N. C. Shoreline: Time for a Man-Made Rescue? : Storm Devastation Stirs Debate on Need for Efforts to Curb Future Damage

Betty Muller has mopped up after dozens of storms during the 23 years she and her husband have run the oceanfront ClayDon Motor Lodge, but she said the one that ripped through the Outer Banks last month may prompt her to pack it in.

The storm wiped out eight of the motel’s 24 units. One blue-and-white cottage floated out to sea and another was driven into the sand at a 45-degree angle.

What really hurt, she said, was that it also ruined the Mullers’ own apartment, forcing them to move into an unheated house across the beach road.

“I will be 60 years old,” Muller said, “and I can’t take too much of this.”

Damage Put at $4.6 Million

The storm that began March 7 did not have the quick brutality of a hurricane, but ceaselessly battered the shore for four days. By the time the rain, surging waves and 45-m.p.h. gusts subsided, at least $4.6-million worth of property was lost along the delicate beaches of Dare County, a popular tourist area that stretches from communities such as Duck in the north to the southern tip of Hatteras Island.

The storm also reshaped the beaches--Oregon Inlet, just north of Hatteras Island, lost 200 feet of width overnight--and rekindled debate over the extent to which man should intervene to protect the eroding shoreline.

It is likely to fuel debate over a proposal to ban new commercial construction on the Nags Head beachfront, and over the issue of reinforcing the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet, which has been filling in at the rate of 180 feet a year.

Suggests Using Tax Money

The March storm damage led one county commissioner to propose using $2.1 million from the 3% county occupancy tax for a new program of beach replenishment.

It also could bring a major test of North Carolina’s ban on sea walls. Unlike neighboring Virginia or South Carolina, North Carolina endorses the view of Duke University marine geologist Orrin H. Pilkey Jr., and others, that such structures ultimately harm the beach more than they protect it.

Pilkey, who inspected the Outer Banks after the most recent storm, acknowledged that bulkheads would have lessened the damage but said they temporarily protect a few property owners at an unacceptable cost to others.

“I’m extremely proud of the fact that we allowed those buildings to fall in,” he said in a telephone interview from his office in Durham. “It indicates that we’re saving our beaches for future generations.”

Pool Breaks Apart

That sort of argument does not wash with Bob Hagar, manager of the Mariner Motel in Kill Devil Hills, whose oceanfront swimming pool broke apart during one recent storm.

Insurance does not cover the pool, and Hagar said he also will spend $70,000 this year trucking in sand to replenish the motel’s beachfront.

Hagar wants to sink a barge offshore to form a protective barrier, although he concedes that could hurt his neighbors’ beaches. Failing that, he would like to pump in sand from the ocean floor, something he said hotels in Virginia are allowed to do.

Otherwise, he said: “All we’ve bought is just time.”

Some hoteliers think differently.

“There’s nothing here that happened that wasn’t expected,” said Jim Edwards, a self-described Pilkey disciple. “The only thing that was unexpected was that it happened sooner than anyone thought . . . . If you want to play the game, you take the risks.”

Edwards owns two motels across the road from the beach. “Before I die, I’m going to have oceanfront property,” he joked. It is a line often heard here.

Dozens Move Homes

Some property owners have tried to avoid it--to no avail. Along the Outer Banks, dozens of people have moved their houses back from the ocean to avoid flooding or worse. One home has been moved back 600 feet in the last 100 years, but because of erosion, it sits on the beach today.

Big dollars are at stake in whatever decisions are made. As in other communities along the nation’s coastlines, a development boom is on in Dare County. Condominiums are springing up along once-vacant beaches, and land prices are rising 30% a year.

“The only thing that’s going up faster is cocaine,” said Dare County tax assessor Donald Hux. “If Dare County prices go up at this rate, drug smugglers will stop smuggling drugs and start buying our property. It’s easier.”