for psychological and long-term effects, “Because there’s a lot after the fact, we wanted to give them a lighthearted outlet to have that experience to reflect on the hurricane, normalize it, reflect and move on.”

While at Beaufort Middle School they worked with sixth- and seventh-grade students, Weaver said, explaining that the project presentations at the middle school went well. The students were really interested in living shorelines and how they can use them in their own backyards, “and they were telling us they were going to show their parents, which is really fun.”

Walker said that the following day at the waterfowl museum about a dozen middle school students found them and brought their parents.

“We let the kids show the parents how the wave machine worked, not only did they get to teach their parents something, but they all got that experience together,” Weaver added.

The parents had personal stories, Walker added, telling her that they knew of someone that their hardened shoreline was damaged or they were working on repairing one.

The project began this year as part of the marine lab’s undergraduate course in conservation biology and service learning under Liz DeMattia, a research scientist leading the Community Science Initiative.

The course introduced university students to conservation biology and explored service learning as a way to make positive change, DeMattia explained. While the project was part of the undergraduate course that took place in the fall, Duke Marine Lab offers many STEM learning opportunities year-round, including marine debris programs, water quality programs and summer programs.

“Given the devastating effects of Hurricane Florence to our Carteret community, the conservation biology class focused their service learning projects on using art, creative writing and scientific discovery as a means to express individual hurricane experiences,” she said.

She said that the reaction of participants and students has been “incredibly positive.”

“This program connected Duke undergrads to kids in our community. Our young K-12 kids benefit by interacting with college students and exploring STEM together,” DeMattia said, adding that the Duke undergrads benefited by being active in the community. “Both the Duke undergrads and the K-12 students benefited by sharing their Hurricane Florence experiences with each other, and working together to create art that shows how resilient our community is.”

DeMattia added, “We currently are dealing with many environmental issues in our communities — from flooding and storms, to water quality and health. Solutions to these issues, and others, will come from individuals who understand STEM and can apply their knowledge to help our communities deal with our environmental issues.”

Ava Bryant, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain unit director at Beaufort Elementary School, and leader Talley Long in a follow-up email explained that STEM activities are hands-on, minds-on, which aim to increase student interest in math and science, and are usually relatable as well.

“The hurricane activity that the Duke undergrad students did with our Boys and Girls club members was significant and relevant. Through the use of a wave tank, students learned about hurricane-force waves and its impact on the environment,” they wrote. “The tank modeled the significance of our marshes and how they protect against storm surge. The tank also modeled oysters and how they are able to stay in place.”

When the students drew their Hurricane Florence experiences, one student drew a house near a dock with waves approaching, another drew a scene of marsh grasses flowing under storm surge, and yet another student drew a sign that simply stated, “Go Away Hurricane Florence.”

“We hope that students will appreciate this area in which they live, and as they grow older, and become more involved in this community, will have a desire to protect their environment, specifically the marshes,” the email said. “We also appreciate the value of having young adults, such as the undergrad students, be involved in modeling positive behavior for our club members.”

NEW BERN –Residents in Carteret, Craven, Jones and Pamlico counties will have one more opportunity for storm debris to be collected.

The final pass by North Carolina Department of Transportation contractors to collect residential storm debris from Hurricane Florence is planned for next month, the state agency announced Wednesday.

Material should be on the shoulder of the roadway, not on the pavement or bottom of the ditch, by Monday, Jan. 7. This will be the final time for the debris removal in those four counties.

Tree limbs and other vegetative debris should be separated from construction and demolition-related material left over from the September hurricane, the NCDOT requested in the release.

When placing debris along the roadside, please note the location of power lines or overhanging trees that would prevent the contractor from reaching the debris. Boom trucks, which use a hydraulic crane, cannot operate under power lines or under low-hanging trees. The contractor will not cross onto private property to collect debris.

Compared to heavily flooded communities inland, property damage from Hurricane Florence along the North Carolina coast was somewhat lighter and much more scattered. But in almost all the hard-hit southern and central coastal regions, the slow-moving storm’s wrath spread over three tidal cycles, leveled dunes, chewed up beaches and left inlets clogged, shifted and closed.

Communities with an economy dependent on beaches and inlets continue to assess the toll. For some, the way ahead is more certain with a clear path to funding re-nourishment and repairs, but for others, the costs and funding sources are, for now, far out of reach.

The most recent assessment of the costs up and down the coast by the state’s Division of Water Resources identified about $272 million in beach projects, $62 million in inlet dredging and about $750,000 for beach-area sewer and flood-mitigation repairs. Even with a considerable federal match included, the cost to the state would far outpace any available resources. Of the projects so identified, the state match would total more than $162 million.

During recent hearings in the North Carolina General Assembly, as legislators began looking at estimates of what it would take to return beaches to their pre-storm state and clear inlets, the result was something beyond sticker shock.

Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, one of the Senate’s main budget writers and the chief proponent of increased funding for dredging and re-nourishment, said there was no way the cost of the damage can be covered under the current system.

In the most recent hurricane relief package, which passed soon after the legislature’s return in late November, Brown was able to add an additional $18.5 million to the state’s new Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund with an earmark of $5 million for projects in heavily damaged areas of Topsail Island. But he acknowledged in a recent interview that’s just a fraction of what’s needed.

“It’s a lot of money,” Brown said. “I don’t see where we’re going to get the funding.”

Storm Proves Value of Wide Beaches

Earlier this fall when Braxton Davis, director of the state’s Division of Coastal Management, briefed legislators on the impact of Hurricane Florence to North Carolina’s coast, he stressed that one of the major takeaways was that areas that had invested in wide, flat beaches and natural dunes fared far better than others.

Nothing underlined that point better, he said, than what happened in Surf City, which had a relatively narrow beach and relied on a 9-foot, Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, berm to protect the town. Much of the berm was erased in the storm, nearly all the town’s overwalks were damaged and heavy flooding totaled, among other things, the town hall.

The town estimates that it will require as much as 350,000 cubic yards of sand to replace just what was lost, with an estimated cost ranging from $11 million to $16 million. Building up the beach beyond that is a much more long-range plan and would require both further federal review and a source of funding for an estimated cost of about $68 million.

But the Surf City project, one of the costliest estimates, pales in comparison to the town’s northern neighbors. In its initial estimate for state officials, North Topsail Beach estimated the loss of sand along its 11.5 miles of beaches to be between 4 million and 5 million cubic yards. The town estimated the cost of a major re-nourishment project to run about $85 million. Unlike Surf City and much of the rest of the coast, only about a third of a North Topsail Beach project would be eligible for federal funding because the rest is in a Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, zone, which restricts federal expenditures in environmentally sensitive coastal areas. That currently puts the state’s share of the cost for North Topsail Beach at about $50 million.

Other large-scale projects include $24 million in restoration work at Topsail Beach and about $40.4 million for areas under the Bogue Banks Master Beach Nourishment Plan, which includes Pine Knoll Shores, Indian Beach, Salter Path and Emerald Isle.

Other major beach projects on the state’s list include the following:

• Morehead City Harbor, Atlantic Beach and Pine Knoll Shores –$10 million for beach nourishment using sand dredged from the harbor that serves the state port. The state match would be $3.3 million.
• Kill Devil Hills – $2.6 million for beach re-nourishment to replace sand lost from a 2017 project. State and local funds would pay for the project.
• Bald Head Island – $20 million for the south and west beach restoration project. State and local funds would pay for the project with the state match at round $1.4 million.
• Oak Island –$2.4 million to replace sand lost from recently completed beach project and $2.3 million to repair the FEMA emergency dune project with a state match of $1.2 million.
• Other Oak Island beaches – $4.6 million for beach restoration.
• Holden Beach – $6.9 million for beach sand replacement. Funding would come through Army Corps of Engineers supplemental funding.
• Carolina Beach and Kure Beach – an additional $1.7 million for each town’s current beach re-nourishment project. Funding would come through the Corps’ supplemental funding or the state.
• Wrightsville Beach – $8.35 million for beach re-nourishment. Funding would come through the Corps’ supplemental funding.

The state is also considering requests for assistance for flood-abatement projects in Craven and Pender counties and a stormwater system upgrade in Pine Knoll Shores.

Division of Water Resources Acting Director Jim Gregson said the cost estimates are likely to fluctuate as further survey work is done and communities search for grants from FEMA and other federal sources.

In the long run, Gregson said, a lot of the projects will depend on the outcome of a supplemental funding bill for the Corps.

“It costs a lot to move sand,” he said. “One of the big hurdles is what the Corps is able to do with some supplemental funding.”

“If Congress doesn’t appropriate some extra money, I don’t think the municipalities in the state alone are going to be able to foot the bill for something as large as this.”

Jim Gregson, Acting Director, Division of Water Resources

Without it, he said, the state would have to step in. Only a handful of local governments have the resources or revenue streams to cover the cost.

“If Congress doesn’t appropriate some extra money, I don’t think the municipalities in the state alone are going to be able to foot the bill for something as large as this,” Gregson said.

Some of the projects, he said, “are pipe dream projects,” but they get far more feasible if all three sources – federal, state and local – are available.

“I think the big thing is both the local governments and the Corps being able to come through with some money. We don’t have $169 million but you get a lot closer to getting some of the projects done when you get all three, state local and federal matches put in the pot.”

Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said engineered beaches have an advantage post-storm because they already have a system for drawing federal funds to rebuild beaches in an emergency.

“I think we’re going to be OK in Carteret,” she said.

Rep. Phil Shepard, R-Onslow, said finding funds to fix issues on Topsail Island will be difficult. He said the state will help, but there’s not enough funds to go around.

“I’m hopeful that we can do some matching with the federal and local authorities to help in those areas,” he said. “I don’t think it would be feasible to do all that we’d like to do because we have so many other areas of the state that are affected.”

Shepard said it is possible the state may allow a local-option sales tax to help local governments raise the money to help cover the repair costs.

Most of the channel-dredging projects are still waiting on assessments and surveys from the Corps. The list of local requests from dredging projects includes 20 proposed in New Hanover County and several in and around Beaufort in Carteret County.

With that list growing, Gregson said for the first time since the creation of an inlet-dredging fund in 2013, the state may have more inlet project requests than it can fund.

“Up until probably this year we’ve had enough money coming into the shallow-draft fund that we’ve been able to fund every dredging project we received a request for,” he said. “That probably is no longer going to be the case and we’re going to have prioritize projects unless we get more money into that fund.”

The state currently has $62 million in the shallow-draft fund with $19 million of that encumbered, in part to cover the cost of a new public-private partnership that’s building a dredge dedicated to keeping Oregon Inlet clear.

Gregson said the list of projects is daunting and even if the funds become available, the amount of work will take time. There just aren’t enough crews and resources available.

“I don’t think there’s any way that all this can be done in a single year,” he said.

RALEIGH – U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Friday granted Gov. Roy Cooper’s request for a disaster declaration related to damage from Hurricane Florence to North Carolina’s fishing industry.

The storm destroyed boats, gear and buildings critical to fishing businesses.

Cooper requested the declaration in a letter dated Nov. 1, saying federal fisheries disaster assistance was needed for long-term recovery after initial relief from state appropriations. The declaration is a critical step for Congress to appropriate fishery disaster assistance, the governor’s office noted Friday.

“Recreational and commercial fishing are important economic drivers for our state and families along North Carolina’s coast. I appreciate Secretary Ross’s recognition of the damage to these vital industries caused by Hurricane Florence. We must rebuild smarter and stronger than ever and I will continue to work with our federal, state and local partners to bring recovery funds to those who need them,” Cooper said in a statement.

In November, the governor requested an additional $6.3 billion in federal aid, including the declaration of disaster for North Carolina’s fisheries and $20 million for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Disaster Assistance. The state’s total federal request is $8.8 billion.

The governor’s office cited state Division of Marine Fisheries figures showing that North Carolina’s commercial fishing industry generated more than $96 million in revenue in 2017.

A U.S. Geological Survey study shows Hurricane Florence broke 28 flood records in the Carolinas, the News & Observer reported.

Eighteen USGS stream gauges in North Carolina and 10 in South Carolina registered record-setting water levels, called peaks of record, according to the report, which looked at peak stream flow and water level data measured at 84 stream gauges in the Carolinas with records going back 10 years or more. In addition, 45 stream gauges in North Carolina and four in South Carolina recorded flows that ranked among the top five on record. Some of the sites with record-breaking flooding had more than 70 years of historical data.

“One thing we discovered while compiling this report was many of the new peaks of record set by Hurricane Florence broke previous records set by Hurricane Matthew in 2016,” Toby Feaster, USGS Hydrologist and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Since several of the streamgage sites we analyzed had more than 30 years of historical data associated with them, it was interesting that a majority of the number one and two records were from back-to-back flooding events.”

Coastal towns and counties have addressed on the local level managing navigable waters through ordinances that typically grant authority to remove derelict and abandoned vessels and other debris.

The state does not have a formal program or legislation to regulate the removal or disposal of abandoned and derelict vessels, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris program, but there are laws allowing for a person to obtain ownership over abandoned vehicles, including vessels.

There is a general statute, 153A-132, that gives coastal-area counties the authority, by ordinance, to prohibit the abandonment of vessels in navigable waters within the county’s ordinance-making jurisdiction, and essentially treat abandoned vessels in the same manner as abandoned and junked cars. The state first granted Dare and Brunswick counties the authority in 2013 to address abandoned vessels. The general statute was amended in 2015 to include all coastal-area counties: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Tyrrell, and Washington.

Hyde County Board of Commissioners passed earlier this year an ordinance prohibiting abandonment of vessels in Ocracoke’s Silver Lake and Currituck County board of commissioners adopted in July 2016 an ordinance prohibiting the abandoning vessels in navigable waters.

In 1981, the state General Assembly authorized Beaufort, in Carteret County, to regulate navigable waters within its boundaries. In September of this year, the Beaufort Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance to remove debris from waters in the town’s jurisdiction.

Beaufort Mayor Rett Newton explained that the issue of boater accountability has been ongoing for decades in Beaufort, as well as in other coastal communities, which prompted the town to move forward with its navigable waters ordinance.

“The management of abandoned and derelict vessels, particularly after storms, elimination of gray water and black water discharge, and identification and removal of illegal moorings are some key components of the ordinance,” Newton said in an email response to Coastal Review Online. “This effort is a great first step toward consideration of a more formal — and safe — mooring area and also helps us progress toward the goal of becoming North Carolina’s first publicly-declared Clean Water Coastal Community.”

The ordinance Beaufort commissioners adopted Sept. 24 has “received tremendous support from Beaufort citizens who have frequently seen boats negatively impacting our amazing coastal ecosystems, either drifting up on the Rachel Carson Reserve marsh habitat during a storm or sunk in our waterways,” Newton said. “It is also well-recognized that we have been very fortunate that we have not had a storm push an illegally moored vessel into private and public docks, causing significant damage to the docks and boats that are legally secured to the docks.”

Newton added that the town also received support from the much larger Beaufort boating community that he said abides by established boating laws and regulations.

John Day, Beaufort’s town manager, said that putting this ordinance in place after so many years without regulation meant there was a great deal of accumulated debris, “Everything from fishing gear to illegal moorings, to sunken boats to derelict and abandoned vessels.”

Between approval of the ordinance in late September and Monday morning, 123,958 pounds of debris have been disposed of, mostly from Taylor’s Creek. The total included 11 vessels, seven of which were partially or fully submerged, 34 boat moorings, or unpermitted permanent anchors, and seven car tires.

“We still have one vessel and two large mounds of fishing net to be removed,” Day said, adding that those were expected to be removed next week.

“Fortunately, we were able to begin implementation of the new ordinance with a $67,000 grant from NOAA and a $5,000 contribution from community members to begin the marine debris cleanup effort,” Day said. “We partnered with the Rachel Carson Reserve on the grant, and contracted with TowBoatUS to remove the debris.”

The Beaufort Police Department is responsible for enforcement of the ordinance and has worked closely with TowBoatUS to remove moorings and derelict vessels.

“Beaufort (Police Department) also informed boat owners who were in violation of the ordinance of the new regulations — most complied by moving their boats from the regulated areas. Others relinquished ownership and their boats, which had little or no value, were removed and destroyed,” Day said.

He added that three boats that washed ashore on the Rachel Carson Reserve were removed by the Coast Guard, which also removed all hazardous material, and TowBoatUS towed the vessels to be destroyed.

“Additionally, five boats were slammed into the Duke Marine Lab dock by Florence. Duke paid the town for the removal costs of the boats, and the town exercised its authority under the ordinance to remove and dispose of the boats,” he said.

What has been most surprising about moving forward with the ordinances is the support, Day said. “Unlike many initiatives, I have not encountered any opposition to this effort, only very strong support.”

Wrightsville Beach has in place an ordinance, “Abandoned Vessel Unlawful; Removal Authorized,” which states “A. It shall be unlawful for the registered owner or person entitled to possession of a vessel to cause or allow such vessel to be abandoned as the term is defined herein. B. Upon investigation, the authorized town official may determine that a vessel is an abandoned vessel and order the vessel removed.” The ordinance was passed in October 2002 and amended August 2011.

Wrightsville Beach Town Manager Timothy Owens said that the New Hanover County town rarely had to deal with abandoned and derelict vessels until this year. Owens said he couldn’t explain what changed.

Unoccupied, anchored vessels are more common in the summer months. “The town is looking to strengthen its current ordinances and work with other governmental agencies that may have some jurisdiction,” Owens said.

In the nearly six years Owens has worked for the town, most removals have been voluntary, once the owner was contacted or citations written, he added.

Currituck County Manager Daniel F. Scanlon said that over the past couple of years, Currituck has dealt with about five abandoned vessels.

Currituck’s ordinance was adopted to address enforcement and ultimately the county’s right to mediate the issue and attempt to assess vessel owners, Scanlon said.

“The county does not have the resources to address this issue so we always have to contract the work. In order to address potential abuse — we have had a couple of vessels that have been stripped of identification and either set adrift, sunk, abandoned or simply tied up to private property and left — the vessel has to be a hindrance or danger to navigable waters before the county will engage.”

Scanlon added that some of the challenges have been access, both physical and legal, Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, regulations and possible environmental impairments.

Brunswick County put in place an ordinance early last year to manage abandoned and derelict vessels.

Capt. Mose Highsmith with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office said that when the ordinance was enacted 22 vessels were documented and tagged.

