Back to Normal ... Almost
Labor Day Weekend
September 6, 1999
Staff Report
UPDATE
HATTERAS AND OCRACOKE ISLANDS, NC

Reports today from Ocracoke Island indicate the flooding experienced earlier in the week from Dennis has now subsided and most businesses are simply awaiting the return of full ferry service in order to resume normal business activities. While the Swan Quarter ferry is running to Ocracoke, it is still restricting passage to residents and property owners. Cedar Island-Ocracoke ferry service is being delayed until water recedes on Cedar Island and Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry service is not expected to resume normal operations until highway 12 in Buxton is repaired.

Many Ocacoke Island businesses expect full island access to be restored by Thursday, September 9th and are encouraging visitors to join them for the weekend.

All northern beaches from Nags Head to Corolla in Currituck County are open and returning to normal.

Dare County Emergency Management released the following bulletin this morning:

-BULLETIN
Date: 9/6/99 8:57:16 AM
Bulletin Number 37

Hwy 12 on Hatteras Island is open to all traffic to Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon. Access between Avon and Buxton is still limited to residents and non resident property owners with four wheel drive only. The construction of the roadway between Avon and Buxton is progressing, and will be opened to all traffic as soon as construction is completed.
-End of Bulletin-

Hatteras Island real estate businesses are allowing visitors to resume rentals as far south as Avon today and believe that by Thursday the entire Island will become accessible as repairs to highway 12 are proceeding rapidly. Visitors are, however, encouraged to call and reconfirm their reservations.

Beaches Opened
Labor Day Weekend
September 5, 1999
Staff Report
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC

Beaches north of South Nags Head and up into Currituck County are open to all traffic. No reports have been received from Ocracoke Island in Hyde County as of this writing but it is expected that access will be reestablished once ferry service is restored. Visitors should contact NC DOT ferry service for further information at 1-800-by-ferry.

This morning Dare County Emergency Management released the following bulletin:

-BULLETIN
Date: 9/5/99 8:03:37 AM
Bulletin Number: 34

Effective immediately, residents and property owners in all vehicles will be allowed entry to Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon. Access between Avon and Buxton is limited to four wheel drive vehicles only. All roads and bridges north of Oregon Inlet are open at this time. Motorists should use caution along Highway 12 (Beach Road) as rainwater and debris remain in isolated areas. Highway 1243 (South Old Oregon Inlet Road) is open to all traffic beginning at 9:00 a.m. No traffic will be allowed to exit 1243 on the southern end. Ferry service is currently restricted for Dare County. Call 1-800-BY-FERRY for updated ferry information. Dare County Public Works will provide residential and commercial garbage collection for Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras on Monday.

The northern beaches including Colington, Kitty Hawk, Southern Shores and Duck will resume regular trash pick up on Monday. Please be patient as a heavy volume is anticipated.

NC Baptist Disaster Recovery volunteer teams are available to help with clean-up efforts. For assistance, call Richard Brunson at (919) 291-3656 or Gaylon Moss at (919) 810-1828. Persons interested in making donations to assist those in need from Hurricane Dennis should call the Donations Hotline at 888-786-7601. For those north of Oregon Inlet experiencing a power outage, call North Carolina Power to report any problems at 888-667-3000. All 911 services are operational throughout Dare County.
-End of Bulletin-

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.

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.

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.

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Feb 1, 1999
Staff Report

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