A recent symposium on the North Carolina coast brought together scientists, environmental groups, and others to brainstorm solutions for coastal erosion amid sea level rise and climate change. A stunning event on the meeting’s second day emphasized the need for collaboration among those experts.
The Coastal Resiliency Research Symposium included coastal protected area practitioners and research teams from across the state’s universities to talk about ways to improve North Carolina’s coastal resiliency while also protecting the state’s coastal communities and their economies.
Tyler Sammis is the executive director of the Park Institute of America.
"These are oftentimes tourist economies,” he explained, “So, there is certainly a social and economic aspect. How do we ensure that coastal resiliency isn't going to adversely impact economic development initiatives along these communities?”
Sammis said the Outer Banks and the Crystal Coast are among the U.S. coastal areas most at danger from the changing climate. "With Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National seashores, you have two National Park Service units that are like the most exposed to the impacts of combined sea level rise and shoreline erosion simply because of the geography and the orientation of the stretch of North Carolina coast,” he said.
On day two of the meeting, which included discussions about at-risk structures along the Carolina coast, Sammis said they were all stunned to learn that more homes in Rodanthe collapsed into the Atlantic – and not on a stormy day.
Related content: A third house has collapsed in Rodanthe, beaches are closed from Rodanthe to Waves
"It was not a particular storm cell that caused them,” Sammis said, “This was a king tide, and even four days after a king tide that the most recent home collapsed. So, this is no longer storm related -- this is a shoreline erosion issue, not strictly a storm issue.”
Five homes have collapsed this year, and a total of ten have fallen into the ocean in the last four years. Sammis said more has to be done to address the remaining homes that are vulnerable before they fall.
"We need to be approaching solutions policy solutions,” he said. “I don't want to say engineering solutions because it is my opinion that this isn't something that can be engineered our way out of.”
One sticking point -- homeowners have to wait until their property falls into the ocean before they can use the National Flood Insurance Program.
Related content: NPS has picked up 24 pickup truckloads of debris since two homes collapsed in OBX Sunday
U.S. Congressman Greg Murphy, an eastern North Carolina Republican, has introduced the Prevent Environmental Hazards Act, after touring the site of a house collapse a couple of years ago with the state’s Nation Park Service director.
"I asked him, ‘Why do people not take these down?’” Murphy said, “Well, they oftentimes won't spend the resources ahead of time to tear the house down, and they wait until they fall. You can't get flood insurance money until it falls into the ocean. Well, that's an absolutely backwards way of thinking. We need to prevent the environmental disaster before it occurs.”
The bill would allow those homeowners that are insured by the NFIP to tear down or move the house before the Atlantic tears it apart. And Murphy said while preventing harm to the environment is the most important goal, there are other risks it would prevent.
"Not only it affects people on the beach. If you have (an) 8 by 8 foot or 8 by 8 inch timber floating out in the ocean and run over with a boat, you lose a propeller, you become stranded. You get hit by these things. It's a real, not only environmental disaster, but it's a threat to threat to human life or to limb,” he said.
Specifically, the Prevent Environmental Hazards Act Authorizes NFIP payouts for buildings condemned due to chronic erosion or unusual flooding. If the owner of an at-risk home demolishes or moves the house, they would be eligible for up to 40% of the home's value or $250,000. The bill also limits payouts to 40% if owners neglect to act before a collapse.
Sammis echoed Murphy’s sentiments; he said the collapses cause a lot of environmental harm, impact tourism as well as local beach visitors, and can be dangerous to the health of people in the area, and the proposed legislation would allow for controlled demolition of the houses at risk.
"Which prevents the debris field, which (Cape Hatteras National Seashore) Superintendent (Dave) Hallac has noted, for an uncontrolled demolition for a home collapse there can be between a 20-mile and a 40-mile debris field along the seashore, which is bad for so many reasons,” Sammis said.
He added that it’s more than just swimmers dodging floating lumber and strings of wiring, or seashell collectors trying to avoid stepping on wood studded with nails that creates a risk for people that want to enjoy the beach.
"All of these homes are on septic systems,” Sammis said, “You have exposed untreated sewage flowing out of septic cisterns into the water, and so now you have effluent contamination as well.”
The symposium also included discussions focused on the sometimes-inevitable loss of historic buildings and sites within the state’s National Seashores and that’s a discussion that Sammis said was both informational and emotional.
"When we decide for adaptive release of the site and that we ... cannot put any more money into it and it is going to ultimately succumb to the ocean, how do you memorialize it? What is the process that you document that?” He said, “It was touching.”
Previous coverage: Beacon of Hope: Iconic lighthouse will soon see repairs, new nonprofit also raising funds
While it was the first time the group gathered to discuss coastal resiliency, Sammis said it won’t be the last. They’re already working on a plan to gather again next year.