He explained that of those vessels, 14 were removed by the owners, three by the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office and two by commercial salvage companies. One could not be removed, but was demolished in place by a commercial salvage company to eliminate any hazard to navigation. The remaining two vessels were large shrimp boats that were too costly to remove.

“The current mission of the (Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office) marine patrol, as it relates to abandoned and derelict vessels, is to monitor boats that are discovered at anchor to avoid further abandoned boats,” he said. “This is done daily as part of the normal marine patrol activities.”

There are a handful of situations that would warrant boats to be tagged and monitored: if the boat is anchored or moored in the waterways for 10 days or more; is within 75 feet of another vessel; is aground, capsized, sinking or sunk or in danger of the previous; and if the vessel appears to be neglected and unfit to be used for navigation as intended.

Vessels will also be tagged and monitored when not displaying a Coast Guard-approved anchor light while at anchor after sunset or a valid state registration or Coast Guard-documented number.

Highsmith said that in the year and a half since the ordinance was put in place, the number of abandoned and derelict boats has been substantially reduced.

“The process to get an ordinance enacted and a fully functioning program in place is challenging. There was a substantial financial commitment by the county manager and commissioners to remove a number of boats so that owners were convinced that we were serious. Maintenance of the program, however, is extremely reasonable,” Highsmith said.

“Boat owners are now aware or quickly learn that mooring and leaving boats unattended is no longer an acceptable practice,” he said, adding that communication between vessel owners and maritime law enforcement, including the county sheriff’s office, Marine Fisheries and the Coast Guard, and compliance have greatly improved.

There has been positive response to the ordinance and decrease in vessels in the waterways, Highsmith said. “The boating public has expressed appreciation for the reduction of vessels that create navigation challenges. The citizens with waterfront properties have expressed appreciation (for) the reduction of vessels that create an eyesore to the community. Travelers who use popular anchorages have expressed appreciation for the increased safety and space available for overnight transient vessels and day recreation boaters.”

During hurricanes, owners tend to seek safe harbor for the vessels in a protected anchorage, Highsmith explained, adding that there was an in increase in mooring in the creek adjacent to Fish Factory Road during Florence though most of the vessels moored for the storm were removed immediately after the storm.

“Two vessels remain unattended and we are following the ordinance to monitor and encourage the owners to remove the vessels,” said Highsmith.

The Lockwood Folly River was a safe harbor for many commercial fishing vessels during the storm. All of them were removed and returned to their docks when it was safe to navigate.

“Only one vessel, which was a private cabin vessel, sunk while at its mooring on the side of the river. Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office is in communication with the owner to resolve this situation,” Highsmith said.

He said several steps must be taken before a vessel may be relocated, starting with giving the owner 10 days to respond with a plan to repair or remove the vessel after the boat has been posted as a derelict vessel or a vessel in danger of sinking. The owner then has 20 days to move forward with the plan and complete removal. If there’s no response from the owner or the removal or repair is not completed within 30 days of initial posting, the boat will be tagged and documented as abandoned.

Attempts to contact the owner are made by phone, delivering or posting a notice at the owner’s residence, and certified mail by Brunswick County Sheriff’s office Marine Patrol. If all attempts to contact the owner are unsuccessful, the vessel will be deemed abandoned and sold at public auction. The highest bidder is presented a sheriff’s bill of sale that can be presented to the North Carolina Wildlife Division to enable them to register the vessel.

Read Part 1: Hundreds of Derelict Boats in Storm’s Wake

Read Part 2: State Law Dictates Displaced Boat Response

Second in a series.

There were hundreds of derelict, abandoned and displaced vessels found in coastal North Carolina waterways after Hurricane Florence, and about half remain where they were found, though the hazardous material was removed.

Seven vessels of the 362 flagged by the U.S. Coast Guard were relocated because the vessels were in environmentally sensitive areas and 126 were moved or handled by the owner or a third party, such as a salvage company or through insurance, according to information provided by state Emergency Management, part of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

The Coast Guard shared with Emergency Management a little more than a week ago the details on the disposition of the 362 vessels, which were assessed by the Emergency Support Function No. 10, or ESF-10, Unified Command, consisting of the Coast Guard as the incident commander, the state Wildlife Resource Commission and the state Department of Environmental Quality.

ESF-10 Oil and Hazardous Materials Response, when activated, provides federal support in response to an actual or potential discharge and uncontrolled release of oil or hazardous materials.

Keith Acree, public information officer with Emergency Management, responded to Coastal Review Online in an email Wednesday, saying that the state determined which vessels were moved. Pollutants were removed from each boat and some were moved to pre-determined locations by the Wildlife Resources Commission and DEQ. Best management practices were monitored and followed for the duration of the operation, he said.

Coast Guard Chief Jeremy Thomas, incident management division supervisor, said in an interview that the ESF-10 mission was successful.

“The Coast Guard did what the state asked it to do … mitigate pollution threats,” he added.

During the ESF-10 mission, the Coast Guard works for the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said, adding the Wildlife Resources Commission did a great deal of work to find the owners of the displaced vessels, though not all could be located.

Acree said that the 362 vessels that were assessed by the ESF-10 Unified Command’s Task Force North, composed of Beaufort, Craven, Hyde and Pamlico counties, which assessed 197 total targets, or vessels, and Task Force South, made up of Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, Onslow and Pender counties, which assessed 165 total targets.

While no vessels were removed by Task Forth North, Task Force South moved seven vessels from environmentally sensitive areas to less-sensitive areas.

Of the Task Force North’s 197 total targets, no ESF-10 action was taken on 47 vessels, which means these boats were assessed and deemed pre-storm derelicts or no oil or hazardous materials were on board. Oil and hazardous material were removed from another 79 vessels, which were returned to the general area where they were found, as long as the location did not present a hazard to navigation. Owners, salvage or insurance managed the mitigation or removal of 71 vessels, which required no further ESF-10 action.

With the 165 vessels marked by Task Force South, no action was taken for 62 vessels deemed to have been in place before the storm or to have no oil or hazardous material on board. Oil and hazardous materials were removed from 41 vessels and then returned to the general area.

Capt. Christian Gillikin of Atlantic Coast Marine Group during a presentation to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources meeting Nov. 13 in Raleigh recommended an assessment and scope of work for the removal and disposal of the vessels that remained in place after the removal of hazardous materials. He also suggested that owners of state-registered vessels carry liability insurance in an amount sufficient to cover any future expenses related to salvage, recovery and damage from storms, operator error and neglect, to keep state taxpayers from being stuck with the bill.

Gillikin explained that Atlantic Coast Marine Group was a point of contact for the removal of derelict vessels after the hurricane for those that involved ESF-10. He told legislators that during a statewide survey performed by the Coast Guard, that the more than 350 vessels were flagged for hazardous materials response. The Coast Guard affixed red stickers to the vessels found to have hazardous material to notify the party responsible for the boat.

Gillikin estimated that about half of the boats could not be traced back to the owners because some vessels were too damaged to find the information, or their registration numbers were incorrect. Also, sometimes when the proper owner is identified, those individuals are unwilling to take responsibility.

The ESF-10 program does not provide for wreck removal or disposal of vessels deemed an environmental threat, he said. That requires simultaneous implementation of another program, EFS-3, which “activates and develops work priorities in cooperation with state governments to further and complete the cleanup process.”

Gillikin said that under ESF-10 the federal government raises the sunken, damaged or derelict boat after a storm, removes all the hazardous materials and then leaves the wreck for the state to manage the disposal. He gave four examples of vessels that, after removing hazardous materials, were left in place or were sunk again.

“If a vessel was sunk, we used airbags, whatever type of salvage gear we needed, lifted the vessel, all the hazardous materials were removed, and then the vessel was sunk back down,” Gillikin explained.

He said that over the long term, submerged, derelict and abandoned vessels could cause navigation hazards in and around marinas and impact fisheries, cause sea habitat issues, negatively affect public perception of tourism destinations and lead to complaints by nearby homeowners. Vessel decomposition is another long-term environmental effect, he said, using a fiberglass sailboat to illustrate. He said fiberglass will delaminate or fall apart over time.

When Gillikin suggested to the legislators that an assessment be performed at a cost of no more than $50,000, he estimated that about half of the original number of boats remain in waterways.

He said once the assessment has been made of the remaining vessels, a total project cost could be determined. “For example, removal fee would be $395 per foot … if we took an average 32-foot vessel, $395 per foot, would be $12,640.” The total project cost can be more accurately determined after the assessment is completed.

Gillikin said Friday during a follow-up interview that he was waiting to see if funds would be approved by the legislature to move forward with the assessment.

Acree told Coastal Review Online Wednesday that the Unified Command considered implementing ESF-3, “but based on North Carolina law, decided it did not have the authority to remove and dispose of the vessels, which are private property.

“It was their understanding that the legislature has given authority over abandoned vessels to local governments, if those governments decide to pass an ordinance pursuant to NCGS 153A-132(i),” which is called the “Removal and disposal of abandoned and junked motor vehicles; abandoned vessels.”

“Given the decentralized and localized authority for derelict vessels, they believed there were significant legal authority questions related to utilizing ESF-3 by the state,” he said.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, a member of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources, said in an interview Wednesday that she was shocked to learn the number of vessels flagged during the statewide survey by the Coast Guard after Florence.

Harrison, who also has a home in Beaufort, said she’s noticed that derelict and abandoned vessels have been an issue for some time.

She explained that at the meeting Tuesday, the committee supported recommending that boat owners carry liability insurance to help fund ridding the waterways of the debris.

One point that was discussed Tuesday that did concern her, she said, is that boats were not removed but instead were sunk after the hazardous material is removed.

The General Assembly is scheduled to convene Nov. 27 to consider, among other things, hurricane relief and Harrison said the issue may be raised at that time. If not then, the oversight committee will recommend the issue of derelict and abandoned boats be addressed at a later meeting, she said.

Next: How local officials are addressing the problem

Read Part 1: Hundreds of Derelict Boats in Storm’s Wake

BEAUFORT – Duke University Marine Lab announced Monday it has welcomed back 33 residential undergraduate students who had been displaced by Hurricane Florence.

Students who resided at the lab had been living off campus for the past six weeks while four dormitories damaged by the storm were repaired. The total included 20 Duke students and 13 undergrads studying at the University of North Carolina Institute for Marine Sciences in Morehead City.

“It’s great to be back to normal,” said Duke Marine Lab Director Andy Read. “Our undergraduate students are a central part of our community and it’s great to have them back on the island.”

The students were evacuated on Sept. 11, prior to Florence’s arrival, and spent two weeks on Duke’s main campus in Durham, before returning to their temporary accommodations on the coast when classes resumed at the Marine Lab on Oct. 1, officials said.

Rainwater entered several dorms after the storm caused minor roof damage. Roofs were replaced and repairs are now complete to four dorm buildings.

“Repairs are continuing to other buildings damaged by the storm, but we are now back to being fully operational,” said Read. “We’re thankful for all the hard work by Duke Facilities Management, Marine Lab staff and local contractors to get our students back so soon.”

First in a series.

BEAUFORT – Paula Gillikin, central sites manager for the North Carolina Coastal Reserve, was on hand in late October to monitor a salvage company remove a displaced houseboat that Hurricane Florence had washed from Taylor’s Creek onto the marsh of Rachel Carson Reserve’s Carrot Island.

Gillikin oversees the Rachel Carson Reserve, one of 10 North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve sites, a part of the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, under the state Department of Environmental Quality. The North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve is managed through a federal-state partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state Division of Coastal Management.

After Hurricane Florence, the U.S. Coast Guard during a statewide survey flagged 383 vessels requiring salvage for hazardous materials response. Over the long term, these vessels can affect fisheries and marine habitats, lead to complaints about wreckage and garbage waste and hurt coastal tourism, according to information presented Tuesday to the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources.

The presentation noted the Emergency Support Function 10, or ESF 10 – Oil and Hazardous Materials Response, which provides federal support in response to an actual or potential discharge and uncontrolled release of oil or hazardous materials when activated, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency website.

Legislators in attendance Tuesday agreed with the presenters from Atlantic Coast Marine Group who suggested the state should look into requiring boat owners to carry liability insurance sufficient to cover the state’s cost of salvage and environmental mitigation.

Gillikin, on that brisk Saturday morning in late October while standing watch over the vessel relocation, said that the large-scale salvage company, Resolve Marine Group, had been working with the Coast Guard on vessel removal for the post-Hurricane Florence FEMA-funded effort. She noted the company’s expertise and equipment to protect the environment from pollution threats.

“The company uses what we call a number of environmental best management practices wherever they can,” she said.

The crew from Resolve spent the morning situating large, ship-launching airbags under the houseboat to inflate and then lift the vessel for removal, with the goal to limit further damage to the sensitive habitat.

“We’re making really careful decisions about what we’re doing with vessels,” Gillikin said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3^rd Class Brandon Hillard, who spent time with Gillikin on Carrot Island during the salvage operation, explained that the state requested the Coast Guard relocate several vessels that were displaced or sunken in environmentally sensitive areas.

The Coast Guard worked with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, DEQ and other agencies including NOAA, and Resolve to provide federal oversight, personnel and portable work spaces.

“The Coast Guard-contracted salvage group provided crews, air boats, barges, excavators, salvage equipment, dive teams, tug boats and a 225-ton crane,” Hillard said. “The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission provided wildlife officers and law enforcement boats to supervise the operations, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality provided personnel, expertise and boats.”

Sarah Young, public information officer with DEQ, said that of the 10 reserve sites, vessels are most often grounded at the Rachel Carson and Masonboro Island reserves, given the proximity of these sites to heavily used waterways and local anchorages.

“Vessels commonly come ashore at one or both of these sites during storm events, including hurricanes, nor’easters, and king tide events. If vessels are displaced in larger numbers, it is usually associated with a hurricane,” she said.

The burden on state resources varies depending how the vessel was displaced, Young said.

“For example, vessels were removed from the sensitive habitats of reserve sites post-Hurricane Florence primarily through FEMA hurricane response funding for the declared disaster,” she said. “If a vessel is displaced outside of a declared disaster, the state uses more resources, including staff time and sometimes funds to hire a salvage company to remove the vessel if it has officially been abandoned.”

There are several steps that must be taken to have the vessels removed from the reserves.

The reserve first collects information about the vessel and its location, especially if it’s in a sensitive habitat, and often works with municipalities and the Wildlife Resources Commission to find its owners, determine their salvage plans and to advise them that salvage should be conducted to minimize environmental impacts, Young continued.

“If the owner is unresponsive and gives up interest in the vessel, the vessel can eventually be removed from the reserve property if funding resources are available. However, this process can be a long one because the state does not have a specific policy that governs removal, disposal, and dedicated and sustained funding to support such efforts,” she said.

Young explained that the state has granted authority to counties and towns to pass ordinances related to waterways within their enforcement boundaries. “Fortunately, some reserve sites are located within local jurisdictions that have specific ordinances about handling abandoned vessels, which makes the process of removing them more efficient.”

Young added, “Displaced vessels are a management challenge for the reserve sites, as they often damage habitat and can pollute the environment.”

Hillard said that the Coast Guard acted in support of the state, under the ESF 10 mission, “to oversee the mitigation of pollution from those vessels that were sunken or displaced in the disaster-declared counties after Hurricane Florence.”

The mission of ESF 10 is to prevent, minimize or mitigate the release of pollutants and hazardous materials in the environment, which sometimes includes vessel relocations as determined by the state.

As the federal on-scene coordinator for the ESF 10 mission, the Coast Guard supervised the response to pollution threats aboard these vessels, Hillard explained. “In support of the state, the Coast Guard then verified through documentation that the removal of pollutants was complete.”

These pollutants included gasoline, diesel, oil, flares, fire extinguishers and chemical containers.

“Vessels that were actively discharging pollutants such as fuel were, of course, a top priority to be mitigated,” Hillard said.

The state then decides how and when the vessels themselves may be removed if they are not claimed.

Hillard said that the ESF 10 Unified Command, which is made up of state and federal agencies including the Coast Guard, was given up to a $10 million mission assignment through FEMA and has acted in support of the state to mitigate pollution threats, but not to remove debris.

“Salvage is a complex operation and many factors can affect the cost of operations, such as the size of vessel, sensitivity of habitat, amount of pollution on the displaced vessel, ease of access to the vessel, assets available and weather conditions during operations,” he said.

The state may determine certain vessels to be in an environmentally sensitive area and prioritize removal of those vessels if they are unclaimed and cannot be removed by an owner, marina, harbormaster or other government entity, Hillard said. “This is to help ensure that fragile habitats in those environmentally sensitive areas are protected from further damage over time.”

Legislative reporter Kirk Ross contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

• Part 2: State Law Dictates Displaced Boat Response

RALEIGH – The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday that at the state’s request it will provide temporary housing units to households displaced by Hurricane Florence in three additional counties: Bladen, Lenoir and Pamlico.

FEMA said it is already providing Direct Temporary Housing Assistance in 10 counties: Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Jones, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Robeson. The agency offers two forms of direct housing assistance: travel trailers as an interim solution for most households with a high degree of confidence that repairs to their home can be completed in less than a year and manufactured housing units that provide a longer-term solution for survivors whose repairs will take longer to complete due to greater degree of damage.

Direct housing is temporary, FEMA said. These units are not permanent dwellings. They are provided only when rental resources are not available in an affected area.

The units are part of a comprehensive set of temporary housing programs for people displaced by the disaster, allowing survivors to remain close to their jobs and communities as they rebuild.

Survivors who are displaced from their home because of Hurricane Florence must first apply for federal disaster assistance to be considered for FEMA programs such as rental assistance, grants for repairs to make their homes safe, sanitary and functional, and other forms of assistance.

Survivors can apply online at DisasterAssistance.gov, by using the FEMA app, by visiting a disaster recovery center, or by calling the disaster assistance helpline at 800-621-3362 or 800-462-7585. In-person American Sign Language  interpreters are available by calling or texting 202-655-8824. Go online to watch a video on how to request an American Sign Language interpreter.

The state and FEMA are coordinating with municipalities and counties regarding local ordinances, permitting, zoning, transportation requirements, setbacks, utility connections and inspections. When installation is complete and the unit passes an occupancy inspection, it is ready for use. At that point, the applicant will sign a license-in agreement to occupy the unit.

After survivors register for federal disaster assistance, FEMA contacts households that may qualify for a travel trailer or manufactured housing units to conduct a pre-placement interview to determine whether the applicant needs direct housing and, if so, what type of housing. This determination is based on the size and needs of the household, including any people with disabilities or other access or functional needs.

