Posted on June 23, 2021
MOREHEAD CITY, Carteret County — For the second year in a row, the NOAA is predicting an above-average active hurricane season.
The Crystal Coast just finished the nearly three-year $85 million beach restoration project from hurricane Florence in 2018, but now has its focus on the shore impacts for the year ahead.
Although Claudette didn’t cause any major damage to the shore – we are not even a month into hurricane season so people are holding their breath as each named storm is formed in the Atlantic.
A walk along the shoreline can show the difference on the beaches after the nourishment projects.
“They worked on the nourishment of the new sand for approximately two years, and one hurricane can come through in 30 minutes time and wipe out all the work they’ve done, “ said Arthur Stewart.
“It was devastating.”
And while the beaches look better now, Carteret County Shore Protection Manager Greg Rudolph worries a storm could come in and wreak havoc on the shoreline like Florence did.
“Florence took away about three and a half million cubic yards, our job was to replace what Florence took away and also provide some extra protection,” said Rudolph.
Rudolph says for a storm to cause major damage to the beach strand and require nourishment, the coast needs to be on the east side of the storm
“With the hurricanes the way we look at it, is are we on the east side or west side, what’s the intensity and then what’s the duration?”
“I hope we reached our quota with Claudette but I don’t think we are going to be that lucky.”
For Stewart, he hopes the Atlantic is kind to the coast this summer for the sake of the shoreline.
“I don’t want to see it, It can really wipe out things,“ said Stewart.
The project which covered about 25 miles of coast took three years to complete.
If the shore does need another re-nourishment project, nourishment is only done from November to April.
