Our Fourth of July week provided more excitement than we were expecting. Last week started off with news of Hurricane Arthur’s potential arrival. It was a surprise to everyone that we were going to be experiencing a Hurricane so early in the season, on the 4th of July no less! Wednesday evening brought us a mandatory evacuation and Thursday morning greeted us with lots of hurricane preparation. Awful Arthur, as we like to call him, began to show up around 8 p.m. Thursday evening and continued throughout the night with heavy rain and winds. The strongest gust was clocked at 100 miles per hour. By morning we were blessed and thankful to see that most of the damage left by Arthur was minimal. There were downed trees, scattered tree limbs and some roof, window and siding damage.
Unfortunately, our brothers and sisters in the tri-villages (Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo) saw much more sound side flooding than the rest of the Island. Homes in low-lying areas and ones that were below Base Flood Elevation experienced some flooding. Highway 12 was spared with only one small buckle in the road north of the temporary bridge on Pea Island. Cape Hatteras Electric Co-Op and NCDOT had the Island back up and running by 4 p.m. Saturday evening. New guests for the upcoming week arrived shortly after. We are grateful to those who worked before, during and after the storm to make sure our Island didn’t miss a beat and was back up and running in less than 48 hours. The weekend was beautiful. Sunny skies and zero humidity made for perfect beach days. Islanders and guests were treated to a postponed fireworks show on Monday evening. Held at the Avon Pier, the twenty minute long fireworks show was a blast and a much-needed celebration after the long weekend.
Bringing you even better news – a beach nourishment contract has been awarded to a dredging company out of Oak Brook, Ill. and the MIRLO BEACH NOURISHMENT PROJECT WILL BEGIN NEXT WEEK! Two dredges will be used to pump 1.26 million cubic yards (600,000 dump truck loads) of sand onto 2 miles of beach at Mirlo Beach (the northern most beach in Rodanthe) by September. This effort will protect the susceptible “S Curves” during storms while a permanent solution is being developed. Between the permanent bridge’s current construction on Pea Island and this beach nourishment project, we are encouraged and excited about these phases being implemented in the Bonner Bridge replacement project. Click here, to view the map of the project at Mirlo Beach.