For eligible applicants, FEMA may be able to place a unit on their property. FEMA must ensure the site is compliant with applicable building codes, environmental laws and floodplain regulations. If that is not possible, FEMA may lease pads in commercial parks.

Learn More

• Visit ncdps.gov/Florence and FEMA.gov/Disaster/4393

RALEIGH — Hurricane Florence caused an estimated $17 billion in damage, per new information from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management.

That number is up from a previous estimate of $13 billion, according to a release Wednesday from the governor’s office.  The updated figure is based on new data from the North Carolina Department of Insurance and damage estimates may continue to change. Future updated figures will be based on actual inspection data as it becomes available.

“Six weeks ago, Hurricane Florence’s powerful storm surges, winds and rains brought unprecedented devastation to our state, causing an estimated $17 billion in damage,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “I’ve spent time since then visiting with families, businesses and local officials in the impacted area and it’s clear that we have to recover smarter and stronger to better withstand future storms.”

Recovery efforts in the state continue. To date, more than 130,000 people have registered with Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, for individual assistance. Over $108 million in individual assistance has been approved for homeowners and renters. Small Business Administration loans have also been approved for nearly 400 hurricane-affected small businesses.

Hurricane Florence damage is historic compared to previous storms that have hit the state. Hurricane Matthew caused $4.8 billion in damages and when adjusted for inflation, Hurricane Floyd caused between $7 and $9.4 billion in damages, meaning that Florence has caused more damage than Matthew and Floyd combined, according to the release.

Residents of any county with damage to their home caused by Hurricane Florence are encouraged to begin the FEMA registration process by calling 800-621-FEMA to register via telephone or at disasterassistance.gov.

Other forms of relief including Disaster Unemployment Assistance, temporary recovery jobs,foreclosure prevention assistance and help for small businesses owners are still available. For more information, call 211.

Learn More

• Updated Damage and Needs Assessment

SNEADS FERRY – With each post-hurricane recovery there are at least a couple of things that are a given – there are some things to be learned and some things will remain the same.

Left in the wake of Hurricane Florence in Topsail Island’s three towns are mangled and destroyed public walkways and dunes, shoreline erosion, the fields of debris washed ashore that had to be collected and carted away, hundreds of damaged homes and lost revenue from rental closures.

It adds up to a hefty price tag, one the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission is collectively working to recoup at least some of which from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

“One of the things is to remember,” said Spencer Rogers. “You’ve dealt with this before. You can do it again.”

The coastal engineering expert with North Carolina Sea Grant spoke at a commission meeting last week in North Topsail Beach’s temporary town hall at the end of a small strip mall off N.C. 172 in Sneads Ferry.

He reminded commission members and a small audience at last Thursday’s meeting that the island has, in the last 25 years, recovered from the likes of Hurricane Fran – a Category 3 storm that in 1996 damaged three-quarters of the structures on the island and destroyed more than 300 homes.

Three years later, Hurricane Floyd, a Category 2 hurricane, dumped nearly 20 inches of rain in some areas of North Carolina, causing catastrophic flooding inland.

An average of more than 17.5 inches of rain fell over North Carolina from Hurricane Florence.

Rain, winds and waves sliced Topsail Island’s nearly 30-mile-long shoreline, breaching and scarping dunes.

Rogers advised allowing nature to play out and allow scarped dunes to dry out and collapse.

“That’s something you’re going to see,” he said. “There’s a lot of it out there. Don’t panic. Don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.”

When an escarped dune topples naturally, vegetation on the top of the dune will fall with the collapsed sand. This allows the vegetation to stabilize at the dune’s base and grow, fortifying the dune.

Pushing sand from the beach berm back to a damaged dune line isn’t necessarily the best idea, Rogers said.

“The farther landward you can build your dunes the more protection you’ll get out of it.”

Spencer Rogers, North Carolina Sea Grant

He referred to a study that showed dunes recovered after sand was pushed against them from a seaward location and will grow toward the ocean. That seaward-growing movement places the base of the dune closer to the ocean, making it even more susceptible to wave damage during a storm.

“The farther landward you can build your dunes the more protection you’ll get out of it,” Rogers said.

Sand ripped from the dunes during the storm will likely wash back ashore as time passes. How much of that sand the ocean will return is uncertain, but, there have been cases following some storms in which 100 percent of the sand was transported back onto the beach, Rogers said.

He also advised the commission, whose members include elected officials from each of the island’s towns as well as representatives from Onslow and Pender counties, to plan for better vehicle access ramps onto the beach.

Low, flat vehicle access areas allow water to easily wash through the dune line, pushing flood water and heaps of sand onto beach roads and into private yards.

Rogers said the best rule of thumb is to build vehicle access ramps at the same elevation as public accesses to the beach – no lower than 3 feet from the dunes around it.

Overall, Rogers suggested the towns look at ways to most efficiently use hurricane recovery funds.

“What you’ve got to do is convince (FEMA) you’ve got a better way to spend their money,” he said.

Town officials know the wait for any federal reimbursement for storm damage could be lengthy. They’re aware they may have to push harder to retrieve money as disaster-declared areas of Florida, where parts of the western panhandle were obliterated by Hurricane Michael earlier this month, continue its long road to recovery.

“The impacts are great, and the process is slow,” said Topsail Beach Town Manager Mike Rose.

“The impacts are great, and the process is slow.”

Mike Rose, Topsail Beach town manager

He said that Topsail Beach is “closer” to receiving a permit for its next beach re-nourishment project, originally planned for November 2019. Town officials will discuss what options they have, including whether to try to push the project before the fall of next year.

“It at least opens up the possibility of options as we go through,” Rose said.

Both Surf City and North Topsail Beach were forced to move their town hall operations to temporary facilities after the storm.

Surf City’s town hall has been condemned and town officials are in the process of looking for a new location, said Town Manager Ashley Loftis.

Hauling equipment has been moved onto the beach and crews have begun loading and hauling debris. They are beginning at the north end of town and moving south toward the pier. A staging site will be located at… https://t.co/1osoy6cixz

— Town of Surf City (@SurfCityTourism) October 30, 2018

Sand continues to be sifted off private properties and placed back on the beach, she said, and only a handful of beach accesses are open. Piles of debris gathered after the storm on the town’s shoreline will be removed by Nov. 9.

North Topsail’s town hall, located near the foot of the causeway that connects the island’s north end to the mainland, will cost an estimated $500,000 to upwards of $1 million in repairs, Town Manager Bryan Chadwick said.

More than 850 structures received minor damage from the storm and nearly 80 sustained heavy damage, he said. A debris-removal company has hauled away about 64,000 cubic yards of storm-related refuse.

The town is looking at about $15 million to $20 million in dune repairs.

North Topsail’s Mayor Dan Tuman suggested including the topic of sea walls as possible options to future beach armament.

He referred to the town’s permitted sandbag revetment, a super-sized wall of sandbags some 45 feet wide and 20 feet tall, to stave off chronic erosion at New River Inlet. The bags are permitted through 2022.

“Our dunes really took a beating,” he said. “One thing that didn’t take a beating was our sandbag revetment. It did just fine.”

Last of three parts

This story has been updated to include additional comments from Bill Norton, a spokesperson for Duke Energy.

WILMINGTON – A Duke University study of three former coal ash discharge lakes in North Carolina found Sutton Lake to have the highest levels of selenium before Hurricane Florence. Now researchers are turning to the long-term effects of the coal ash breach here.

Selenium is an element found in coal ash that can cause deformities and impair growth and reproduction in fish and other aquatic life.

Published last year, the study, led by environmental scientist Jessica Brandt, included Mayo Lake near Roxboro and Mountain Lake Island near Charlotte. Samples of surface water, bottom sediment and fish were collected from each lake in 2015.

Tests showed 85 percent of all fish muscle samples examined from Sutton Lake contained selenium levels above the Environmental Protection Agency’s, or EPA, threshold.

A Duke Energy spokesperson points to the company’s own testing as well as that of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“Duke Energy has conducted a continuous robust sampling program at Sutton Lake following Hurricane Florence assessing a wide range of trace elements, including selenium, in both the total and dissolved forms,” company spokesperson Bill Norton said in an email. “Both Duke Energy’s fisheries sampling program and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources sampling program continue to show Sutton Lake has a healthy and sustaining fish community, despite what others who have not conducted continuous sampling in the lake may claim.”

Sutton Lake’s year-round mild water temperatures have made it a popular fishing spot for anglers throughout the years.

The 1,100-acre lake is one of a few places where largemouth bass may be caught throughout the winter.

Heat from the plant creates a long growing season in the lake, which is also popular among recreational boaters.

The reservoir was formed in 1972 after Carolina Power & Light impounded Catfish Creek to create a cooling source for its coal-fired L.V. Sutton Power Station.

Though the lake was for years classified as a private cooling pond, it has been open to the public since its creation thanks to an easement between the state and CP&L. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission manages a boat ramp at the lake.

Nearly four years ago, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, reclassified the lake from a private cooling pond to a public resource, a move aimed to protect the lake with more stringent water quality standards. Sutton Lake has the same classification as the nearby Cape Fear River.

The state also raised the classification to “high hazard” for two dams that are part of the coal ash impoundments next to Sutton Lake. State officials annually inspect both dams.

The dams were inspected within a month of Hurricane Florence’s Sept. 14 landfall in Wrightsville Beach. No major problems were found, state officials reported.

Understanding the Potential Long-Term Effects

Duke Energy has closed public access to Sutton Lake since the storm.

When access is reopened, environmental scientists plan to begin testing Sutton Lake’s sediments, a method they say will be most effective in revealing any potential long-term effects from the coal ash breach.

Brandt plans to examine whether sediments were stirred up by the storm and what impacts that disturbance to the sediments may have in the lake.

“In a lake we’re not seeing the same flow rate as in a river so water that comes into that system stays in that system longer,” she said. “That allows contaminants that are attached to particulates more time to settle. Some elements can be released over these disturbance events.”

Duke University professor Avner Vengosh said water quality will continue to be monitored, but he did not expect to see a huge amount of coal ash contaminants from those tests. He too plans to collect sediment samples.

“We’ll have to get samples of sediments at the bottom of the lake and try to determine if there’s coal ash in the sediment,” he said.

Vengosh’s research has found that cooling lakes receive the highest levels of ash contaminants.

“You have a long-term accumulation of sediments with coal ash,” Vengosh said. “If you go into a few centimeters of sediments you find huge concentrations of arsenic. That’s the chronic thing that’s happening all over North Carolina.”

Scratching the Surface

Duke Energy does not plan to test sediments in the lake or the river and state officials did not respond to questions by press time about whether the state would conduct further sediment tests.

“We’ve (Duke Energy) found that water testing is much more informative than sediment testing in determining potential ash impacts,” Norton, the Duke Energy spokesperson, said in an email.

“We’ve found that water testing is much more informative than sediment testing in determining potential ash impacts,”

Bill Norton, Duke Energy spokesperson

He pointed to the company’s experience in testing water following the 2014 coal ash pond spill in the Dan River.

Duke Energy found that the heavy metals that turned up in post-spill sediment samples taken from the river were most related to garden soil, not coal ash, Norton said.

“Sediment testing in the Dan River following the 2014 ash release showed that the substances we tested for were present throughout the river, both upstream of the release and below it,” Norton said. “Because these same elements are naturally occurring, sediment testing did not provide definitive data to establish the presence of coal ash. To be sure, the Dan River incident was catalytic for Duke Energy in terms of accelerating our basin closure plans. But in terms of the river’s health, the Dan River returned to normal in a matter of just a few days after that 2014 incident.”

Tests conducted by a team of Appalachian State University researchers tell a different story.

Using canoes to gather samples with a trowel and corer, researchers collected sediments from the riverbed and center channel of the Dan River on Oct. 5, 2014, upstream and downstream of the power plant.

Sediment samples were collected again in mid-May 2015 in five locations.

“In the Dan River research we were able to identify coal ash in the bottom sediment using magnetic methods as well as microscopically,” said Ellen Cowan, the project’s lead researcher and professor at the university’s Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. “From the ash composition we were able to identify ash from the initial release as well as subsequent reworking from upstream. Coal ash particles are in the silt size and therefore they settle from the water column to the bottom.”

The ash basins at the Sutton plant remained stable throughout the flooding, Norton said, and company officials have “not observed that ash from our basins was displaced.”

“Thus it’s entirely reasonable to conclude – as the state’s and our water samples scientifically prove – that the Wilmington-area public and environment are safe from coal ash impacts,” he said.

In the case of Sutton Lake, Cowan said, contaminants can re-contaminate the water column as they are released over time.

“It is therefore important to test samples from the lake and river bottom for the presence of coal ash and its associated contaminants,” she said.

Vengosh agreed.

His work in the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill, “clearly demonstrated that the river sediments fill with coal ash was the major problem, not the river water.”

“That is why TVA worked to take out the coal ash from the river bottom sediments,” Vengosh said. “I am afraid that Duke Energy is not revealing the true information here. The bottom line is that there is no any other way but testing the river bottom sediments for evaluating possible coal ash migration from the landfill to Sutton Lake and also to the Cape Fear River.”

Second of three parts

WILMINGTON – Duke Energy will collect and test water samples in Sutton Lake and the Cape Fear River through November.

“We will extend that effort if data demonstrate it’s needed,” Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton said in an email statement.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, approved Duke Energy’s monitoring plan. State officials did not respond to questions by press time about whether it has plans for further testing.

‘No Evidence’ of Harm

Duke Energy maintains that only a small amount of ash and ash by-products escaped and no significant harm had been done to the lake or the river.

In a Sept. 19 update the company posted on its website, Duke Energy reported inspectors at the site had identified cenospheres in the lake, “but water sample results show no evidence of a coal ash impact to the lake or the water entering the river.”

Cenospheres are lightweight, hollow beads made primarily of alumina and silica that are produced as a byproduct of coal combustion.

The company collected water samples over a period of a few days beginning Sept. 16. The test results showed no arsenic reading above 1.11 micrograms per liter.

Testing from three locations in Sutton Lake showed that coal ash contamination was higher than in the river, with arsenic levels reaching as high as 7.37 micrograms per liter.

Coal ash contamination levels are routinely higher than those found in the Cape Fear, according to the company.

DEQ has validated Duke’s test results.

DEQ’s Division of Water Resources took water samples at the breached lake dam Sept. 22 and again on Sept. 25, 26 and 27. The division also took water samples about 1 mile downriver daily between Sept. 25-27.

The lab analysis showed all metals, including arsenic, selenium, boron and other heavy metals associated with coal ash were below state water quality standards.

The one exception was dissolved copper, which “showed a slight elevation” that could be a result of extreme area flooding, according to the state. The agency pointed out that copper levels were the same upstream of the breach.

“A lot of pollutants were released in the flood waters,” said Donna Lisenby, global advocacy manager for the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Junkyards, poultry and hog farms and wastewater treatment plants were among a number of pollution sources swept up by floodwaters that poured into the river.

Waterkeeper Alliance was there Sept. 21, the day the coal ash pond breached, releasing its contents into Sutton Lake and spilling into the river.

“That day was when the pollution levels were at its highest,” Lisenby said. “We think the highest coal ash pollution load went into Sutton Lake.”

Waterkeeper Alliance took its samples to Pace Analytical, a certified lab based in Asheville, that showed arsenic levels at 71 times higher than the state safety standard for water quality.

A water sample collected from the largest breach of the lake had an arsenic level of 32.8 micrograms per liter, three times higher than the state’s fish consumption water quality standard of 10 micrograms per liter.

Test results also showed selenium levels of 22 micrograms per liter, more than four times the state Aquatic Life and Secondary Recreation standard, according to the alliance.

Duke officials continue to refute the environmental group’s test results.

“We are pleased that the state’s test results align well with the extensive water sampling Duke Energy continues to perform, demonstrating that Cape Fear River quality is not harmed by Sutton plant operations,” Norton said in an email. “These results, combined with dozens of data points gathered by Duke energy over many days, make it clear that the three samples shared by environmental groups (Oct. 3) are extreme outliers that fail to paint an accurate picture of river quality.”

No Better, Perhaps Worse

Dennis Lemly has been studying environmental risks and aquatic impacts of coal mining and coal-fired industries for more than 35 years.

The focus of his research is selenium, a naturally occurring element that is present in sedimentary rocks, shales, coal and phosphate deposits and soils and concentrated in coal ash.

Exposure in juvenile fish and aquatic invertebrates can cause deformities and stunt growth and reproduction.

In 2013, Lemly, an environmental consultant specializing in ecotoxicology and former research biologist with the U.S. Department of Forest Service, collected and assessed juvenile fish from Sutton Lake during a five-month period.

That was the same year more than 40 years of coal-fired operations ended at the Sutton power station, which has since been converted into a 625-megawatt natural gas plant.

Lemly’s biological assessment showed that discharges from the plant were causing selenium poisoning in young fish and reducing their chances of survival.

Lemly looked at the Duke Energy’s September water sample lab results.

“There’s a big red flag there,” he said. “Selenium in Sutton Lake is higher now than it was in the recent past. It’s not improved since my study years ago. Nothing has improved. Conditions now are no different. The waters are the same.”

More troubling, he said, is the fact that the levels reported by Duke Energy are substantially higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s water quality standard for aquatic life.

The EPA in 2016 updated its selenium threshold for aquatic life. The state has not adopted the EPA’s new standard.

“There’s a major flaw in the premise that Duke can say that they’re meeting the state guidelines,” Lemly said. “The state is behind the curve. The state of North Carolina has not come to the realization for the need to revise their standards and Duke can still claim plausible deniability. Fish are being poisoned and Duke walks away. That whole place is in the Cape Fear River floodplain. It just makes no sense logically. There is no legitimate basis in terms of environmental protection to put a landfill in a flood plain.”

Next: Selenium levels, before and after the flood

SWANSBORO – Gov. Roy Cooper made good Tuesday on his recent promise to visit Swansboro where he met with business owners and elected officials to assess the damage from Hurricane Florence still plaguing the small, coastal town.

“It helps me to talk to people where it’s happened,” Cooper said as he met town commissioners and staff at the outdoor dining area at The Boro Restaurant and Bar on Front Street.

On a tour of Carteret and Onslow counties, Cooper was in Swansboro at the behest of town representatives. Part of his visit included seeing the damage wrought by Hurricane Florence to two waterfront restaurants.

