THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 25, 1994 TAG: 9411250098
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
Less than 24 hours after Hurricane Gordon turned his back on the Outer Banks, Hatteras Island travelers were on the road again.
Waves had flattened beachfront dunes, the Atlantic crashing across crumbling asphalt of the only highway on the island. Winds had swept six feet of sand onto the two twisting lanes. Storm surges had washed around the highway for miles.
But workers for the N.C. Department of Transportation had been down that road before.
By 5:30 p.m. Saturday, N.C. Route 12 was open from Kitty Hawk through Hatteras Village.
More than 75 state highway workers had cleared the way.
``When I first got down there, I was amazed at the amount of sand the ocean had deposited on that road, especially on the south side of the sandbags,'' said state Transportation Maintenance Engineer Neil Lassiter, who helped survey the pavement along Pea Island.
``Eight to 10 feet of sand had been removed in some short spaces. It was pretty mind-boggling to see,'' Lassiter said.
A couple miles north of Rodanthe, dunes were down for a almost two miles. One-third of a mile of dunes disappeared from Buxton. Between Frisco and Hatteras Village, more than 1,500 feet of dunes were gone.
With no dunes protecting the pavement, waves washed across the highway, depositing mountains of sand and corroding the pavement.
``We just threw a lot of men and equipment at the situation as soon as we were able to get down there,'' Lassiter said. ``It's getting easier for us because we're real experienced with storms by now. We just do our best.''
A narrow, meandering thoroughfare that traverses Cape Hatteras National Seashore, seven villages and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service refuge, N.C. Route 12 is a 70-mile-long lifeline for more than 7,000 Hatteras Island residents.
Route 12 is also the only route for fishermen, delivery trucks and vacationers - many of whom are visiting the southern Outer Banks beaches this Thanksgiving week.
But the highway is vulnerable.
Until last week, it had been protected by 6- to 10-foot dunes, some of which were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Now, the sea flows to the road shoulder - and sometimes, at high tide, across the other side.
``In at least two places, the ocean met the sea during that storm,'' Lassiter said from his Manteo office. ``It's been a real precarious situation for us ever since the Halloween Storm of '91 eroded that area. We hold our breath every time we get a Northeaster or a hurricane down here.''
From the air Saturday morning, it was unclear how transportation workers would ever reopen the road. Sand and debris were stacked shoulder high in many spots. Waist-deep puddles of saltwater stood in the street. Long stretches of concrete had deteriorated and fallen into three-foot-deep ditches. Highway workers were everywhere.
``The Outer Banks didn't get much property damage from Gordon. But that hurricane brought the most shoreline erosion I've ever seen,'' said Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr., a native of North Carolina's barrier islands. ``The dunes just went flat with the overwash.''
For almost a two-mile stretch on Pea Island, N.C. Route 12 was completely under water following the storm. Storm surges had swelled over a 10-foot sandbag wall. Other portions of the road hanged precariously over sink holes where the sand had washed away.
But highway workers came from all over the state to help. They toiled from dawn until dark, spent the nights at motels, left their families for days - then went to work again in the rain and gusting winds which were Gordon's wet wake.
``When we know there's a storm brewing, we put everybody on standby,'' Lassiter said. ``These are extremely dedicated people who are willing to come at any time, go any place, and be outside laboring for long hours. They must do it for something other than pay.
``Our Dare and Currituck offices actually mobilized on Friday,'' Lassiter said. ``But everyone else across the state also was ready to go.''
By Saturday morning, 22 dump trucks, 14 front-end loaders, seven bulldozers, four motor graders and an excavator were tire-deep in earth-moving activities. Some of the equipment was brought in from transportation offices across North Carolina. Some was rented especially for the storm.
Dump trucks carried 60 tons of crushed stone from Manteo to Pea Island, where street crews helped stack rocks beneath the eroded roadway. Concrete and asphalt trucks couldn't get through to repave. So drivers had to settle for getting by on temporary repairs.
``We had to just fill in the sides there for now. But we wanted to go ahead and get the road open,'' State DOT board member R.V. Owens III said. ``We'll come back and finish it off later.''
Ocracoke's portion of Route 12 was closed until Monday morning. About three miles of dunes had been destroyed on the island's north end. A new dune, which cost $25,000 last spring, was gone.
``It happens,'' said Lassiter, acknowledging the futility of trying to control nature. ``But what can you do? We're just building small dunes, trying to protect the road. I hope we'll be able to have a good portion of the dunes repaired by the end of next week.''
With bulldozers and front end loaders, highway crews are scooping sand off the road, onto the eastern shoulders. There, they attempt to re-create dunes. Sometimes, they have to import sand from other Outer Banks beaches.
``We don't want the frontal dunes lower than six feet. And some are as tall as 10 feet,'' Lassiter said. ``We try to match the existing dune line as closely as possible.
``Our plans are to relocate N.C. 12 on Pea Island - between the visitor center and maintenance facility. We want to let contracts for that project by March. We hope to move the existing road several hundred feet west.
``In the long run,'' Lassiter said, ``a causeway is a very good option for that area.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photo by DREW C. WILSON/
Traffic moves along N.C. Route 12 four miles north of Oregon Inlet
in a section that had been swamped during Hurricane Gordon.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON NORTH CAROLINA by CNB