Hatteras Divided

Divided Islands: The Outer Banks After Isabel

A Conversation with Mike Orbach of the the Duke University Marine Lab.

By Chris Dixon

Ever since hurricane Isabel slammed North Carolina's Outer Banks on September 19^th, the Cape Hatteras area has had to more than struggle to pick up the pieces. In fact, it's had to struggle to put its islands back together. Nowhere is this more evident than at the new 2000 foot-wide, 25 foot deep inlet that now divides Hatteras Village from its neighbors.

Depending on who you talk to, the new cut is a "breach" that should be filled immediately or a completely natural new inlet that's going to come back during the next big storm, and so, should just be left alone.

Regardless of your point of view, times and sands are rapidly shifting on the Outer Banks. To find out more, we spoke with Mike Orbach, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina. Orbach is hugely familiar with the areas sand, currents, fisheries and development issues. He spoke at length about the future of these narrow strips of sand, and you may find some of his conclusions alarming. Where will the North Carolina coast be in 25 years? Read on -- and think long and hard before you invest in beachfront, or soundside property.

Chris Dixon: Mike, have you been out to the Outer Banks since Isabel hit?

Mike Orbach: I've been out to some of the southern Outer Banks, I have not been up to Hatteras. I have several students and colleagues who have and I have seen some fairly detailed overflight photos of right after the storm and the weeks after that.

CD: What did those pictures tell you?

MO: Well basically that what happened during the storm is the natural phenomenon that happens on the Outer Banks: That there was a new inlet cut in a place that had been cut through previously. That there was an overwash site-- several overwash sites actually, but one fairly major one close to this new inlet to the south. And that's the natural process of the Outer Banks. In fact, most of the dunes along Hatteras Island and up to Oregon Inlet are not natural dunes -- they were actually pushed up there in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps to presage economic development.

CD: Isn't it true that they also even planted grass in places there hadn't been any previously to try and stabilize things even further?

MO: Absolutely. In a sense Hatteras Island is a fairly altered Outer Bank -- fairly altered by humans. Now that's not true of the Core Banks or Shackelford to the south or even Ocracoke. So clearly what happened during this storm is what happens during natural processes of barrier island migration and overwash.

CD: Now on these overwash sites -- to clarify -- you actually had sites where the ocean washed through from one side of the island to the other but it just didn't remain an open cut like the one on Hatteras Island?

MO: Yeah, absolutely. There were probably a couple dozen of those up and down the Outer Banks. Now again, that's a natural phenomenon out there.

CD: The larger inlet -- where is that exactly?

MO: Just north of Hatteras Village. You remember where the Hatteras Community Center is? It's right there.

CD: And it hasn't been filled in?

MO: No, It has not. Last time I heard a measurement a week and a half ago, it was 1700 feet wide and 25 feet deep. So it's a serious inlet. Now what's interesting about it is that the state ceased calling it an inlet and began calling it a 'breach'. So that there wouldn't be the impression that it's a natural feature that now we're altering, but rather an unnatural feature that we have to fix. Which of course, is exactly backwards.

Editor's Note: As of Oct 24, the fill-in project had begun and is expected to be completed in mid-November. Below is a photo of the dredging work from www.hamptonroads.com.

CD: You would assert that this is a natural feature -- just one that hasn't opened up in awhile?

MO: Well, if you look at the natural history of the Outer Banks, inlets have opened and closed with some frequency -- depending on the geomorphology and the wave climate and sea-level rise. There are interesting phenomenon that people don't understand out there. For example -- most inlets that break through the Outer Banks actually break through the sound side. What happens is that water will overwash from the ocean into the sound thereby filling up the sound -- it gets blown to the western side, and then the combination of that water essentially sloshing back and rainwater runoff from inland will actually breach the bank from the sound. Now that does not appear to be what happened in this case, but the larger point is that inlets close and open along the Outer Banks as a natural feature. There are few really constant inlets in the banks -- especially as you get north of Beaufort Inlet.

CD: Some surfers were upset about this, but before this hurricane hit, there was talk of extending the Oregon Inlet bridge so you didn't have all the overwash along Highway 12. Diverting the highway actually made some sense to me, but there's really good surf along that stretch and some were afraid that they wouldn't be able to get to the waves.

MO: The proposal was actually not to extend the bridge, but to take it out and replace it with a causeway similar to seven-mile bridge down in the Florida Keys. It would go from Manteo behind the Outer Banks all the way down to about Rodanthe. This is on the drawing boards -- to really eliminate the bridge and move Highway 12 down.

But you know, the other major option that a lot people bring up, and this is actually my personal favorite as well, is actually going back to the old ferry system. Where you ferry people from somewhere on the north side of Oregon Inlet -- it could be Manteo -- down to Hatteras Island.

CD: I would imagine a lot of people on Hatteras Island would be raising hell about that possibility because they like the convenience of being able to jaunt back and forth so easily.

MO: Well, it depends on how you set that system up. If in fact, you reconstructed our approach to living on the Outer Banks, such that we were going to truly move with the island and follow what our Coastal Resources Commission has established as a retreat policy as opposed to shoreline armoring, then in fact you'd not want to try to keep that bridge at Oregon Inlet at a place it doesn't want to stay. The immediate impacts of that would probably be to reduce the tourist flow volume to Hatteras Island, and many of the economic interests on Hatteras Island would not be in favor of reducing the total flow of people.

There would be some positive impacts too though. You would assume that property values might rise because it would become more exclusive. The economy would change and in some cases the particular businesses to get the tourist dollars might change.

CD: It seems like it might also just change the character of Hatteras Island to make it more like Ocracoke.