The first stop was to view the demolition work at the Icehouse Waterfront Restaurant. The overwater restaurant that butts up to The Boro had been reduced to flooring. “I’m so sorry you guys have gotten hit; it’s an important meeting place and restaurant,” Cooper said to the owners, Randy and Nancy Swanson.

Mayor John Davis then led Cooper and officials, including town commissioners, from the Icehouse to Saltwater Grill. The two Front Street restaurants are only separated by a few blocks that are lined with shops.

Davis told Cooper during the short walk about the hits some of the downtown businesses took from the hurricane as well as the secondary impact from the storm, including the effect it has had on tourism.

Cooper said after the tour that “It’s good to talk to the people of Swansboro and hear the issues that people are facing as a result of Hurricane Florence.

“We’ll certainly provide all the help that we can. We know that our coastal communities are critical to our economy and our state, so it benefits everyone for this town to get back on its feet, not just for the residents here, but the people who have jobs here and the people who come and bring tax money to our state,” he said. “We’re hoping that things get better here soon. This is a resilient and determined community. I can tell that from the get-go.”

Cooper said what has struck him most about meeting coastal residents after the storm is their determination.

“I think it’s the determination of North Carolinians to get back in the saddle as quickly as they can. We’ve got to work to get displaced homeowners an affordable place to live, but we know these businesses have to get going,” he said. “One thing I’ve told business owners who have worked hard and opened their places for businesses, that Swansboro is open for business and people from the state and surrounding states need to know that because they’re here and ready to go.”

Fred Schachter, president-elect of the Swansboro Area Chamber of Commerce, had invited Cooper to visit Swansboro.

“When we were doing the relief effort right after the storm had ended, we noticed that we didn’t have any presence from the state or the county or anybody, I heard on the radio that the governor was going to be at the Newport firehouse having a press conference,” he said, “So myself, Commissioner (Brent) Hatlestad and Mayor Davis and I got in the car to go see the governor and tell him that Swansboro is hurting and we need help and today he’s fulfilled the promise of coming here.”

Schachter said that Cooper’s trip was an opportunity to show the governor “A. how the community came together and B. how the community still needs help.”

Owner of Saltwater Grill Kim Pierce, after showing Cooper the destruction to the three-story structure housing the restaurant, said they’re happy that the governor made the visit.

“We want someone to get here and see the extent of the damage. We’ve had people say that we were devastated, there was nothing left, and others say there was minor damage to downtown businesses … we want someone to come see what’s been done and what we can do to fix it,” she said.

Catty-corner to the Saltwater Grill is Through the Looking Glass. The owner of the flower and gift shop,  Hal Silver, said the governor’s visit was wonderful. The longtime downtown business owner was in the process of repairing the interior of the shop that flooded. The bottom half of the walls along the perimeter of the building were stripped to the studs.

Silver said they we’re going to put up Hardie Board instead of drywall, as water doesn’t penetrate it, and spray-in insulation that’s waterproof. “We’re making some improvements since we’re getting so many of these storms,” he said.

First of three parts

WILMINGTON – As a monstrous Hurricane Florence closed in on North Carolina’s coast, Duke Energy launched its largest-ever mobilization of resources and announced it was taking steps to storm-ready its coal ash basins and cooling ponds in the east, including one just outside the city in the bull’s-eye of the storm.

Spokespeople for the Charlotte-based energy company rebutted statements made by environmentalists last month who raised concerns about the storm’s potential to breach open ash basins, spilling mucky, gray sludge into nearby waterways.

The company’s ongoing efforts to close its basins by either removing water to cap the ponds or excavate them reduced the flooding threat, Duke Energy officials told news reporters.

“We got a head start on a lot of the industry,” one company spokesperson said to the Los Angeles Times. “We think that positions us well going into the storm.”

Less than a week after Hurricane Florence made landfall Sept. 14 in Wrightsville Beach, the company reported that about 2,000 cubic yards of soil and ash – enough to fill about two-thirds of an Olympic-sized swimming pool – spilled from the landfill at L.V. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington.

After the Category 1 hurricane’s strike, one that dumped around 9 trillion gallons of water on North Carolina over four days, water samples were collected in Sutton Lake and the lower Cape Fear River.

Duke Energy, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, and environmental activist group Waterkeeper Alliance have all collected samples on various days, in various locations within the river and the lake.

The results have ultimately pitted those of Duke Energy and the state against the Waterkeeper Alliance, equating to a he-said, she-said that has unfolded in daily news reports, leaving readers unsure of where the truth lies.

To get to the answer of how much, if any, environmental harm has been caused by coal ash spilling into the lake and river, sample collectors must literally dig deeper, according to several academic researchers who’ve been studying coal ash for years.

The ‘Real Danger’

Disputing the water sample test results that have been published by the energy company, the state and environmental advocates put the focus solely on whether the levels of ash contaminants in the lake and river exceed government limits.

“It doesn’t tell you whether or not there’s been a large transport or not of coal ash into the river,” said Avner Vengosh, a Duke University professor who specializes in geochemistry and water quality. “That’s the real danger.”

He called the sample test results, “noise playing into the hands of Duke Energy.”

“The likelihood to find anything in a flooding event is very, very low,” Vengosh said. “The ability to measure the coal ash contaminants in river water during flooding is limited because the mobilization of contaminants from coal ash to the water as dissolved constituents would be very small compared to the large volume of the flood water that would dilute any signal. Even if there is some organization of metal, it’s not going to immediately coalesce. It doesn’t tell you whether or not there’s been a large transport or not of coal ash into the river.”

Coal ash is a toxic cocktail, the recipe of which includes mercury, arsenic, lead and chromium – chemicals that can cause cancer, irreversible brain damage and other diseases in people and wildlife when found in high concentrations.

Sediment testing will determine whether coal ash contaminants have settled at the bottom of the Cape Fear River and Sutton Lake, Vengosh said.

His work with a team of researchers in Tennessee following the largest coal-ash spill in history demonstrated that the major problem was not coal ash in the river water – it was coal ash in the river sediments.

The Dec. 22, 2008, catastrophe occurred when a dike failed at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant, releasing 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash into the Emory and Clinch rivers. The release in Roane County, Tennessee, about 30 miles west of Knoxville, also covered about 300 acres outside the coal ash dewatering and storage areas.

As part of the massive, multi-year, billion-dollar cleanup, workers dredged more than 3 million cubic yards of ash from the Emory River.

Less than six years after the TVA spill, a pipe at a coal ash pond at Duke Energy’s retired Dan River Steam Station near Eden, North Carolina, collapsed, dumping up to 39,000 tons of coal ash into the river.

Ash from the Feb. 2, 2014, spill spread as far as 70 miles downstream.

By the spring of 2014, the energy company hired a contractor to vacuum-dredge about 2,500 tons of coal ash sitting on the riverbed of the Dan River.

Duke Energy retrieved about 10 percent of the ash from several deposits by dredging and “similar measures,” according to a February 2015 Greensboro News & Record article.

A year after the Dan River spill, Duke Energy officials referenced scientific surveys that showed evidence the levels of coal ash contamination in the sediment downstream were diminishing based on sediment samples.

But results of one sediment study published last year tell a different story in the Dan River and Vengosh warns against comparing the spills that occurred in Tennessee and the Dan River with the breach last month near Wilmington.

“It’s different than a spill like the one at the Dan River or TVA, which were normal conditions where a huge amount of coal ash was moved in the river system,” he said. “Here we’re talking about flooding, which contained a huge amount of sediment and coal ash. Even in the TVA coal ash spill (without a major flooding event) the open river water quality was only slightly affected as compared to water under restricted flow or water entrapped within the river bottom sediments.”

Next: Continued testing, long-term risks 

RALEIGH – The General Assembly returned Monday for part two of its Hurricane Florence recovery session, unanimously passing about $400 million in new appropriations, but the bill fell short of what the administration and environmental advocates say is needed in water quality and resilience improvements.

The bulk of the money in the bill, Senate Bill 3, goes for transportation, schools, agriculture and state funding matches for federal grants. The legislature also set aside an additional $395 million to be used for further recovery funding but did not specify where it would be spent.

Funds for the state Department of Environmental Quality were limited to three coastal programs, including $2 million for the Division of Water Resources to conduct a survey of damage to beaches and channels and to assess disposal areas for dredged materials; $1.6 million for the Division of Marine Fisheries to compensate commercial fishing and shellfish operations for equipment and income losses; and $400,000 to DMF to support the North Carolina Coastal Federation-sponsored marine debris cleanup program. The federation is the publisher of Coastal Review Online.

A policy provision in the bill directs the Coastal Resources Commission to adopt new temporary rules that would streamline permitting for living shorelines. Division of Coastal Management director Braxton Davis told an oversight committee last week that after a post-storm assessment, living shoreline projects proved their worth.

Another $20 million in the bill is earmarked for the state’s Golden LEAF Foundation to distribute grants to local governments and nonprofits for repair and replacement of storm-damaged water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. The foundation is a nonprofit set up to use part of North Carolina’s share from the 1998 settlement agreement with cigarette manufacturers to increase economic opportunity in North Carolina’s rural and tobacco-dependent communities.

In a statement issued shortly after signing the bill, Gov. Roy Cooper said he appreciated the legislature’s quick response and set out the next steps in the recovery.

“I appreciate legislators responding quickly and taking this initial step to help North Carolinians recover from this devastating storm, particularly in the areas of education and the federal match,” Cooper said. “However, we must continue to work together to provide more for affordable housing and farmers as well as to make real investments to ensure clean water and to lessen the impacts of future storms on our homes, roads, businesses and water infrastructure.”

In a response to Coastal Review Tuesday, Cooper spokesperson Ford Porter said the governor will continue to push for more DEQ resources.

“The governor appreciates the quick legislative action for hurricane recovery. He also wants to lessen the damage from future storms and to protect water supplies. That means building more resilient wastewater systems and keeping pollution sources out of the floodplains and making sure DEQ has the resources to do its job,” Porter said. “These needs are a priority and the governor will continue to urge legislators to address them.”

Legislators said the bill was another step in a long process.

Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, the House Appropriations Committee chair, told legislators the first strategy was to use the roughly $400 million in this round of recovery funding to address immediate needs. The rest of the funds set aside would be available for use once legislators return in November. Dollar said he expects appropriations for the recovery to also be a part of the next year’s budget process.

Cassie Gavin, director of government affairs for the North Carolina Sierra Club, said there were positives in the bill, but it failed to address some of the more pressing environmental needs, including a proposal by Cooper to fund $25 million in grants through the Clean Water Management Trust Fund for flood abatement and surface water protection and $13 million for DEQ to support additional testing and monitoring and assistance programs for local government water quality and system resilience projects.

“We appreciate the funds dedicated to coastal debris cleanup and the support for living shorelines expressed in the bill. We also support the creation of the Office of Recovery and Resiliency and hope that this represents a new commitment by the legislature to help North Carolina address the impacts of storms and climate change,” Gavin said Tuesday. “We call on legislative leaders to fund hog farm buyouts, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund’s flood abatement and water quality protection efforts and flood mapping and planning in the next hurricane relief bill.”

Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said she was disappointed to see that the bill failed to include the CWMTF and resiliency funding.

“I feel like it’s a lost opportunity,” Harrison said. “We do not want to keep rebuilding in harm’s way. It’s dangerous and it’s expensive.”

Harrison said it’s a fair assessment that legislative leaders steered away from issues that would have been controversial ahead of this year’s elections, but she’s worried that rebuilding could go forward without a new strategy in place.

“It makes zero sense for us to be pouring money into wastewater infrastructure in the floodplain or repairing hog lagoons that are in the floodplain,” she said. The kind of flooding from Hurricane Floyd, Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence is “becoming the new normal,’ she said. “We need to be more thoughtful about how we rebuild.”

She did not expect the policy changes to take place quickly, however, saying the coming lame duck session, scheduled to start Nov. 27, is likely to be “less congenial” than the two recent recovery sessions. Harrison said a deeper look at policy changes and the prospect of additional funding is more likely to take place next year after a new General Assembly takes office.

During debate on the bill in the House, Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, said the state will need to develop a long-term strategy for riverine flooding. She said she wants to see more debris removal in the rivers and streams as well as a look at whether dredging the rivers is an appropriate route. She said she supported setting up the new resiliency office to help policy makers get a better understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

“It’s not a short-term fix,” she said. “That’s exactly why we need this Office of Resiliency, to prepare and prevent the flooding.”

McElraft said the new recovery bill was just the start and a major shift in policy and funding won’t come easy.

“It’ll take a lot money, a lot of study and we’ve got to get it done,” McElraft said.

Rep. Robert Muller, R-Pender, told his colleagues that he appreciated the new round of funding, but is reminded every time he travels in his district of the enormity of the task ahead. He said the debris removal alone is daunting, especially on Topsail Island, where there was flooding from the storm surge and hundreds of roofs damaged by powerful winds.

“In the area I live, I was lucky,” Mueller said during House debate. “All I have is limbs and twigs and trees blown down in my yard. When you go down my street you see 5-foot-high piles of debris the full length of the street – trees and limbs. When you go onto the island you don’t see trees piled up, you see mattresses, sofas, couches, kitchen appliances, people’s lives on the road.”

Further inland near the low-lying areas along the Northeast Cape Fear and Black rivers you see the same thing, he said.

The bill, which was approved unanimously in both chambers and signed into law by the governor Monday night reserves $849,430,477 for the recovery effort and appropriates $398,430,477 to the Hurricane Florence Disaster Recover Fund. The unspent portion would be held in reserve for the next round of funding, which legislators expect to take up when they return to Raleigh in November.

To cover the total, the legislation draws $700 million from the state’s Savings Reserve, sometimes called the Rainy Day Fund; $65 million from the state Highway Fund; $25 million from the Education Lottery Reserve account; $2 million from the Shallow Draft Navigation Channel Dredging and Aquatic Weed Fund; and $930,000 from unused funds allocated to the Department of Insurance under a Hurricane Matthew relief fund.

Legislators opted not to pull money from the state’s unappropriated fund balance, which was a key source of funds for the governor’s plan. The governor’s plan called for a total of $1.5 billion with an initial “down payment” of $750 million. It used the same $25 million from the lottery reserve and $65 million from the Highway Fund as the General Assembly plan, but split the remaining cost of the down payment, about $662 million between the unappropriated fund balance and the savings reserve drawing $331 million from each.

At a recent briefing, State Budget Director Charlie Perusse said the state’s current unappropriated fund balance is about $650 million.

Spending Breakdown

The largest chunk of money in Senate Bill 3 goes to the Department of Public Safety, which will get $100 million to be used mainly for additional state matching funds for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants and to set up an Office of Resiliency and Recovery, which was requested by the governor to manage the long-term recovery effort as well as projects and studies aimed at improving resiliency.

Fifteen employees at the Department of Emergency Management who are already working on recovery projects would move to the new office and hiring would start for an additional 15 employees.

The new office will take over distribution of a $23 million fund for home repairs and renovations and a buyout and relocation program to move families out of floodplains. Another program under the office would distribute $8 million in financial aid to non-profits that provide shelters, housing repairs and other disaster recovery services.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services would receive an initial $70 million with $50 earmarked for hay relief, pasture renovation, reforestation, non-field road repair and to cover the state matching requirements for federal Department of Agriculture grants.

About $20 million is set aside for the state match for federal farmer assistance grants. Another $1,121,629 goes to the Soil and Water Conservation Division for stream debris removal, stream restoration, sediment removal and drainage repairs.

The bill sets up the structure for a larger farmer recovery program requested by both Cooper and Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler but does not appropriate $200 million in funding requested. In a hearing earlier this month, legislators said they wanted to see the way the program would work before putting up the funds. The program, which Cooper said could also include an expanded conversion and buyout program for waste systems at large swine operations, is expected to be one of the items up for discussion when the legislature returns after the elections.

Other funding in the bill includes:

• Transportation/ Debris Removal – The Department of Transportation’s $65 million appropriation covers the state’s 25 percent match requirement for FEMA grants for road repair and debris removal.
• Education/Higher Education – Local school systems would get $60 million in funds for repairs and $30 million is allocated for repair and renovations to damages facilities at University of North Carolina Wilmington, UNC-Pembroke and Fayetteville State University. UNC system and community college students from counties affected by the disaster would also receive individual assistance to cover tuition and expenses that would might cause them to withdraw from school.
• Department of Health and Human Services – Funds in the bill include $5 million for mental health services, $500,000 for assistance for unaffiliated hospitals in the disaster area, $3.5 million for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, assistance, $1 million for an emergency prescription program and $2 million toward an estimated $7.6 million in costs to local health departments for mosquito abatement.
• Housing – The state’s Housing Finance Agency receives $10 million to assist with development of affordable housing and repair single family homes and existing HFA properties in affected counties.
• Volunteer Fire Departments – A total of $930,477 for volunteer departments for repairs and damages not covered by federal assistance or insurance policies.

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA – Storm debris caused by Hurricane Florence continues to be a challenge for several coastal counties.

At a legislative briefing last week, coastal legislators Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, Rep. Phil Shepherd, R-Onslow, and Rep. Frank Iler, R-Brunswick, pressed the North Carolina Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Trodgon for help for debris cleanup on private roads.

Iler said while homeowners are used to covering the cost of routine maintenance, what they are facing now is a different story.

“Those neighborhoods that are private are really going to be strapped for the homeowners to cover this type of damage,” he said at a recent hearing of a House transportation committee.

Shepherd said he and McElraft are compiling a list of some of the areas that have been told they would not receive FEMA reimbursements to see if they actually qualify.

“It may just be a misunderstanding,” he said.

Trogdon said he was not clear on the rules for purely private roads, but that expenses for any public road that is not state maintained does qualify for FEMA reimbursement. He said he would review the issue and the situation in the identified neighborhoods and see if they could qualify.

“I’m not sure about the purely private roads,” he told Shepherd. “I do know that on public streets, non-DOT routes, local governments can get 100 percent reimbursements.”

The recovery plan puts the estimated damage to local, non-NCDOT system roads at $56.9 million and the anticipated federal reimbursement at $42.7 million. The plan recommends a $14 million state appropriation for non-NCDOT system local road damage.

In an email response to Coastal Review Online, Ford said the only money in the proposal specifically for cleanup on private roads is for non-field farm roads, which are covered under the governor’s Farmer Recovery and Reinvestment Program.

Laura Leonard with the state Department of Environmental Quality told Coastal Review Online Friday that there will be debris generated from Hurricane Michael added to that from Florence.

