"They can engineer that bridge so well that it can withstand a Category 3 or 4 hurricane," Dr. Young said in a telephone interview. "The barrier island it is connected to cannot."

A warning that highway maintenance on the increasingly vulnerable Outer Banks "will bankrupt the state."

More here.

Comments

[Brian]

With your head in the sand, it's hard to tell how much money is being thrown into the big hole next to you. When you start off with the premise that the road has to be preserved at all costs, then it is a lost cause. If you start of with the premise of preserving access to these towns and to the islands themselves, then different possibilities open up. We need to remind ourselves that small towns on islands from the Chesapeake down the Carolina Coast have disappeared or been abandoned at the hands of mother nature.

[Billy Jones]

The Indians didn't live on the outer banks when the white man came to this country. Why? Because the Indians weren't a bunch of dumb asses.

[polifrog]

"Increasingly"?

The Outer Banks have always been vulnerable. Nothing has increased about that.

[Hugh]

Fourth paragraph of the article suggests it's all in vain anyway.

[polifrog]

Unproven mythology, Hugh and Ed.

[prell]

Do you really drive a minivan, poli?

[Ishmael]

Global warming or no, beach erosion is not a myth. He who builds his house upon the sand.....

[Billy Jones]

prell asked, "Do you really drive a minivan, poli?"

Polifrog is still a tadfrog, he can't drive until he gets rid of his gills and grown lungs.

Ishmael, you're talking to an amphibian-- do you really expect his tiny brain to comprehend?

[polifrog]

With the onset of the depression I took to driving a Camry over my truck.

I have driven a Sienna to the Outer Banks on numerous occasions, however, I fail to see how a Sienna applies to the current discussion.

Ishmael, beach erosion is only part of the story. Accretion is the other half. For example, the northern tips of the islands erode while southern tips grow.

Stroll along the southern end of Figure Eight Island and you will be in for a long walk, a walk that over the years a decades prior was much shorter. By contrast, just across the channel erosion threatens Wrightsville Beach condos between replenishments and hardening. At times the channel is unnaturally thin as a result.

Inhabiting the Outer Banks is by nature a chore in vigilant reconstruction as the earth rearranges itself beneath rigid structures. Sometimes that will mean no reconstruction when the sea has taken land, but it is never a loosing proposition.

Heck, according to Keynes a broke state is a healthy state in the offing.

[grammernazi]

mr. frog, ed already lulz'd you for "loosing" a winnable battle to be smarter than a 5th grader.

please don't loose your commenting privileges.

[polifrog]

Thanks for the heads up on "loosing". I am dependent on an imperfect spell checker.

Would you prefer discussing spell checkers or tell me how I am wrong.

[grammernazi]

both.

[David Hoggard]

Loosely defined, what is "lulz"?

[Stephen]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet

It's not a word many folks over 40 would use....

[Billy Jones]

Tadpole wrote: "Inhabiting the Outer Banks is by nature a chore in vigilant reconstruction as the earth rearranges itself beneath rigid structures. Sometimes that will mean no reconstruction when the sea has taken land, but it is never a loosing proposition."

So why should the rest of us be forced to subsidize the few who own property on the outer banks? So you can vacation anywhere you like? Seems as if you're only conservative when it suits you.

[Stephen]

After further consideration, grammernazi's prior use of lulz'd isn't really 'grammatically' correct. pwn3d would be more appropriate...

GrammErnazi pointing out bad grammAr is t3h lulz....

[Billy Jones]

Leet was designed by people who are too lazy to learn English as was Ebonics.

[polifrog]

Good point, Billy. But I accept roads/highways as not only a national need, but one that is equally available to all.

Currently the use of roads is not means tested in the way our more socially divisive social programs are.

Ceasing the maintenance of roads based on the wealth of property owners would only add to social divisiveness created by our social programs.

I would include our national parks in the same category as our road network.

[Ed Cone]

Nobody is arguing against public roadways.

It's the rational location of taxpayer-funded roads, and possible alternatives to them, that are under discussion.

[Ishmael]

This discussion goes way beyond "look at those foolish people building a house on that little bit of waterlogged land". Poli makes a good point as he posits that public policy affects public behavior. Just as "social programs" may lead to people taking advantage of them in perpetuity, so does public policy in regards to land use and how the government has become the enabler of poor land use by propping up beach communities via road building and beach nourishment.
Expenditures both social and business oriented have their costs to the taxpayers. However, I would give the political edge to the beach communities because their form of welfare is seen as enhancing an economic model of tourism. But as with all "social programs" we have to remember that there is a time to realize that what we are doing is not helping the general populace, but rather protecting the bottom line of investors/individuals who may have made poor decisions.
If we are wise, the future will hold more National Seashores and fewer blockbuster homes/hotels at the water's edge.

[michele]

"...people who are too lazy to learn English as was Ebonics."

Untrue. Educate yourself. Here, here, and here, among others.

[michele]

"Leet was designed by people who are too lazy to learn English..."

Laughably untrue. So, maybe you were kidding about Ebonics? Sorry, I'm slow. ;)

[Billy Jones]

Historically, Ebonics is a Creole language. Ebonics as spoken today has little in common with Creole and didn't come into use until the 1970s.

Leet was used in computer programming circles and is based on misspellings on the part of people who were apparently gifted in the use of 1s and 0s but lacking in English.

Perhaps lazy was the wrong adverb but both groups chose not to learn the language the rest of us used.

And lulz means laughs, not loose.

[Billy Jones]

Polifrog, some highways are a national need. But the highway running the length of the Outer Banks serves no national need-- ferries would be a better option and houses built on the sand should be allowed to fall before being bailed out by an already overburdened tax base.

[polifrog]

After further consideration, grammernazi's prior use of lulz'd isn't really 'grammatically' correct. pwn3d would be more appropriate...

How are either correct or even possible?

Ed has a policy of ignoring me which precludes those events.

[grammArnazi]

@Stephen

Thanks for ruining the game. NO INTERNET SLANG FOR YOU!

[justcorbly]

The mistake was made when we didn't make a park out of the entire strip and allowed people to build homes on the edge of sand bars THAT MOVE! Sorry to shout, but, geez, come on.

I think it is ponderously stupid to build a house on the ocean-facing beach of any of the Banks. And completely arrogant to expect other people to spend their money to help you fight a losing battle to keep the Atlantic Ocean away from your little seaside pleasure.

[polifrog]

Agreed, justcorbly, to a point.

If an individual wishes to build and shoulder the consequences they should be allowed to do so.

Just to be clear I am entirely opposed to replenishment as well as hardening (roads not included).

[justcorbly]

Frog, I was on the Banks a few times when I was a kid, before they became a long skinny ugly housing development. I liked that. I don't like what they've become. Their only saving grace is that they aren't as ugly and tacky as the strip south of Wilmington.

We should be ashamed of we've done to the coastline of this state. I'm not lamenting the right to build something. I'm lamenting the lack of sense and good taste that's behind building something like that.