Tidal troubles
New moon tide, storms to blame
A convergence of storm, wind and tides took a heavy toll in Cape Hatteras last week, burying N.C. 12 in up to 6 feet of sand in some spots. Here, Ji Williams, of Jarvis Towing Company, assists a driver north of Rodanthe.
RODANTHE, N.C. — A rare triple threat from nature flooded Outer Banks villages and closed N.C. 12 for three days, burying the busy highway under 6 feet of sand in certain spots.
The worst began Sept. 20 when the ocean crashed through dunes along much of Hatteras Island as Hurricane Teddy churned hundreds of miles offshore. The hurricane generated waves that measured 18 feet at a buoy off the coast.
At the same time, a northeast wind blew up to 40 mph while higher-thannormal tides added even more depth to the flooding. Unusually high tides occur several times a year during full or new moons.
Getting all three striking at once is rare, said Morgan Simms, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Morehead City, North Carolina. He could not remember the last time that happened. Historic weather patterns that showed all three of the conditions striking at once were not readily available.
Typically, nor’easters pass through during cooler months and hurricanes form in warmer months.
“To have a nor’easter along with a hurricane in the same week is like a perfect storm,” said Mike Mogil, a certified consulting meteorologist based in Flor
ida.
The flooding that resulted left up to 6 feet of sand on the pavement. The worst spots were at the usual locations — just north of Rodanthe and the north end of Ocracoke.
Crews will repair minor damage to the pavement edges in Ocracoke and rebuild the dunes there.
Between high tides, highway crews with 30 earthmoving vehicles shoved sand off the pavement and back into dunes along the roadside. Every half day, the high tides and waves breached the new dunes again and deposited sand on the road.
It seems like pointless work, but without repeated sand removal, it would have kept accumulating, said Tim Hass, spokesman for the
North Carolina Department of Transportation.
“They kept pushing it back where it belonged,” he said.
Adding to the troubles, four-wheel drive vehicles and sedans ignored barricades and bogged down in the sand and water.
“They end up being a statistic,” said DannyCouch, a native of Hatteras Island, realtor and Dare County commissioner. “They were almost part of the Graveyard of the Atlantic, except with wheels.”
If even one of the three conditions — the hurricane, the nor’easter or the abnormally high tides — was absent, the road may have stayed open, he said.
Ocean View Drive in Avon is still undergoing cleanup, Couch said. The last time he remembered a similar mixof conditions was eight years ago when Hurricane Sandy passed the Outer Banks. The massive storm merged with a cold air mass before landing in New Jersey.
Sandy traveled far off the Outer Banks, but, like Teddy, it generated large swells and the ocean crashed through dunes and buckled the N.C. 12 pavement north of Rodanthe.
Last week’s surge did not undermine the roadway, Hass said. The highway’s pavement on Hatteras Island ranges from six inches to 18 inches thick from repeated repairs, he said. The base underneath is sand.