“People need to remember to cover their trash piles as they take it to the landfill, so that it doesn’t blow out into the road. Also, it is still important to sort debris that is placed along the roadside for pickup,” she said. Adding that it is important to remember the laws on burning and burning debris. As always, if people have questions they should contact their town or county solid waste department for information.

Jaime Long, Carteret County’s public information officer, said NCDOT began in Carteret County Oct. 4 removing vegetative debris on state-maintained roads.

Santee Debris Removal, based in Santee, South Carolina, the NCDOT contractor, has 16 crews divided up to cover eastern, central and western Carteret County.

There are three scheduled passes. The first is vegetative debris only and should be concluded by Oct. 26, the second pass should end Dec. 7 and the last pass should end Jan. 25, Long explained. As of Thursday, NCDOT contractors have collected a total of 57,066 cubic
yards of debris.

Long told Coastal Review Online that the county received approval from FEMA Oct. 4 to collect debris on roads that are not state maintained. A request for proposal, or RFP, to secure a contractor closed at noon Friday. The commissioners approved the county manager to select the contractor from the bids based on efficiency and lowest cost.

Once the contractor is selected, the company will begin removing storm debris from the right-of-way of unincorporated paved private roads to which the public has unrestricted access with no locks, gates, or guards, the county explained in a press release Friday. More details will be announced on the county website.

There are six additional temporary debris locations for vegetative and construction and demolition debris disposal in the county currently open: Mariner’s Park, 157-175 East St., Sea Level; Eastern Park, 450 U.S. 70 East, Smyrna; Western Park, 275 Old Highway 58, Cedar Point, for non-commercial vehicles only; Garner Site, 293 Carl Garner Road, Newport; Otway Site, 485 Harkers Island Road, Beaufort, for vegetative debris only; and Fredeen/Highway 58 Site, 1494 Highway 58, Peletier. The county and contractors are in negotiations with other land owners in case additional sites are needed.

Thompson Consulting Services of Lake Mary, Florida, is the contractor monitoring the sites. As off Thursday the County had 509,023 cubic yards of debris accumulated at the temporary debris sites and estimates at completion that number will be well above a million cubic yards, per the announcement from the county. Long said that the current reduction method is grinding and J.B. Coxwell of Jacksonville, Florida, is the contractor taking the debris to Tuscarora.

If citizens would like to self-haul, they can dispose debris at any of the six temporary sites. If citizens choose to hire a contractor, they should complete this form to give to the contractor so they will not be billed for disposal fees.

Carteret County convenience centers do not accept vegetative debris, but C&D can be taken to the transfer station on Hibbs Road. Citizens should complete a voucher to avoid paying disposal fees at that location.

For more information on hurricane debris pickup, please contact the Carteret County Public Works Department at 252-648-7878.

Amanda Hutcheson, public information officer for Brunswick County, said that the debris contract for the county serves unincorporated areas of Brunswick County, including state-maintained roads and private roads open to the public. This does not include debris in gated communities because of FEMA regulations.

Brunswick County Wednesday notified the public that storm debris including vegetative, construction and demolition, furniture and appliances sorted for collection must be placed at the curbside on the property where the debris originated. Moving debris to the roadside of another property is considered illegal dumping.

In addition to violating county ordinances, this type of dumping creates safety and health hazards by obstructing the view of drivers and possible spillage into the road, both of which could cause vehicular accidents. Large piles of debris could also obstruct stormwater drainage systems, cause mold growth and provide a place for rodents to breed, according to Brunswick County officials.

Illegal dumping in Brunswick County’s unincorporated areas can be reported on the website or by calling 910-253-2025. Violations will be investigated and violators will be prosecuted, according to the county.

Pender County is taking a similar approach.

“Unfortunately, this debris cleanup will be in the millions of dollars. We have to follow FEMA guidelines and the equipment can’t traverse dirt roads or into private gated communities,” said Pender County Public Information Officer Tammy Proctor.

The most recent figures Proctor had Friday on vegetative debris collection was 250,000 cubic yards. The county is set to open a vegetative debris site for residential use only, not for commercial contractors.

The county reminded residents in a press release to separate the debris by category: vegetative debris, construction debris and white goods; not to place debris under power lines; debris should not block visibility at roadways; and to cut tree trunks to lengths in 4-foot lengths.

New Hanover County Community Services Coordinator Kate Murphy said that gated communities must provide permission to enter or a gate code to Environmental Management by emailing JSuleyman@nhcgov.com.

“Private roads will be serviced as long as a large truck can enter and have space to turn around to exit. We’ve asked those who live on small, private roads to consolidate debris piles with neighbors at the front of the road,” she said. More details can be found on the county website.

Read this update from #NHCgov on debris collection, property damage reporting, an evacuation & travel letter, hurricane repairs & permits, and the burn ban: https://t.co/ywCZ0JfQAU. #FlorenceRecovery pic.twitter.com/zo0jF8dMvg

— New Hanover County (@NewHanoverCo) October 12, 2018

Murphy said Friday that debris collection was suspended Thursday because of winds and rain associated with Hurricane Michael but trucks were back out Friday. As of Wednesday, 349,833 cubic yards of vegetative debris had been collected, nearly triple the amount of debris collected after Hurricane Matthew, and 573 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris collected, which began Oct. 6. There were 5,271 hazardous limbs and 339 hazardous trees removed.

Cornelius J. Jordan, Onslow County communications director, said the tonnage received directly at the county’s landfill totaled about 4,175 tons, as of Oct. 8.

CrowderGulf, headquartered in Theodore, Alabama, with a satellite office in the state, is the company Onslow County contracted for debris removal. The company collected around 70,859 cubic yards of vegetative debris with an estimated remaining total of 129,141 cubic yards as of Oct. 9. In addition, CrowderGulf crews removed a total of 2,176 hazardous trees.

Onslow County had 15 teams removing disaster debris along the public right-of-way in the unincorporated areas, including private roads that the public has unrestricted access to — no locks, gates or guards — and as long as the public frequently uses the private road, according to the government website, which also reminded citizens to separate disaster debris and place it curbside without blocking the roadway.

Crews will make multiple disaster debris pickups in unincorporated areas. The county will announce ahead of time before debris-removal services end. Regular household trash and bagged debris of any kind will not be picked up with disaster debris.

One municipality has requested its citizens get all their debris to the curb by Oct. 24.

Jacksonville City Manager Richard Woodruff on Wednesday in a press release explained that in some cases, the city lacks the equipment needed to remove the heavy vegetative debris that the FEMA-authorized contractor had in place, including extraordinarily large trees. Most of the city has had two rounds of yard waste debris pickup. The date for the last pickup has not been set, officials said Wednesday.

When the time comes that the cost of the FEMA-authorized debris contractor is no longer reimbursable, the expense will then be borne solely by the city. As of Wednesday, the city’s debris-pickup total that’s expected to be reimbursed by FEMA was at $3.9 million. Officials said that amount, if not for FEMA funding, would require abut an 11-cent property tax increase to offset.

Residents are reminded that it is unlawful to burn debris in the open in the city without a permit. More than 90 unlawful burning activities had been stopped as of Friday.

Morehead City is asking residents to separate remaining storm debris into three separate piles: vegetative, construction and demolition and furniture and carpet, which needs to be cut into 4-foot sections and rolled up.

Through Oct. 10, it was estimated that roughly 70 percent of the city’s vegetative debris was collected in the first pass, more than 52,000 cubic yards of debris. The city expects to complete the vegetative debris pickup within two weeks and then transition to removing construction debris.

Carolina Beach’s debris removal contractor was on its final pass of vegetative debris hauling from the right-of-way as of Oct. 9. At that time, 522 truckloads of vegetative waste had been removed, which is around cubic yards of material, and 70.96 tons of household construction and demolition debris removed.

Frank Rush, town manager for Emerald Isle, said in an email that its estimated around 850 parcels on the soundfront and the navigable portion of Archers Creek have some degree of damage.

“I don’t have an exact count, but I think it’s safe to say that 90 percent have some degree of damage – some completely trashed, and others with good chunks missing,” he wrote.

The town is advising property owners to move the debris from the shoreline to the street edge.

Kirk Ross and Jennifer Allen contributed to this report.

Learn More

• Coastal Communities Grapple With Debris
• Storm Debris: Officials Urge Proper Disposal

RALEIGH – As the state awaits another round of high winds and heavy rains from Hurricane Michael, Gov. Roy Cooper began making the case this week for a long-term $1.5 billion Hurricane Florence recovery plan.

“An unprecedented storm requires and unprecedented response,” Cooper said.

Gov. Roy Cooper
… regarding his requested $750 million “down payment” on $1.5 billion for Hurricane Florence relief.

Cooper announced the plan at the state Emergency Management headquarters in Raleigh following a briefing on preparations ahead of Michael, which made landfall Wednesday near Mexico Beach, Florida, packing 150 mph winds and driving a storm surge that reached 14 feet in parts of the Florida panhandle.

The storm was expected to track into southern Georgia, then through South Carolina before arcing through eastern North Carolina Thursday and into early Friday. Tropical storm-force winds were due to reach North Carolina  Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service, and rainfall predictions have increased to as much as 7 inches in a broad swath from the sandhills to the northeastern corner of the state.

“This time we’ll be spared the full wrath of the storm,” Cooper said. “Make no mistake Hurricane Michael is a dreadful storm and poses serious risks to North Carolina.”

Cooper declared a state of emergency Tuesday night and warned that southeastern counties are under tropical storm watches and warnings. The only good news, he said, is that unlike Florence, which stayed in the state for more than four days, this storm would move quickly.

Recovery Recommendations

Cooper said the new threat is another reminder that the state must move ahead with greater resiliency planning and get residents out of floodplains.

In all, damage from Florence is estimated at $13 billion, close to the combined costs of Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Floyd. Of that, an estimated $3.3 billion is covered under private insurance. The state has received an initial $2.3 billion commitment in federal aid and Cooper said he expects to seek an additional $3.4 billion in federal aid.

For the state’s share, Cooper is asking for $1.5 billion overall with an initial “down payment” of $750 million.

“An unprecedented storm requires and unprecedented response,” Cooper said.

Legislators appropriated $50 million in matching funds for Federal Emergency Management Agency grants in late September and then adjourned to give state departments time to pull together damage estimates and recovery costs.

Major parts of the recovery plan include significant state funds for housing, agriculture, public health and transportation, including the following:

• Housing — The plan requests $534 million for housing programs, including $180 million for a state acquisition and relocation fund to move homes out of floodplains and a $176 million for a homeowner repair and rehabilitation fund to repair homes and increase freeboard.
• Agriculture — Funding in the plan totals $309.5 million with $200 million in payments to farmers for crop and machinery losses. Cooper said he wants to enhance the current voluntary buyout plan to move more hog operations out of the floodplains and included $75 million for a new farmer resiliency fund. Another $12 million in the agriculture program would go to the Division of Marine Fisheries for commercial fishing assistance.
• Public utilities — Damage to local utilities would be covered under an additional $23 million for FEMA public assistance grants and $25 million distributed through the Golden LEAF Foundation for local government water, wastewater and stormwater system grants. The Department of Environmental Quality would also receive $25 million to help move some water and wastewater systems out of floodplains and mitigation work to prevent future damage.
• Natural resources — spending in the plan totals $171.7 million with a major portion, almost $88 million, going to more work on mapping and flood modeling and mitigation. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund would also receive $25 million for flood abatement and water quality grants.
• Transportation — Plan provides $129 million in funding mainly to match federal highway funds. It also provides $14 million to match local road funds and sets aside $50 million for resiliency improvements including what are likely to be expensive mitigation and resiliency projects for problem areas along I-40, I-95 and U.S. 421, the state’s most heavily damaged road. The estimated $54 million in damage to the state ports in Morehead City and Wilmington is almost entirely covered by insurance except for a $100,000 deductible.

Lessons In Coastal Management

The state has already begun work on determining needs for dredging and beach re-nourishment, according to State Budget Director Charles Perusse. Cooper’s plan has $5 million budgeted for a needs assessment. Perusse said the state wanted to get that work done quickly with hopes of getting some of the projects into the current federal budget cycle.

Perusse said he would expect funding through the Army Corps of Engineers for re-nourishment projects to be part of the state’s overall request for additional federal aid.

An early estimate of beach re-nourishment damages from Florence is around $295.7 million and dredging needs are estimated at $87.1 million, but engineers will have to reassess inlets and beach damage. Some of the beaches that were damaged were already scheduled for re-nourishment.

On Monday, Division of Coastal Management Director Braxton Davis told legislators that an inventory of the damage is underway. The key takeaway, he said, was natural infrastructure did very well in the storm.

“Beach nourishment projects that resulted in high dunes and wide beaches did what they were supposed to do. They buffered the storm,” he said. Living shorelines also worked well, he said. “We’re seeing that these structures, where they’ve been implemented, performed extremely well during the storm, were not damaged in any way and nearby you see bulkheads that have collapsed and you see scouring of property.”

“We’re seeing that these structures (living shorelines), where they’ve been implemented, performed extremely well during the storm, were not damaged in any way and nearby you see bulkheads that have collapsed and you see scouring of property.”

Braxton Davis, Director, Division of Coastal Management

The storm surge could have been much worse if it got as high as predicted, Davis said, but the fact that it was a high as it was through several tidal cycles caused serious erosion damage. The dunes at Surf City saw some of the worst damage, he said.

The plan also includes $3 million for oyster sanctuary rebuilding and repopulating and marine debris cleanup.

Shellfish growers could be eligible for losses under the $200 million farmer recovery and reinvestment program. Oyster and clam growers lost $2.2 million in product according to preliminary estimates. North Carolina Sea Grant also estimated that equipment losses were about $1.3 million.

Losses to commercial fishing operations for wild harvested shellfish could also be compensated under the $12 million in commercial fishing assistance funding.

Learn More

• Hurricane Florence recovery recommendations
• Restoration of natural resources

Last of two parts.

JACKSONVILLE – Among the destruction left in Hurricane Florcence’s wake are remnants like large toothpicks of mangled docks and bulkheads littering shorelines.

Throughout the immense and ongoing post-storm cleanup, smoke from burning piles of debris has become a familiar smell permeating the air throughout eastern North Carolina counties hammered by the massive, slow-moving hurricane.

Whether chemically treated lumber scattered from damaged marine structures is getting tossed in the mix of limbs, pine needles, leaves and other vegetative debris being burned is raising health and environmental concerns.

Those worries are for good reason because lumber treated with a pesticide known as copper chromated arsenate, or CCA, is still used in the construction of marine structures. CCA is used to protect wood from termites, fungi and other pests that may threaten the integrity of the wood.

Manufacturers in 2003 stopped using CCA to produce residential and consumer-based materials, but the pesticide continues to be used to treat lumber in some industrial materials, “especially marine structures,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Burning CCA-treated wood, and, for that matter, any treated lumber, is against the law.

“It is illegal in the state of North Carolina to burn pretty much anything that is man-made,” said Jason Watkins, field operations supervisor for the North Carolina Division of Environmental Quality’s Solid Waste Section.

That, according to the North Carolina Forest Service, includes everything from household garbage, paper and cardboard to asphalt shingles and synthetic materials.

Here are a few things that residents cleaning up after #Florence can keep in mind when cleaning up treated lumber and other storm debris: pic.twitter.com/Id1MIkYCKe

— N.C. DEQ (@NCDEQ) October 9, 2018

With the exception of logs and stumps, yard trimmings may be burned if local ordinances allow, there is no public pickup available and it doesn’t cause a public nuisance, according to the service’s website. Burning vegetation is also permissible if fires are at least 500 feet from occupied buildings, winds are blowing away from built-up areas and roads and burning occurs between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Violators can be fined upwards of more than $25,000.

If fines alone do not dissuade those cleaning up from illegally burning, perhaps the potential health risks will.

“The most immediate concerns are inhalation of toxic chemicals and the leaching of chemicals from residue, including ash and incompletely combusted wood,” according to an EPA spokesperson.

The EPA registers wood preservatives, including CCA.

“These wood preservatives go through the normal EPA registration process for pesticides, including assessing potential human health and ecological exposure risk,” according to the spokesperson. “EPA is currently reevaluating all chromated arsenicals as part of the Registration Review program.”

The agency recommends anyone who saws wood treated with chromated arsenicals to wear goggles and a dust mask and wash their hands after handling the wood.

Clearing treated lumber from a property the right way is to get it to a local landfill.

“Specific to treated lumber our recommendation is it goes to a permitted landfill for proper disposal,” Watkins said. “We don’t want that material being ground up. We don’t want that material being burned.”

That’s not to say that residents cannot reuse salvageable lumber for repairs or future construction.

“Generally speaking we’re not prohibiting a landowner from taking a 2-by-12 or 2-by-8 off their dock and keeping it for future use,” Watkins said.

The best way to find out how and when to get treated lumber to your local landfill is to contact your local waste management office.

“We’re encouraging citizens to talk to local governments and listen to what their local governments say,” Watkins said. “The collection piece is likely what you’re seeing differently in the various communities. At the end of the day, the disposal piece is all the same. The goal is to make sure all the materials get handled appropriately.”

For residents in, for example, Carteret County, pressured treated wood is hauled to a regional, lined landfill where the lumber is buried along with regular garbage.

“It’s buried and covered that same day,” as it comes in, said Bobbi Waters, solid waste planner and outreach coordinator of the Coastal Environmental Partnership, the solid waste authority for Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties.

Dee Smith, program associate and Big Sweep coordinator for the North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Carteret County Center, shares the following bit of advice: “If anybody has any doubt, it’s best to get rid of it through the landfill rather than burning it,” she said.

For more information about open burning go to contact the North Carolina Division of Air Quality at 919-707-8400 or the DAQ regional office for your county.

First of two parts.

EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA – In the weeks following the Category 1 Hurricane Florence that ripped apart the coast in mid-September, residents and businesses are working to clean up after the storm.

As a result, there’s mounds of vegetative as well as construction and demolition debris, or C&D, lining streets and roads, waiting to be collected.

Laura Leonard, a public information officer for the Department of Environmental Quality, said Friday that recovery is ongoing, making it difficult to quantify the amount of debris, costs or amount of time and effort to address the mess across the state.

“There are still many moving parts. Because we have staff working directly with local, state and federal agencies in the impacted areas, we know that debris is actively moving. Damage assessments are just starting or are ongoing in more impacted areas, such as those in far southeastern North Carolina where flood waters receded later,” Leonard told Coastal Review Online.

