Ocracoke Island
Damage Light
September 2, 1999
Staff Report
REPORT
OCRACOKE ISLAND, NC

Dennis' first pass over Ocracoke Island has resulted in some flooding and minor wind damage. Telephone reports received this afternoon from Ocracoke Island residents indicated that three foot water levels in the Village of Ocracoke have now begun to recede and that wind damage has been relatively light with a number of trees toppled and shingles blown from roof tops.

Emergency work crews were able to reach the Island via Swan Quarter and Cedar Island ferry service although it was not known when general ferry service will be restored for the general public. No one is quite sure when full access to the Island will be restored because of the problems over on Hatteras (may not be able to reach Ocracoke via Hatteras Island until the breach in highway 12 near Buxton is repaired).

State DOT work crews have already begun to remove sand and overwash debris from highway 12 and local streets throughout Ocracoke. For the most part, power has been restored and telephone service is irratic.

Donna Boar at Sharon Miller Realty indicated that Ocracoke businesses are open, drying out and looking forward to having visitors return in the near future.

Lighthouse Conditions
Thursday,
September 2, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

The breach of Highway 12 is significant south of Avon towards the village of Buxton. The narrow neck of land just north of Buxton has over washed and has cut accessibility for now. State DOT workers have already been at work getting sand off the road in places and negotiating the channel of water holding back restoration of normal conditions.

International Chimney Corp, Inc. project manager, Joe Jakubik, states the lighthouse is in excellent shape. Other than the anchorage for the weather station being bent over and a missing windowpane, the National Historic Landmark is acting every bit the part of a strong soldier. Even the scaffolding at the upper level is still intact. The lighthouse foundation is sitting in its natural element: about three feet of water. The water actually helps the brick mortar to cure and strengthen to some degree. After the site is dewatered, final bricking will be completed. When dewatering is no longer needed, earth will cover the foundation and the natural water table will restore itself to about four-five feet, putting the foundation back in water for preservation.

Storm surf has breached the dune near the old site and is washing within only feet of it. The plinth stones, placed in a circle around the original site, are in place at this writing. The Keepers Quarters are on higher ground at the relocation site, and very little water is pooled in that part of the light station. Their foundations are strong and keeping them safe.

"We had a couple of our work trailers blown off their bases, but that's just an inconvenience, no big deal," says Skellie Hunt, site manager for the relocation process for ICC, and who is now on Hatteras Island. "And the lighthouse and Keepers Quarters are in great shape." Skellie was enjoying a chicken stew, an "MRE," (meal ready to eat) that had been brought compliments of the National Guard. "The only thing is," he chuckles, "there are about three pages of instructions on how to eat it!"

It is reported that several NC DOT loaders are continuing an attempt to keep sand off Highway 12 while 40-50 knot winds push across the barrier islands. The delay in getting stone to the broken road area is lengthened because of persistent waves and winds driven by the tropical storm, still lingering off the northern Carolina coast. Reports from Rodanthe state the dune line has been severely damaged with extensive over wash. The National Guard is bringing in MREs to as many stranded residents and visitors as possible. The National Park Service also has staff on Hatteras Island to help in any way possible.

Dennis Returns - Wednesday
September 1, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

Conditions on Hatteras Island and other Outer Banks areas are being further reported by local news reporters in the Nags Head area.

The National Guard pushed a convoy through to Hatteras Island. They carried food to residents and fuel oil for a power generator on the island. At this writing, many phone lines are down and reaching residents for comment is difficult. Those requiring special medical attention are receiving assistance.

It is reported that a one-half-to-three-quarter-mile stretch of Highway 12 has been washed out and cars are stalled and/or submerged under water from surf that has been breaching the dune lines. This particular place along Highway 12, north of Buxton, has long been a vulnerable spot due to the narrow strip of land between sea and sound upon which this road crosses.

First, it is reported that National Guard personnel have successfully reached villages north of Buxton, but due to a channel cut by the storm surge just north of the village of Buxton, they have not negotiated the gap to reach the village.

There are widespread power outages along these affected areas. On the bright side, Hurricane Dennis has been downgraded to a tropical storm and for the present, has stopped its backtracking southward towards Kitty Hawk. Kitty Hawk announced a mandatory evacuation Tuesday afternoon, along with the Beach Road (Highway 12) area of Nags Head. Fortunately, it is reported that the rain has become lighter and that the winds are lessening. But everyone continues to keep an eye on this unpredictable storm.

This evening, a supply boat is arriving at Hatteras Island with dry meals, batteries, and other emergency supplies. International Chimney Corp, Inc., personnel will arrive by boat tonight and will give us an assessment of the construction site area on Thursday. "The lighthouse is doing just fine. It is stronger than ever," Joe Jakubik stated in a phone conversation today.

The damaged road to Buxton probably won't be reopened in time for the re-lighting ceremony (officially cancelled) in order to accommodate heavy traffic; however, plans continue to re-light the Cape Hatteras Light since a "Notice to Mariners" has been issued by the U.S. Coast Guard. The agenda that was planned for the re-lighting ceremony will become an integral part of the light station rededication event next spring. The date for this ceremony will be announced by the National Park Service, and the lighthouse is planned to reopen to the public by Memorial Day 2000.