She said that in all of these areas, residents and businesses may haul their waste and debris to disposal sites such as landfills or transfer stations and in other areas, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and local governments, either directly or through contractors, are collecting and managing the debris.

“It is expected that vegetative debris numbers will be high and growing as that type debris generally moves first to clear roads. Other debris volumes such as C&D will increase over time as more structures are being addressed,” she added.

As far as flooding interfering with debris collection, to the extent known to the Division of Waste Management, “In several of the less-impacted areas, there were initial impairments to moving debris due to road closures restricting access to permitted facilities. Likewise, several counties with pre-approved debris-staging sites were flooded and unavailable for use.”

Leonard said that the Division of Waste Management is not aware of any environmental impacts due to the amount of debris generated from this storm.

“The mismanagement of debris can lead to public health and environmental impacts. Division staff are working diligently with local, state and federal partners as well as our permitted facilities to provide guidance and facilitate the proper segregation, storage and removal of any debris from impacted areas as quickly as possible,” she said.

New Hanover County has been chipping away at the debris covering the county.

Kate Murphy, community services coordinator for New Hanover County, said that since Sept. 24, the total vegetative debris collected as of Monday was 278,998 cubic yards and there were 315 dangerous trees and 4,089 dangerous limbs removed in unincorporated areas of the county.

“We estimate that we will be finishing up debris removal efforts by the end of November, and our cost assessment is nearly $14 million,” she explained.

The primary debris removal contractor is D&J Enterprises of Auburn, Alabama, and they have several subcontractors working directly for them. “There are about 40 crews working across the county. Debris is taken to the New Hanover County landfill for collection monitoring and mulching of vegetative debris,” Murphy added.

So far, the amount of debris hasn’t created any easily apparent environmental effects.

“As we begin to collect construction and demolition materials, proper disposal of household chemicals by the residents will become very important,” she added.

Though Wilmington was isolated because of flooding for a short time, the floodwaters didn’t hinder work to clear debris.

“The greatest impact from flooding regarding debris removal was getting the equipment here. There was a period of a few days when all roads leading into Wilmington were cut off. There are a few areas with some residual flooding, but the large collection vehicles are able to access nearly every area to perform recovery efforts,” she said.

Murphy recommended that residents view a map of areas serviced and expected to be in the unincorporated areas of the county. Residents can also take vegetative debris to Ogden Park in the northern part of the county, and Veteran’s Park, in the southern part of the county.

Storm debris for Wilmington is being collected by DRC Emergency Services, a company with locations in Texas, Louisiana and Florida, contracted by the city to pick up more the than 1 million cubic yards of vegetative and C&D storm debris cause by Hurricane Florence, according to the city website.

DRC crews began collecting construction and demolition debris within the Wilmington city limits Monday. The website has an interactive map for this collection as well as an interactive map that is updated daily showing the status of debris pickup progress and upcoming areas to be serviced.

Like many other local and county governments, Brunswick County is still in the beginning phases of tallying the cost of Hurricane Florence.

Amanda Hutcheson, public information officer for Brunswick County Government, said Monday that it’s too early to have firm numbers for the amount of debris collected in the unincorporated areas of the county. She added that towns and cities are coordinating debris collection within their municipal limits.

“We have recently started collecting C&D; our contractors were mostly doing vegetative debris initially,” she said, adding CrowderGulf, based in Theodore, Alabama, is collecting the debris and Landfall Strategies of Sarasota, Florida, with a satellite office in Wilmington, is monitoring the debris contract. “We have a temporary debris management site permitted in Supply, and we have a staging or processing site in Belville.”

She said they expect debris collection to take a couple of months to be complete. The initial contract figures for debris collection to be around $2 million but the county is seeking FEMA reimbursement.

“We are emphasizing that contractors will make several passes through the unincorporated areas, and that in many areas contractors will work for several days before moving on to the next area. If residents have placed debris by the road but it has not been picked up yet, that does not mean that they have been skipped or missed,” Hutchenson added.

Tammy Proctor, Pender County tourism and public information officer, told Coastal Review Online Monday that the county is collecting debris as fast as possible and watching Hurricane Michael.

“With our ground saturated, a few more inches of rain will mean we could have more flash floods, fallen trees and downed power lines,” she explained.

Proctor said that they’re unable to estimate the cost and time invested in cleaning up the storm because there are still families unable to reach their homes due to floodwaters. “We can only estimate into the millions.”

“Pender County has been dealt a blow by this historic storm,” Proctor added. “Part of our county encountered hurricane wind damage, damage from the record rainfall, flash floods, and then rivers, streams, and tributaries flooding. Hurricanes Floyd and Matthew were benchmarks in Pender County. Florence surpassed our benchmarks. We have a lot of homes destroyed and damaged,” she said, adding that the environment has felt the impact of stormwater and septic overflow.

Pender has also contracted with DRC, and the debris is being delivered to collection sites in the county. Collection as of Thursday was counted as 53,439 cubic yards in vegetative debris but numbers were not available for C&D. The flooding has interfered with collecting debris.

In New Bern at the end of the second week of cleanup, 2,135 tons of construction debris had been collected, with the first week reaching 760 tons. Vegetative debris collected came to 97,130 cubic yards during the second week and 26,442 the week prior.

New Bern public information officer Colleen Roberts explained that determining the cost and effort for storm debris removal was still in progress, but Hurricane Florence could cost the city $8 million, “But that is an estimate.” She said that as of Friday, manpower and staffing costs were up to $2.8 million.

“Phillips and Jordan is our contractor and we’re also using mutual aid help from across North Carolina, including Garner, Greenville, Rocky Mount, Charlotte, Harrisburg, Hendersonville, Raleigh, Greensboro and Wilson. Construction debris goes to the landfill and vegetative debris is being staged at an industrial site, with both being tracked for FEMA data purposes and reimbursement.”

Did #Florence leave a lot of debris in your area? Follow the guidelines on managing debris after a natural disaster to expedite the removal process. https://t.co/3Usm7YN0mk

— EPA Southeast (@EPASoutheast) September 29, 2018

The environmental damage has been sizeable on several points for New Bern, Roberts explained. “We had a lot of trees down as a result of this storm, a lot of blowing debris … so we’ve lost some of the beautiful canopy New Bern is known for in several of its neighborhoods and along the waterfront.”

The vegetative debris will be mulched after it is collected and sorted to lessen the environmental impact some, she explained. “But after the storm, there was fuel in the water, LP (liquid propane) tanks that washed up in flooded areas, sewer inundation, and other chemical issues so we know there are impacts from those too. Our drinking water quality was never impacted during the storm, which is great. Our water was and has always been safe to drink.”

While New Bern saw flooding during the storm, it didn’t impair debris collection. “Our floodwaters receded immediately after the storm,” she said. “The Neuse River is extremely wide and flooding is not a long-term issue here during tropical events.”

In Jacksonville, enough vegetative debris has been collected to fill six football fields, goal post to goal post, 10 feet high according to a news release Oct. 2. More than 2,100 loads of vegetative debris have been collected and placed at the city’s temporary mulching site.

The city estimated that it could be December before all the vegetative, and C&D debris is collected.

For those still managing their debris, Leonard with DEQ said that citizens and businesses are encouraged to do the following:

• Communicate with or listen to instructions provided by local government before placing anything curbside or roadside in rural areas. There may be specifics to how and when, or even if, they are planning to collect debris.
• If instructed to place things by the curb for collection, always separate waste types such as yard waste, building materials, furniture and appliances.
• Never place any material in a location or manner that could result in environmental damage, such as directly in a ditch or waterway. Never place containers of paint, household cleaners or fertilizers directly on the ground, always make sure they are and will remain upright.

Next: Hazards and safe handling.

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Enjoy a traditional low country boil with fresh local shrimp while supporting area Hurricane Florence relief efforts Oct. 28 during the North Carolina Coastal Federation fundraiser at the Hanover Seaside Club.

Waterman’s Brewing Co. and SeaGlass wines are providing refreshments plus there will be a coastal-themed silent auction and live music from Sound Side.

Tickets are $50 for federation members and $60 for nonmembers. Advanced tickets are available online and at the door as supplies last. Fifty percent of proceeds will benefit regional hurricane relief efforts in partnership with WARM NC, or Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry, as they complete urgent home repairs for low-income homeowners affected by Hurricane Florence in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.

There’s also an opportunity to win a Nirve Beach Cruiser bike donated by Two Wheeler Dealer  or an Allison Classic Surfboard shaped by Will Allison, who has been creating surfboards for more than 40 years. He produces about 300 custom boards annually. Add a raffle ticket after selecting event tickets by clicking “Continue Browsing” and then “Raffle Tickets” in the menu.

The annual fundraiser supports the federation’s local work restoring coastal habitats and water quality, strengthening natural defenses against storms.

Learn More

• Purchase Event and Raffle Tickets

RALEIGH– Voter registration deadline has been extended to 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 15, for residents in 28 North Carolina counties most affected by Hurricane Florence.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation signed by Gov. Roy Cooper this week to extend the regular voter registration deadline for these counties: Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Greene, Harnett, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Wayne and Wilson.

The registration deadline remains 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 12, in all other North Carolina counties.

The State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement has set up a special webpage, with information about voting post-Hurricane Florence.

“We do not want this devastating storm to keep people from voting,” said Kim Westbrook Strach, state board executive director, in a statement. “Voters may cast ballots by mail or in person during the early voting period or on Election Day. We hope voters take advantage of the option that works best for them at this difficult time.”

Any registered voter may:

• Vote by mail. no excuse is needed, by requesting an absentee ballot by Oct. 30.
• Vote during the in-person early voting period at any one-stop early voting site in their county from Oct. 17-Nov. 3
• Vote at their precinct on Election Day Nov. 6.

Eligible voters who miss the regular registration deadline may still register and vote in their county of residence during the in-person early voting period Oct. 17-Nov. 3. Voters who register and vote at the same time must provide proof of residence.

Learn More

• Map of voter registration deadlines
• State Board’s Voter Search tool with voter registrations and 2018 sample ballots
• Same-day registration is here.

RALEIGH – In a presentation to legislators Wednesday on Hurricane Florence, Karen Collette, Division 3 engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation, said the lesson of what happened to U.S. 421 at the Pender-New Hanover County line was evident.

In the aftermath of the storm and the inundation of 4 miles of Interstate 40, U.S. 421 became a key route into Wilmington until a culvert failure and washout near the county line cut deep into the roadbed and left a wide gash that will take months to repair.

“When we looked at old plans, there used to be a bridge and we think there’s a reason there needs to be a bridge,” Collette said. “Mother Nature has a way of reminding you.”

The damage from Hurricane Florence is starting to get clearer and the major challenge for many communities in reopening schools and clearing out flooded areas is restoring the hundreds of road links still under water or in need of serious repair.

“I will remind everyone the storm is not over until the last site is repaired, the last road is open and last housing debris is removed,” Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon told members of the House Select Committee on Strategic Transportation Planning and Long Range Funding Solutions during its meeting Wednesday in Raleigh.

Trogdon said dozens of major highways and hundreds of secondary roads were damaged in the storm. Most were in the coastal plain, but washouts from the storm extended as far west as Avery County. In all, there were 3,101 sites with damage. The worst, Trogdon said, was U.S. 421.

“This is probably the most severely damaged site that we have in our state,” he told legislators. “The water cut a 15- to 18-foot hole through 421.”

Trogdon said contractors were on site and working to put up a temporary bridge over the break with an expected single lane to open in each direction. The plan for a permanent fix at the site is to put in two, 500-foot bridges carrying the northbound and southbound lanes. Trogdon said the timetable calls for finishing the work and reopening both lanes in each direction in seven to eight months.

North Carolina’s transportation costs from Hurricane Florence are expected to reach $266 million, most of that reimbursable through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Highway Administration. The state’s estimated share of the costs is $66.8 million, Trogdon said.

There were some success stories from the storm, he said, including much better integration of drones and on-the-ground reporting to update the public on road closures and traffic conditions.

Ports Authority, Ferry Division Report Damage

Property repairs or replacement at the two state seaports are estimated at about $54 million. Both Wilmington and Morehead City ports had wind damage to roofs and storage areas and several dislodged containers.

“In non-technical terms I can tell you that both ports took a wallop in this storm,” Paul Cozza, executive director of the North Carolina Ports Authority said Wednesday.

Morehead City was not as heavily damaged as Wilmington, he said, but both will require extensive repairs to buildings. None of the cranes or berths were damaged, he said.

The port channels continue to be reviewed and one major obstruction, a 7-foot-diameter rock, had to be removed from the shipping channel in Wilmington.

The state Ferry Division fleet has resumed regular operation, but also incurred damage during the storm. After evacuation operations, including moving 1,074 vehicles and 2,181 people off Ocracoke Island, most of the 21 state ferries were in safe mooring sites at the Swan Quarter dock and the state shipyard at Mann’s Harbor. Service was suspended for 18 days with a loss of $27,713 in revenue.

Sterling Baker, director of facilities management for the Ferry Division, said the most damage from the storm was on the Bayview-Aurora route, where there was bulkhead damage and shoreline rip-rap erosion, and the Cherry Branch terminal, which had extensive bulkhead erosion and large washout areas. Major repairs there and roof work at the Cedar Island ferry terminal is expected to cost about $550,000, in addition to about $100,000 for other repairs.

The state is also rebuilding the lineup loop for the Ocracoke to Hatteras ferry terminal at the northern end of Ocracoke Island. Erosion at Hatteras Inlet caused damage to the area last summer and a sandbag wall was added during the spring, but currents from the storm scattered the sandbags and damaged the pavement again.

Session to Continue

The look at the damage to the state’s transportation system is just one of many reviews started as the estimates roll in on the costs and consequences of what is likely to be the state’s most devastating storm.

It took less than four hours on Tuesday for legislators to open a special session and pass the first round of recovery legislation, which is aimed at ensuring matching funds for federal aid and pay for school employees, as well as extending deadlines for voter registration and granting greater calendar flexibility to school systems in hard-hit areas.

The North Carolina General Assembly is scheduled to return Oct. 15 to consider additional legislation after state agencies have had more time to prepare cost estimates.

On Monday, Division of Coastal Management director Braxton Davis is scheduled to review storm impacts for the House Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and other departments are also compiling their costs and future budget needs. Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to present a comprehensive budget request for Florence response ahead of the mid-October session.

OCEAN – The North Carolina Coastal Federation is urging coastal property owners not to burn pressure-treated wood that’s among the debris left by Hurricane Florence.

Florence’s storm surge destroyed docks, walkways and bulkheads along our coast, with much of the material left washed up in yards.

“There are large, mangled piles of chemically preserved lumber and poles from docks and bulkheads washed up all along our shorelines,” said Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation. “Now people are asking what they should do to get rid of this mess.”

Given that in places this debris is several feet thick and weighs many tons, many property owners are tempted to burn the wood in place rather than to go to the expense of removing it.

“You need to know that burning this wood is illegal and doing so is dangerous to your health and the environment,” said Miller.

Tags stapled to the ends of newly purchased pressure treated wood warn against burning it. The preservatives used in wood for docks, seawalls and pilings is particularly toxic and dangerous to handle. Burning this wood can cause exposure to toxic ash and smoke that is harmful to both people and the environment.  Instead, the wood must be taken to an approved construction debris disposal site.

Incineration of treated wood does not destroy the arsenic and other chemicals it may contain. Pressure-treated lumber is considered hazardous waste by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Burning wood treated with chromated copper arsenate releases the chemical bond that holds the arsenic in the wood and just one tablespoon of ash from the burnt wood contains a lethal dose of this poison.

According to the Journal of American Medical Association, even minute amounts of the “fly ash” from burning treated wood can have serious health consequences. Arsenic gives no warning of its hazards; it does not have a specific taste or odor to warn you of its presence. The journal reported on a family that burned chromium-copper-arsenate treated wood in a wood stove for winter heating. Their hair fell out, all family members suffered severe, recurring nosebleeds, extreme fatigue and debilitating headaches. The parents complained about ‘blacking out’ for periods of several hours, followed by long periods of extreme disorientation. Both children suffered frequent seizures. The symptoms were finally traced to breathing minute amounts of arsenic laden dust. Burning treated lumber also introduces these chemicals directly into the coastal environment, creating hazards for fish and wildlife.

“We can’t stress enough that you should not burn this wood,” said Miller.  “It’s illegal to burn for a reason. The toxic fumes it creates can really be harmful to your health.”

Local governments have opened debris disposal areas and many local governments are picking up this debris at curbsides. The federation encourages checking with local authorities to determine the approved disposal options.

Learn More

• Overview of Wood Preservative Chemicals

DOWN EAST CARTERET COUNTY – Hurricane Florence ravaged in mid-September most of the coast of North Carolina, leaving a trail of billions in damage and untold destruction.

Down East Carteret County, more than a dozen unincorporated but close-knit communities situated between Beaufort and Cedar Island, is in the beginning stages of recovery from the disaster that caused many to lose their homes, their businesses and their life’s work.

The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island was hit especially hard. Once filled with artifacts that illustrated life Down East, the museum was nearly empty Friday afternoon, save for boxes of various sizes waiting to be moved and equipment brought in to help manage moisture.

Pam Morris, exhibition curator, weaved through movers working on the second floor. She said that there was no damage to the artifacts because the items were either covered in plastic or in a case, and nothing was wet in the office, which they were in process of packing up.

Morris explained, “We basically have to vacate the building for demolition, and they’re going to redo the floors, sheetrock and roof.”

She added that they have fine arts insurance as well as facility insurance. Fine arts handlers packed up the collection for further documentation and light conservation work to be done while the building is being repaired and the museum gift shop has been relocated to a storefront at 806 Arendell St. in Morehead City for the time being.

We’re going to have to figure out what we can do to be in better shape for the next storm, roof wise, which is probably the case for a lot of people,” she said.

Worst-case scenario is that it will take six months to have the building operational, she said, and there are no preliminary numbers on funding they’ll need to get back open.

Morris said if folks wanted to help but couldn’t make it to Harkers Island, the museum website has a page marked to donate for the recovery effort.

“That’s how people can help, we’ve had tons of help from the community, thank God for them, but we also need other help as well. We would be so appreciative if they logged onto our website and made a contribution earmarked for the relief effort,” she said.

“We’re going to recover, be better than ever, and I think we’re going to come out in on the other side in probably better shape than we were going in,” Morris added.

Terry Krauss of Carrboro was volunteering Friday afternoon at the museum. He said that he and his wife are big fans of Harkers Island and Cape Lookout. “We visit regularly, so when they had this disaster, I decided to spend some time down here helping people I know, doing everything from putting tarps up, hauling trash to the drop off center, chain sawing trees.”

Near where Krauss was helping upstairs, Lynn Hess, who works at the museum, was in an office sorting through documents. Hess said that she and her husband are in the process of revamping their 108-year-old home in Atlantic and while they had some water damage from broken windows, “Compared to what other folks are dealing with, we’re very fortunate.”

She added, “The community came together beautifully, which is one of the things we dearly love about Down East.”

Gloucester resident Barbara Garrity-Blake was also taken by the outpouring of kindness showed during and after the storm.

“The damage Down East, like in so many areas, is devastating, but response to the storm’s aftermath has been overwhelming,” she said. Fire departments Down East were the points of emergency supply drop off and distribution and firefighters and other first responders worked around the clock clearing roads, checking districts and fielding calls.

“I helped give out cleaning kits, MREs (meals ready to eat), water, canned goods, clothes and so on at the Marshallberg Volunteer Fire Department. We had crews of U.S. Forestry workers who helped unload tractor trailers — they were awesome,” Garrity-Blake said. “Churches stepped up and helped feed people. The Salvation Army folks were lifesavers with meals and supplies. Red Cross and Lion’s Club are examples of so many organizations that helped. Chowan County sent a 4-H team with livestock feed and hay.”

Garrity-Blake said that many took it upon themselves to drive in from Asheville, Raleigh, Charlotte, you name it, to help.

“I was especially moved by a Hispanic family – mother, teenage daughter and little boy – who drove two hours from flood-ravaged Kinston. When I asked them what they needed, they told me they didn’t need a thing – they had come to help Down East,” she said. They came with a van full of bleach to donate and helped at the Marshallberg Baptist Church serve meals that evening.

“Now we are in the muddy, mosquito-infested grind of long-term recovery. My heart goes out to those who were displaced, and whose possessions are on the side of the road.”

Barbara Garrity-Blake

“Now we are in the muddy, mosquito-infested grind of long-term recovery. My heart goes out to those who were displaced, and whose possessions are on the side of the road. Thank goodness for the Baptist Men, the Latter-day Saints and others who continue to do the dirty work of helping clear trees and deal with flooded homes,” she said, adding that some have no place to go and the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot help. “People need temporary housing and FEMA no longer provides trailers.”

The Down East Council, which serves as a voice for the communities, is meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Davis Volunteer Fire Department, she said, “to talk about how we can improve storm preparation and response for the next time, and we know there will be a next time. It’s appropriate that we are meeting in Davis, the epicenter of damage Down East.”The discussion will also focus on addressing concerns at the county level.

Lillie Chadwick Miller with the Down East Council reiterated the level of damage Florence produced throughout the county and especially the communities Down East.

“Many agree it produced more damage than ever before; and another comment reflected the fact that water came higher onto their property than they have ever seen,” she said.

“However, with the destruction that took place, many good things resulted. Friends were helping friends. Neighbors helping neighbors. Members of the fire and rescue departments worked above and beyond to accept the thousands of donations and disperse them to community folks,” MIller added. “Many members of the community stepped up and began organizing with friends outside of our county to get donations into our communities.”

What was the most humbling, she continued was to see the quantity of supplies that poured into the Down East communities, “And they’re still coming in. It’s amazing how the human spirit always steps up in times of need.”

In terms of recovery, Miller said it will be slow for many.

“Many homes are totally destroyed and the families are displaced. The lack of housing is a huge problem and those that are unable to stay in their homes because of the damage are finding it extremely difficult to find a place to house their families,” she said. “This is causing more stress on so many people with very few options open to them.”

Miller continued that with more and more homes deemed uninhabitable, the residents are finding themselves in dire situations.

“Families are struggling and finding it impossible to get help from FEMA and in some cases their own insurance. Families are told their homes are uninhabitable; but with no places to even rent, they are literally left with no viable choices. And then many cannot afford home insurance, much less flood insurance. It is definitely an extremely difficult situation for many Down East.”

Miller mentioned how heartbreaking it is to see how the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum has been damaged. “For so many, the museum is an icon of our communities. Like always, folks will work together to help restore the museum to what it was before.”

Among those pitching in at the museum was Liz DeMattia, lead scientist for the Community Science Initiative at Duke University Marine Lab, along with faculty, students, staff and their family members.

“Families are told their homes are uninhabitable; but with no places to even rent, they are literally left with no viable choices. And then many cannot afford home insurance, much less flood insurance. It is definitely an extremely difficult situation for many Down East.”

Lillie Chadwick Miller, Down East Council

“The Core Sound Museum and Heritage Center is such an important space for the community and has been a wonderful community partner for faculty, staff and students at the Duke Marine Lab,” DeMattia said. “When we heard what Florence did to the museum, we wanted to give back to an organization that gives so much to everyone else. We have such respect for the museum, that we contacted (museum director) Karen Amspacher and said ‘how can we help’?”

Many different groups have helped out from Duke Marine Lab in whatever capacity the museum staff needed, DeMattia explained. She said that groups shoveled mud and ripped carpets at one of the Down East churches, cleaned storage spaces to make space for museum furniture and packed up the gift store and some contents from the museum’s community exhibits.

“Anyone who has worked with the (museum) staff knows how community oriented and hardworking they are, and how much they give to the museum and the community — as friends and partners of Core Sound, our goal was just to lighten their workload and help them on the road to restoring such a wonderful community space.”

In a note to museum supporters, Amspacher wrote “Eastern North Carolina has suffered a disaster for sure, and Core Sound and Down East are just part of a much larger tragic situation, but we – like generations before us – will adapt, work and persevere.”

Reprinted from North Carolina Health News

MOREHEAD CITY — When Brett Froelich saw Hurricane Florence taking aim at the North Carolina coast, he saw an opportunity.

So, even as Florence’s winds were screaming past the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences where he is an associate professor, Froelich was planning on how to get test kits out to physicians and other health care providers who would be providing care after the storm.

Froelich studies the kinds of bacteria that are present in water stirred up by hurricane winds and surges. The target of his current research is a species of the nasty pathogen known as vibrio, which is in the family of bacteria that includes cholera.

“We’re not too worried about cholera. We have excellent sanitation and things like that,” he said reassuringly. “What we are worried about are a couple of other species, Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.”

Those two species of vibrio live in shellfish and also in the waters that host other shellfish. People who eat raw shellfish inoculated with either of these bacteria can get pretty sick.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates between 52,000 and 80,000 cases of food poisoning each year are attributable to vibrio.

But another problem is when people come in contact with either of the vibrio species through an open wound.

“Say they cut themselves on a rock, or they poke their finger while baiting a hook or something like that and some of the salt water gets in there,” he said. “The bacteria can then get into that wound and cause a life-threatening infection.”

During Hurricane Katrina, there were 22 confirmed cases of Vibrio vulnificus-based wound infections, said Froelich’s colleague, Rachel Noble, a professor at IMS.

“There were five deaths that happened from those,” she said.

Dangerous floodwaters

Vibrio infections happen more often in summer months when the water is warm and the bacteria are able to multiply. The good news is that the bacteria are very susceptible to treatment if a person with a red and oozing wound receives treatment early.

“If a patient were to come in, and they say, ‘Look, I got cut and it looks infected,’ and the doctor gave them antibiotics they’d probably be fine,” he said. “But if they got infected, and then think, ‘Well, let me sleep on it and see how it looks tomorrow,’ the next day it might be too late.”

V. vulnificus left untreated has a 50 percent fatality rate.

“That’s even with aggressive medical treatment, which usually involves intravenous antibiotics, amputation of infected limbs and things like that,” Froelich said.

That’s what happened to a Wilmington man, who died after cutting his leg during hurricane cleanup and getting floodwater into the wound. He died on September 25 after having his infected leg amputated.

NC Health News could not confirm that V. vulnificus was the cause of his infection, but New Hanover County deputy health director David Howard said the pathogen is a big concern for his department. His agency put out a press release on the 25th warning local residents about the risk of vibrio.

Howard said if people “have to come in contact with floodwater, say cleaning up the house, wear boots or waders, gloves.”

In 2017, 64 people in North Carolina were reported to have acquired vibrio infections, five of them were V. vulnificus, but Froelich believes that number might be higher, and that’s why he saw an opportunity in Florence.

Marine bacterial infections inland

When a patient shows up at a doctor’s office with an angry, infected wound, most of the time, the doctor won’t culture the bacteria that are in the wound but will simply give antibiotics. The good news is that vibrio is very responsive to antibiotics and will easily get killed off.

But Froelich wants to get the doctors near the coast and inland to culture those wounds in the wake of Florence to get a better idea of the prevalence of these infections.

“The storm surge pushed water up the estuary and up the river, bringing with it that salty water,” Froelich said. “When the water is less salty that (vibrio) can proliferate, but they also require some salt. So they can’t survive in fresh water.

“If you go way up into the river, normally all the way up to New Bern, you wouldn’t find these things at all. But with the storm surge, it pushed the salt water that far up and extends the risk way upriver.”

Even as Florence was dumping rain on the coast, he scrambled to assemble kits containing sterile swabs, culture media, instructions, gloves and a consent form. Then he drove around, distributing the kits to providers as far inland as New Bern.

Froelich worried that people are at risk further inland who might think they’re safe from encountering coastal pathogens. He said that the large storm surges extend the places that vibrio can be found and places not normally considered a risk area now are.

“People who are just walking through standing water [there] might have a wound or get a wound and then these bacteria can infect them without them ever having gone into the coastal waters,” he said. “Basically, people who are technically on land can get a marine bacterial infection.”

He said the vibrio can enter a wound as small as an ant or mosquito bite.

“Little cuts you didn’t know you had, ones you can’t even see, that’s all it takes,” he said.

Long lasting

What makes vibrio even more of a horror movie pathogen is its persistence. Froelich explained that if soil containing vibrio dries up, it enters what’s called a “viable but non-culturable state.”

“It essentially just really, really, really slows down its metabolism to almost nothing and then once conditions improve, that is to say, enough water, enough salt and then the temperature is right, they come back out,” he said. “Because they grow so fast, they can double every 20 minutes and can react like that to changing conditions.”

He said in his lab they had an old test tube sitting in the back on the shelf, forgotten for close to 20 years.

“When we got to it, the tube was nothing but dried-up salt crystals. We took that, added water to it, shook it up, got them to grow,” he said.

There is one upside: fully salty ocean water isn’t as welcoming to vibrio, so, as coastal waters flush out the fresh water coming downstream, the risk on beaches diminishes. As of this weekend, most precautions on the ocean side of the state’s barrier islands have been lifted. But people who wade in brackish, part-salty water will have to continue to be on guard.

This story is provided courtesy of North Carolina Health News, a website covering health and environmental news in North Carolina. Coastal Review Online is partnering with North Carolina Health News to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

OCEAN — While the state is offering expedited permitting for coastal property owners who need to replace bulkheads damaged by Hurricane Florence, the North Carolina Coastal Federation wants to make it easier for folks to consider a more natural alternative.

The federation has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to act quickly to adopt a new general permit for living shorelines to help waterfront property owners recover from the storm.

“Living shorelines are an effective and more natural erosion control strategy that use plants and small structures to help stabilize estuarine shorelines,” Todd Miller, executive director of the federation, said in a statement. “Many people with eroded shorelines and destroyed bulkheads can now benefit from the issuance of this permit.”

Earlier in September, the Corps’ Wilmington District began soliciting public comments regarding a general permit for living shorelines. The comment period is set to close Thursday. The federation is now urging the Corps to adopt this permit immediately after the close of the comment period to help property owners address erosion issues caused by Hurricane Florence. The permit will provide a more streamlined regulatory process for installing living shorelines, according to the federation.

Many bulkheads and other hard erosion control structures typically used as shoreline stabilization methods around coastal sounds, creeks and rivers were severely damaged during the hurricane. Based upon a preliminary evaluation conducted by the federation, dozens of the federation’s living shoreline projects installed over the past two decades are still intact and functioning well in areas heavily impacted by the hurricane.

“It’s important that the Corps approve the general permit, now more than ever, so that property owners are able to install living shorelines more efficiently and help protect their properties from future storm damages,” said Miller.

Living shorelines are often cheaper and more cost-efficient than bulkheads and they provide habitat for marine life and filter pollutants from stormwater runoff.

“In locations where a living shoreline is the best practical erosion control method, waterfront property owners need to ask their marine contractors for them rather than replacing or building new bulkheads,” said Miller.

The federation said it will provide upon request detailed information about living shorelines and a list of marine contractors with experience installing them.

At some point in the recovery phase of nearly every major storm in North Carolina, there’s a shift from a flood response to a housing crisis.

In the short term, there is emergency funding for temporary housing as flooded-out homes and businesses are gutted and, if possible, made livable again. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides funds for hotels and short-term rentals, but despite talk of resilience, in the long run there is little in place to break the cycle of residents returning to areas that are proven vulnerable to flooding time and again.

Grady McCallie, policy director at the North Carolina Conservation Network, said that as environmental organizations craft their proposals for policy changes and what to fund, there’s a recognition that there needs to be a comprehensive vision for dealing with increased flooding and more severe storms in the state’s coastal plain.

“The idea is, ‘how do we get stuff out of the floodplain that shouldn’t be in floodplain?’ And then, ‘how do we manage the floodplain in the future?’” McCallie said. Housing, he said, is a key part of that.

“Just getting people back into their homes is not a long-term solution. If all we do is get everybody back to the same place they were before Florence struck that wouldn’t be enough, because some other one is going to come along.”

Moving people out of the floodplain is going to take a long-term effort, he said, starting with making sure they have somewhere to go that’s affordable. “You can’t just buy people out with nowhere to go.”

In the coming months, as policy makers look at a recovery effort that will in all likelihood overlap with those started two years ago after Hurricane Matthew, moving more people out of the floodplain will be an overarching goal. It’s much of what resilience boils down to in eastern North Carolina.

Moving homes and businesses has proven to be a difficult, expensive process, however, and as recent evidence of little progress on long-term housing in response to Hurricane Matthew shows, it’s also a painfully slow process.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill researchers Todd BenDor and David Salvesen, who recently published a report on buyouts that looked at strategies and tracked what happened to properties in eight North Carolina communities, said the impact of Hurricane Florence as the state is still recovering from Hurricane Matthew is evidence of the need for a long-term strategy for buyouts and housing for eastern North Carolina.

The report, funded by a grant from the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory and released in August, found a number of flaws in the way buyouts are done, first that they’re almost always reactive and not a part of an overall strategy.

“I don’t want to give the impression I’m against buyouts, I think they are an important part of mitigation, but the way they’re currently designed isn’t working for municipalities or for homeowners,” said Salvesen, a research associate with the Institute for the Environment who specializes in land use and assistance to communities. “Often these are done in haste after a disaster when there is little time and few options and that doesn’t work. Municipalities get stuck with this checkerboard pattern of buyouts because they can’t get everybody to participate.”

People don’t want to move for a variety of reasons, he said, such as longtime family ties to properties, wanting to stay near friends and most often, not being able to afford a move.

“Unless those issues are addressed you’re not going to get all the homeowners to participate,” Salvesen said. “What that means is a local government saddled with this scattershot of vacant lots they have to take care of.”

For many towns, maintaining what the study terms a “checkerboard” of holdouts and bought-out lots has added to maintenance budgets as well as preventing the area being converted to public use or returned to its natural state.

“You have to find out a way to string them together, so you can do something to them,” he said. “You can’t create a baseball field if there’s a house sitting on second base.”

BenDor, a professor with University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning, said the checkerboard result is the opposite of what’s needed.

“It’s the worst of all worlds,” he said. “You still have to maintain the areas when they become public property and you can’t get rid of most of the infrastructure. Part of the fiscal benefits and the environmental benefit is when you remove houses, in theory, you remove the infrastructure.”

The checkerboard problem, he said, means governments still must maintain water and sewer lines and fix roads for just a few residences. “That’s untenable for a lot of lower-income communities,” he said.

In addition, to maintain the properties most communities mow the lots, he said. That’s also the wrong strategy for the environment.

“A city has political pressure to just go in and mow it, which is exactly what we don’t want to be doing in floodplains from an environmental perspective.”

By restoring an area to its natural state, usually a forest, BenDor said, a city can increase its capacity to deal with floodwaters, a move that increases surrounding land values.

Salvesen and BenDor said the sequence for buyouts has to change. Although there are some funds for pre-disaster mitigation, the biggest funding for buyouts comes after a disaster through hazard mitigation and community block grant funding.

That’s the wrong time to do a buyout, Salvesen said.

“Don’t do it after the flood happens, that’s too late,” he said. Everyone is stressed out. It’s a tragic event. You have to do it in advance, but that’s really hard to do because the big chunk of federal money comes after the flood happens. That has to change.”

To make buyouts work, BenDor said, state and local governments need to see them not as a reaction to a disaster but part of a long-term resiliency effort that includes having affordable housing options out of the areas prone to flooding.

“Understanding where people go matters a lot,” he said. “For instance, there’s a lot of evidence that folks that take buyouts actually move into other high-hazard areas. The point of buyouts is to get people out of these flooding situations but if they move directly back into a bad situation that’s a huge problem.”

After Hurricane Fran, a state buyout program augmented incentives for people to relocated outside of the floodplain, he said. It also added encouraged people to stay in their communities.

“Buyouts are not intended to get people to leave the community, they’re to get them out of high hazard situations,” BenDor said.

Defining those areas is another big hurdle for planners.

“Reviewing the floodplain maps every five years is not going to cut it anymore,” BenDor said. “It’s got to be something we have a much better handle on and it’s really worth having a conversation how we can do that.”

In the months ahead, there’ll be a major effort to move people out of harm’s way, he said, “except harm’s way is changing.”

Salvesen said having two major storms close to each other may be changing some attitudes and perhaps the willingness of people to consider buyouts. “There should be enough evidence now from these two major floods that certain parts of the state are more vulnerable than others. We can identify those areas and begin to target buyouts strategically to the places where you get the biggest bang for the buck.”

It’s a situation like what happened after the sequence of Hurricane Fran and Hurricane Floyd, in 1996 and 1999, respectively.