After The Storm - Tuesday
Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

Reports are beginning to come from Hatteras Island and areas north along the coast.

Highway 12 is over washed and impassable from Nags Head to Rodanthe and again from Avon to Buxton. The National Guard is reported to be present on Hatteras Island. ICC personnel who live on the island continue to communicate on conditions including the status of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

One worker lost his truck to storm surge Monday while going to check on the lighthouse and the construction site; fortunately he walked away and got a ride back safely to his home.

The lighthouse is standing tall! The only damage reported is from winds that knocked out the weather station at the top of the tower, and a glass pane around the sixth level is missing. As predicted, sand has washed in and around the new foundation, the result of heavy rain and persistent winds. Wind gusts have been lessening Tuesday, but the rain continues. One of four weather modules show the possibility of Hurricane Dennis coming back in over the Chesapeake and/or Cape Hatteras areas.

A resident on Hatteras island tells us in a phone conversation that water is standing from the heavy rains. Due to power outages in many areas of the island, little communication by television and radio has been possible. Phones provide connection among residents. Wind and rain continue in the area.

After workers are able to get back to the construction area, approximately two days are needed to restore the work site at the light station. De watering will continue and final brickwork and foundation details will then resume.

The following report dated August 31 is given by National Park Service Ranger Bob Woody:

-Quote-
"A quick assessment of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and its construction area reveal that 90% of the site is under 1 or 2 feet of fresh water and seawater including the foundation hole where the brick work was being completed. The Construction Zone fencing was blown or washed away. The weather monitoring station at the top of the lighthouse was destroyed by wind. But the lighthouse has survived in good order; pumping of the water will begin/continue until the foundation hole is again dry and ready to complete the "bricking". The relighting ceremony scheduled for 7PM on Saturday, September 4, 1999 is still planned as long as people can get to the site. There appears to be road damage just north of Buxton; a complete assessment by county, state and National Park Service people will be made today of the extent of the road damage. The light will be relit at 8PM on Saturday, September 4th regardless."
-End quote-

As of noon today, hurricane Dennis has stalled about 125 miles off the Hatteras coast due to a Canadian high pressure front, and is sending Northeast gale-force winds along the coast. The Outer Banks Sentinel newspaper reports power outage in Nags Head, and reporters are putting the next issue to bed from a relocated office at the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills.

For weather conditions from Hatteras to Duck, look at http://www.outer-banks.com/weather.asp You can personally check the present and predicted weather conditions for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Relighting Ceremony Cancelled
September 2, 1999
National Park Service
NEWS RELEASE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
OUTER BANKS GROUP

For Immediate Release
Robert E. Woody
(252) 473-2111 x122

Hurricane Dennis Scraps Ceremony for Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Relighting The Saturday, September 4th, relighting ceremony planned for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been canceled due to the impacts of Hurricane Dennis on Hatteras Island. As a result of damage from ocean overwash, North Carolina Rt. 12 has been closed to all traffic south of the Bonner Bridge at Oregon Inlet.

Approximately a ¸ mile section of NC 12 has been washed out north of Buxton, making the area temporarily inaccessible. The North Carolina Department of Transportation does not expect NC 12 to be reopened in time for the scheduled ceremony. The relighting will be rescheduled when the Island is safe for automobile travel, the villages have recovered for the hosting of visitors and tourists, and the people of Hatteras Island are ready to participate in the relighting celebration.

Hurricane Dennis, while causing a great deal of damage on Hatteras Island, had little effect on the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The lighthouse faired very well during the storm, sustaining only superficial damage. A temporary weather station at the top of the light was destroyed after recording a top wind gust of 128 mph. The only other damage was a sixth level window that was blown out during the height of the storm. The foundation was flooded by ocean overwash and heavy rainfall and is currently being pumped dry. The flooding will delay the brick foundation work for a day or so. The project work will begin again as soon as employees can access the Buxton, NC area.

Traveler's Guide to Buxton
August 31, 1999
John Mancini
ARTICLE
BUXTON, NC

About the Author: John Mancini is President of the Association for Information and Image Management, a Silver Spring, Maryland trade association focused on the imaging and document management industries. John and his wife Mary Glenn began going to Buxton 18 years ago when they couldn't figure out where to go on their first married vacation and have returned every summer ever since - now with three children of their own and grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins in tow.

Every summer, we go to Buxton, and we've been doing so for almost 20 years. No matter what.

To be honest, we don't really go for the excitement. We could probably win a "Most Boring Visitor" contest each year if one were held.

We do pretty much do the same things every year. We rent a house in Buxton. We go to breakfast at the Orange Blossom. We go to the beach for three and a half hours in the morning to try and work off the Apple Uglies. We break for lunch, which is almost always grilled cheese sandwiches, broiled in the oven with a sliced tomato on the top. We go back to the beach for another session in the afternoon. Then off to dinner, usually to Billy's. After dinner, down to Frisco for a snowball - it's got to be Hatteras style - and then back to the house and to bed.