“There were some buyouts after Fran, but not everyone was convinced. They said, ‘Well that’s a once-in-a-lifetime storm, that’s never going to happen again,’” Salvesen said. “And then Floyd happened a few years later, and all of the sudden people were lining up to get buyouts.”

Reading accounts of the recent storm, especially stories of people who also took a hit in Matthew, Salvesen said something similar could happen.

“One of the things that helps convince people to participate in a buyout is a subsequent flood, but we shouldn’t have to wait for that,” he said.

RALEIGH — Going into next week’s special session on storm response, there was consensus across the political spectrum that whatever happens is just a start.

“We learned from Matthew you’re not going to do one disaster-relief bill and be done,” Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson and one the main budget chairs for the House, said in an interview Wednesday. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see us do something this Tuesday and then come back in a very short period of time.”

McGrady said the first bills taken up would be some quickly needed regulatory changes on school calendar flexibility and Department of Motor Vehicle fees as well as any immediately necessary appropriations. He said the legislature is likely to return after state agencies have had more time to review the costs to take up additional legislation.

“It takes a while to do the damage assessment,” he said. “Matthew occurred in early October and when we came back in early December we had agencies saying, ‘we not yet ready.’”

The experience with the 2016 storm does appear to be helping expedite the transition to long-term relief efforts, he said.

“Because we had Matthew, everyone knows who to communicate with and has some sense about how money might go out and in what ways.”

In addition to potential state assistance, an early influx of federal money appears to be moving. The U.S. House Wednesday added $1.68 billion in long term disaster assistance to a budget re-authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration. The Senate is expected to act on the measure ahead of the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept.30.

Although substantial, those funds could represent only a fraction of what’s ultimately needed. As floodwaters recede, damage estimates continue to build.

This week, CoreLogic, an analytics company that tracks housing data, estimated the cost of Hurricane Florence and its aftermath between $19 billion and $28.5 billion. Of that figure, the company estimates that between $13 billion and $18.5 billion of the losses were uninsured properties.

On Wednesday, the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services put the losses to crops and livestock at $1.1 billion with the bulk of that, about $987 million, from row crop losses during harvest season for tobacco, grains and soybeans.

Livestock losses were mainly poultry and hog and amounted to $26.8 million, so far. Official estimates of the losses stand at 4.1 million chickens, ducks and turkeys and 5,500 hogs.

Damage estimates to the state’s roads and bridges are also piling up. At a briefing Thursday, state Department of Transportation Secretary Jim Trogdon noted 2,818 damaged sites with preliminary cost estimates at $100 million and growing.

Trogdon said 25 of the 38 primary roads in eastern North Carolina are closed due to damage.

For now, he said, the department’s emphasis continues to be opening roads and clearing debris as piles of wood, carpet, wallboard and insulation stripped from flooded out homes and businesses grow along the roadsides.

At the same Thursday briefing Gov. Roy Cooper said the state would need to begin to think more strategically when it comes to how it goes about rebuilding damaged areas in eastern North Carolina. He said that means rebuilding with resiliency in mind and he called for new state programs to help raise homes, increase buyouts and assist more people in getting flood insurance.

Cooper emphasized that should apply to environmental protections as well.

“As we rebuild we must protect our environment and promote clean water,” he said. That includes making sewage treatment plants and other facilities more resilient and reviving a state-sponsored buyout program for hog waste ponds that was deemed a success after Hurricane Floyd but ran out of funds.

Cooper said he would also like to see additional funds for the Department of Environmental Quality to increase oversight and inspections.

Following on the governor’s remarks, DEQ Secretary Michael Regan said department staff are doing water quality testing and inspections in areas where pollution damage is suspected. He said that includes the coal ash sites at Duke Energy’s Sutton and Lee plants, troubled water and sewage treatment plants and industrial agriculture operations.

“I want to assure the public we are committed to holding permitted facilities accountable for full cleanup of any environmental damage their operations may have caused,” Regan said, “and we’re also reviewing their actions prior to the storm to be sure that no previous actions on their part exacerbated any potential pollution impact resulting from the storm.”

He said the first round of testing was nearing completion and the results would be made available to the public.

Updated 2 p.m. Friday: Division of Marine Fisheries Friday announced by proclamation that the following areas will to return to normal closure boundaries effective sunrise Saturday:  Ocracoke Island, Hatteras Island, Roanoke Sound and a portion of Pamlico Sound. The waters in the following counties will remain closed: Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender, Onslow, Carteret, Craven, Pamlico, Beaufort, and parts of Hyde and Dare counties.

Map reflecting current closure status.

Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

OUTER BANKS — With the massive amounts of floodwater flowing through the sounds and coastal rivers of North Carolina from Hurricane Florence, the harvesting of oysters and clams had ground to a halt.

If testing this week of the waters from Ocracoke to Manteo comes back safe, shellfish producers in Dare and Hyde counties could be able to harvest their mollusks and start sending them to market again as early as Saturday.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries issued a proclamation on Sept. 11 stating that beginning Sept. 13, the harvest of oysters, clams or mussels from state waters by commercial and recreational interests was banned.

High season for North Carolina shellfish is traditionally considered the months with “R” in them, so the closure hit just as things start to really get busy.

“We have about 20 different varieties we sell, and around half of them are from North Carolina suppliers,” said Daniel Lewis, owner of Coastal Provisions in Southern Shores, which touts the largest selection of North Carolina oysters of any Outer Banks restaurant.

His staff was at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh last Tuesday, scooping up the last of the Down East oysters that were harvested right before the storm.

For some producers, especially those at the mouth of rivers that are still experiencing record-breaking flooding, the entire fall and early winter could be lost.

“They are filter feeders, so they take into their bodies whatever is in the water,” said DMF spokesperson Patricia Smith.

That means the “black water” from all the septic tanks, sewer systems, hog lagoons, factories, vehicles and whatever else has been flooded by Florence eventually ends up in coastal waters and is consumed by oysters and clams that are just doing what they do naturally.

Eventually as the water clears, so will the shellfish, as they filter the toxins out with clean water. But it could be months before that happens.

For shrimp, crabs and finfish, the situation is less tenuous. For the most part, they just move out of the way to cleaner water. No closures are anticipated for those fisheries.

With the majority of the runoff below the middle and upper Pamlico Sound basin, shellfish producers along Ocracoke, Hatteras, Bodie and Roanoke islands and the adjacent mainland may have lucked out.

The harvest and consumption of oysters and clams from above the northern tip of Roanoke Island, and many of the ditches, canals, creeks, and bays along Dare and Hyde counties is permanently prohibited.

Smith said the air conditioning at the division’s main offices and labs in Morehead City failed right after the storm, and that prevented testing to take place until it was repaired.

And it will be early next year before the long-shuttered water quality testing lab in Nags Head can reopen, Smith noted.

Smith said inspectors were sampling Dare and Hyde waters on Wednesday, allowing for a day of travel back to Morehead City, the shellfishing could resume north of Ocracoke by Saturday.

Once that happens, Lewis said, he will be stocking up again with fresh Outer Banks Catch oysters just a soon as they can get them out of the water.

Learn More

• NCDMF interactive map of shellfish closures

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

BOLIVIA — Officials in Brunswick County said Thursday that aerial spraying for mosquitoes will begin Monday, weather-permitting, to help reduce mosquito populations that have surged since Hurricane Florence and its related flooding.

The spraying will be countywide, including municipalities and beach communities. The planes will fly during evening hours, around the same time that the trucks spray.

Officials noted that some mosquitoes carry viruses that may cause illnesses such as La Crosse encephalitis, West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis.

Brunswick County began spraying for mosquitoes with trucks on Sept. 24, while also submitting a request for an emergency aerial response for mosquito control.

To reduce the chance of mosquito bites, officials recommend wearing light-colored, long-sleeved shirts and long pants, avoid being outside at dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active and apply mosquito repellent. If using repellent with DEET, make sure to follow label instructions, and keep DEET out of the eyes, mouth and nose.

Brunswick County Mosquito Control is to reach out to all registered beekeepers. Any beekeepers who are not registered and have questions should call the Cooperative Extension at 910-253-2610 for information.

Hurricane Florence, we knew she was coming well in advance. After she blew off the coast of Africa on Aug. 30 advanced hurricane tracking and forecasting technology provided all of the information necessary to keep my anxiety just below the berserk level as she reached “Cat4cane” status on Sept. 5.

Two days later, the storm had lost steam and downgraded into a tropical storm where it quickly left my consciousness. A few days later, she was back as a Category 1 storm that quickly blew up into a Category 4 hellion with winds howling at 140 miles per hour.

With the speed of a slow turtle, she made her way across the Atlantic, her steady approach aimed at the Carolina coast. Sept. 10 through Sept. 12 were worrisome days as she maintained her clout as a Category 4 tempest.

While pondering the idea of evacuating, the song by the Clash, “Should I Stay or Should I Go” became an earworm in my head. Everyone prepared as best they could, and many evacuated the barrier islands and immediate coast. It felt like the Kraken was going to rise out of the ocean.

On the late afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 12, I had completed all of the tasks that my wife implored me to do, and I decided to go for a bike ride on the deserted roads of Bogue Banks.

In what remained of a beautiful day, I rode down the streets surrounded by a quiet stillness, the “lull before the storm” as they say. I stopped near the Point at the west end of Emerald Isle and took a long look at my little slice of paradise knowing that hurricanes come with the territory if you want to live on the coast.

I took a few cell phone pictures of the lumpy sand dunes as a remembrance in case it would all get washed away. As I approached my house, I heard the loud hooting of a couple great horned owls. It swept away my anxiety and left me with a peacefulness I find hard to describe.

Later that night, after weather forecasts predicted a downgraded Category 1 storm making landfall, my wife and I decided to stay at our home and ride out the storm like we had so many other hurricanes.

Early the next morning, I went out to the beach and took a few photos of the imposing waves. As they crested, the strong north wind sheared off a plume of sea spray that looked like the flowing mane of a galloping horse. Magnificent waves, spilling with beauty, displayed the strength of Florence and the anxiety crept back in with a sense of dread.

I ran back home to beat the town-imposed curfew, closed the doors and waited. The conditions gradually deteriorated throughout the day with the power failing around 4 in the afternoon. As the day grew dark, everything going on outside was magnified. My wife and I sat through the night as Florence stalled with the eye wall grinding away just offshore of the barrier islands.

The rattling of one particular hurricane shutter became my gauge for the intensity of the storm. We tried to sleep, but that silent dark curtain would not fall. We distracted ourselves by perusing the internet on our cell phones and listening to weather reports on an ancient battery powered television.

As the gray morning light began to arrive, so did the reports and images of hurricane destruction on social media sites. Houses, businesses and roads flooded, roofs ripped off, boats sunk and everywhere, trees snapped and shredded.

Even though Florence was still churning away, the storm surge that she had already launched earlier as a more powerful storm was now flooding the sounds, tidal creeks and coastal rivers. Swansboro, Salter Path, the Down East communities of Carteret County and New Bern took the brunt of the storm. Utter devastation for some, lives changed forever.

And then the rains came, as Flo was reluctant to take her leave, drenching the coast and inland areas for three days. Monumental rainfall now surged into the rivers, creeks, ditches and low spots spilling over and filling areas that have never flooded before. Desperation for those that had to flee, leaving most of what they owned and part of their lives behind.

Hurricane Florence had left behind quite a mess in her wake. Not just the physical destruction, but she wounded our psyche as well. As I talked to people, I could see the hurt in their eyes and many were just one extra straw on the camel’s back from losing it. They were walking a tightrope between hope and despair and not sure on which side they would land.

Even with the rain still falling, people began to try to put their lives back together and resume a sense of normality. For some it was a simple task of raking leaves off of a lawn. For others, it was abandoning their house or placing their entire, flood-soaked possessions at the curb of the street. Beds, stoves, refrigerators, desks, dressers, couches, chairs, drywall and insulation created mountains of human detritus. Many people had just lost more than their home; some had lost their business or their job. Life as they knew it would need to find a new normal.

The days following the storm brought out the best in people. Family, friends, neighbors and strangers were helping one another, as best they could, get through this tragedy. When they weren’t cleaning yards, repairing roofs or preparing hot meals for others, they were there to listen, to hug and offer a shoulder to cry on.

Among all the human suffering, the storm was also fatal for all kinds of wildlife. Seabirds called shearwaters littered the beach in the aftermath.

We were able to rescue a few live animals and get them to a wildlife shelter: a shearwater and a crazy looking freshwater salamander called a siren.

A little over a week after the storm, my wife suggested that we go to the Bogue Inlet Pier and watch the moon rise over the ocean. Even though Flo gave it her best shot, most of the pier was still standing. Two sections were washed out, but 400 feet of the fishing platform reached out into the Atlantic from the pier house. Though battered and dinged, the pier had already reopened. The defiant pier reminded me of the scene in the movie “Forrest Gump” where Lt. Dan screams into a hurricane “you call this a storm?”

Built in 1957, the pier has been around almost as long as the town of Emerald Isle. It has battled many a storm with only hurricanes Diane in 1984, Fran in 1996 and Irene in 2011 knocking it to the canvas. But each time the pier was repaired and remains the iconic landmark of Emerald Isle.

In my teens, my brothers and I spent quite a few evenings fishing or just hanging out at the pier. It’s more than a fishing pier; it’s an introduction to the ocean. People from all over the nation make their way down this pier. Here, grandparents teaching their grandkids to fish, mingle with the sightseers. Those not even interested in fishing can’t resist a stroll down the thick wooden planks. Tourists, quickly licking their ice cream cones in the warm summer air, parade to the observation deck, as the scent of perfume drifts in the air.

On the beach west of the pier, I walked down about a quarter mile to take photographs of the moon rising over the pier as I had done many times before. I wanted to capture the moon near the damaged part of the pier as a poignant reminder of the power of nature. I set up my tripod and took a few frames and stood back taking in the scene. The ocean, moon and waves created a restoring sense of balance from the chaotic experience of the storm.

Excitedly, my wife says, “pelicans are coming.” The birds were already upon us and I only had time to reach for the shutter release cable and take two images without framing the birds in the viewfinder. We then went onto the pier and walked down to the end where the first section had been ripped away. To those fishing, it was as if the storm never happened. They whipped their rods, flinging the lead weight along with the bait into the night followed by a splash.

We went home and I downloaded the moon rise pictures. One image with the pelicans stood out, I looked at it for a while on the computer screen. It captivated me and gave me the same sense of calm that I had felt on the beach before the storm. I posted the image on Facebook with the comment: “This full Harvest Moon is a sign of the changing seasons and it also represents a big change in the lives of so many people. I’m sure that everyone knows someone who has lost little and someone who has lost everything. But what I have witnessed is that there is a resiliency of the human spirit that will always rise like a full moon, big and bright. “

I didn’t think much about it until I checked the site a few hours later and was surprised with the responses. With all that people had been through it seemed to strike a chord with folks. One comment read: “Repairable, but a visual reminder that there is a sense of “brokenness” for many right now.” Another: “And beauty peeks her head back out after the storm to remind us why we live here and to give us hope.”

There were also numerous comments about the pier that others shared expressing their love, affection and emotional attachment to the pier. I realized it is more than just a pier, it is special memories that people hold dear such as memorial services, weddings, fireworks and young love.

Yes, we have been beat down by Hurricane Florence, and for a while, our emotions will continue flow like the tides, with highs and lows.

I will continue to return to the pier when the full moon rises, sit out over the ocean, breathe in the salt air and feel the pulse of the ocean roll through its pilings. I will watch the pelicans glide over the glassy waves and feel the power and beauty of the coast and know that our love for it will never be stolen by a hurricane.

RALEIGH – Coastal property owners who need to replace docks, piers, bulkheads or similar structures damaged by Hurricane Florence along sounds, rivers and creeks may be authorized to do so more quickly through an emergency general permit offered by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management.

The division has also set up a temporary office in Wilmington where property owners who suffered damage from the storm can call or visit for permitting assistance. The temporary office is in the Building Safety Department at the New Hanover County Government Center, 230 Government Center Drive, Suite 170, Wilmington. It will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.

Division of Coastal Management permitting staff can be reached through the New Hanover County Inspections Office at 910-798-7308 or through the following direct lines:

• Shaun Simpson at 910-798-7117
• Tanya Pietila at 910-798-7089

Coastal Management representatives will answer questions about Coastal Area Management Act permits for rebuilding docks, piers, houses and other structures. They also will answer questions about obtaining CAMA permits to rebuild dunes or use sandbags to protect houses from erosion.

“Our goal is to allow coastal residents and businesses to rebuild quickly from the devastating winds, storm surge and flooding caused by Hurricane Florence,” Michael Regan, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, said in a statement. “The emergency permit gives us a science-based, environmentally sound way to do this.”

The emergency permit expedites the approval process for rebuilding docks, piers, bulkheads and similar water dependent structures that meet state standards. The emergency permit may also be used for dune reconstruction and maintenance dredging of existing channels.

The normal $200 permit fee is waived for the emergency permit, and, in many cases, no site visit or adjacent property owner notification is required.

Regan activated the emergency permit Sept. 20. It can be used in all 20 coastal counties: Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hertford, Hyde, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Tyrell, and Washington. The permit does not eliminate the need to obtain any other required state, local or federal authorization.

Emergency permits must be obtained, and all work must be completed, by Sept. 20, 2019.

The emergency permit cannot be used for rebuilding houses and does not apply to the replacement of oceanfront structures.

Those who want to apply for the emergency general permit can help staff with the state Division of Coastal Management review your request as quickly as possible by following these guidelines:

• First, call the Division of Coastal Management office that covers your county.
• Provide your name, name of any authorized agent working on your behalf, your address, phone number and the project location. Include any detailed information that will be helpful, such as the state road number, the name of the water body and the name of the subdivision or development.
• You will be required to pick up your permit at a division office. If requested, bring with you a description of the extent of the repair, replacement, dune reconstruction or maintenance dredging you need to do, including dimensions and shoreline length. Pre- and post-storm pictures of the project are helpful.
• For projects involving dredging, please provide confirmation that the adjacent riparian property owners have been notified by certified mail of the proposed work. The notice should instruct neighbors to provide any comments about the proposed work to the Division of Coastal Management within 10 days of receiving the notice, and that a lack of response by them will be interpreted as no objection. Or, you can provide a signed statement of no objection from both adjacent riparian property owners. Forms are available online.
• If you have had any other CAMA permit issued for your property, inform the division staff. Those permits may contain information that will help staff with the Division of Coastal Management review your repair or replacement request.