Oh yes, one more thing. About mid-week each year, we all go for a walk down the beach -- to the lighthouse. It started out with just my wife and me. The number of participants in the trek has gradually expanded over the years with kids and cousins and grandparents to a small gang.

During the years when lighthouse is open, we climb to the top. Of course, this is only after swearing testimonials to the Park Service volunteer on duty. "Yes, I solemnly swear that this 5 year old can, in fact, climb to the top under their own power." We go over to the museum, and go through the exhibits. I tell my kids stories about how my father - whom two of them never got a chance to meet -- served on a four-stack destroyer off the North Carolina coast during World War II, watching for German submarines.

Day after day. Year after year. And now, decade after decade. I guess you could say that no matter how much I change from year to year - no matter how much older or fatter or grayer I get - it seems that Buxton doesn't change. And that's fine with me.

Until this year, that is.

For the first few days this year, I simply couldn't get over the fact that the lighthouse wasn't there anymore. Not only had it been moved. And not only was the light temporarily off. But most startling, you couldn't even see it from the beach.

It was kind of like the reverse of all the fancy computer enhancements they now do so routinely. You know the ones, where they insert some new person or object into a picture like they did in "Forrest Gump." You see an old film clip of some event from the sixties, and all of a suddenly, there's Tom Hanks, magically inserted into the background. It looks so real that you almost come to believe it, but in the back of your mind you know that something is not quite right.

Sitting on the beach the first few days this year, I got the feeling that someone had just airbrushed the lighthouse - my lighthouse -- out. Things just didn't feel right. I got a gnawing feeling of imbalance, and spent the first few days just plain mad at the whole situation.

On the last day of vacation, I had a catch with my almost 15 year old, something that we have done hundreds of times. Between throws, I looked up somewhat surreptitiously, expecting the lighthouse to magically reappear in its familiar place at the last moment before we left. Kind of a Governor's Reprieve, phoned in at the last second. But it didn't.

And then it struck me that this picture as well - the two of us having a catch - a picture which at one time seemed like it would go on forever - will be changing as well.

My mind drifted back to another time on the beach, when he was about seven. He is the pitcher and I'm the catcher.

"OK, Dad. Now here are the signs. Use one finger for a fastball, two for a slider, three for a knuckleball, four for a curve, five for a change, and six for a knuckle-curve."

He gets mad if I don't keep them all straight. He peers in for the sign, nods his head very seriously like those guys on television, and then proceeds to throw the same straight, looping pitch in time after time after time. Each time, he asks how much the pitch moves. Each time, I lie with a straight face.

Now, seemingly in a blink of the eye, he throws harder than I do. This year, he threw one pitch so hard I thought he had broken a bone in my hand. I find myself throwing what I think are a variety of impressive pitches, all looking remarkably alike, while he can now throw a pretty good knuckleball and a reasonable curve. I try to stretch this time out, long after we would normally return to the beach house. I wonder how many more times we will do this, conscious of the fact in another blink he will be gone and off to college. Or worse, simply "too old" to be interested in having a catch on the beach with his father.

When we get back to the beach house, after I take my outdoor shower - another tradition, absolutely no indoor showers during the entire time at the beach - I look around at the house and my wife and my kids. I try to freeze this snapshot in memory, painfully conscious of exactly how precious this place and these people are to me. But also aware that if something as fixed and immovable as a lighthouse can change, this picture is even more fragile and fleeting.

And in a curious way, perhaps the "old" lighthouse - the unchangeable one I could always see from the beach, in the same place, year after year - has imparted one last gift. A reminder that things do in fact change, however much I might like to deny it.

But it sure felt a lot more comfortable the old way.

Schedule of Events
UPDATE
September 1, 1999
Cheryl Roberts

The new lighthouse site is an area of 3.1 acres surrounded by natural growth. The light of the lighthouse will gain an advantage at a new height to put the beacon out across Diamond Shoals. A Notice to Mariners for light-out was issued for March 1st.

May until early June: installation of the main beams with hydraulic jacks that lifted the tower. The next step was to install the roll beams upon which the tower will move.

Eary June the slide began. It can take up to six weeks, moving about 50-100 feet per day. This is now predicted to last until early-July.

Early July until early September the tower will arrive at the new foundation, be lowered onto the concrete pad, all steel removed, and concrete infill to complete its new foundation will be done.

Phase 2 will begin and work on details including parking, utilities and such begins.

The relighting ceremony scheduled for September 4th at 7:00 pm has been cancelled. The agenda that was planned for this ceremony will become an integral part of the light station rededication event next spring. Plans continue to relight "the light" on or before September 4th since a "Notice to Mariners" has been issued by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Memorial Day 2000 reopening is planned. Nothing specific has been announced, but a ceremony will likely be in order.

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Feb 1, 1999
Staff Report

The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society will update the progress of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse move throughout the Spring ... sign up to receive e-mail updates.