NC Beachfront Property Owners Get $50 Million In State Money To Dump More Sand, "Save" Their Stupid Fucking Homes

[hatrack]

https://static.politico.com/dims4/default/55a1666/2147483647/resize/600/quality/100/?url=

EDIT

This spring some houses on the Buxton beach are on the move, relocated by their owners farther inland to avoid the fate of the Lattimore family home. At the same time, the village’s predicament is rippling outward, potentially upending a state law designed to prevent local communities from building seawalls or other structures that would protect houses but harm the beach itself. Local politicians are also pushing for changes to the National Flood Insurance Program — run by the Federal Emergency Management Administration — seeking relief that could allow them to tap insurance before houses actually fall.

The destruction of houses on Cape Hatteras has raised questions about whether taxpayer dollars should be responsible for protecting private property that many people say shouldn’t stand so close to the shore anyway. Buxton beach is an erosion hot spot on a barrier island that erodes and moves — the beach loses approximately 10 to 15 feet of sand to the ocean every year, a natural process exacerbated by climate change and sea-level rise.

The solutions on the table this year look much like the solutions of the past: A $50 million beach rebuilding project underway to build up the sand standing between the houses and the ocean. The county is also planning to repair a groin — a jetty-like structure built by the U.S. Navy decades ago — to help slow erosion by trapping sand. But scientists caution those fixes aren’t permanent, while many homes still stand dangerously close to the ocean. “You are just buying time,” said Reide Corbett, a coastal oceanographer and geochemist at East Carolina University and one of the scientists tasked by the state to study the science of erosion to address the Buxton crisis.

EDIT

Dare County will spend $50 million this spring to build up the beach, using its own money while also seeking some reimbursement of federal funds from FEMA. Similar efforts were carried out as recently as 2022, but significant erosion occurred within just 2 years, according to areport to Congress from the National Park Service. Some residents, like Dawson, say the beach nourishments aren’t lasting as long because without the groins the sand has simply washed away. Robert Outten, who serves as Dare County’s manager and attorney, said the renourishment is the country’s only tangible option in lieu of a law change, even though the combined impact of the new sand and the groin repair probably won’t prevent more houses from falling.

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/outer-banks-village-makes-bid-to-save-houses-from-the-sea/

[delisen]

1. Buxton Beach Abomination

Living on the water best done in boats

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. Dare County is quite red.

This is not a surprise.

These are the types to stand on the last in the last bit of forest and deny climate change.

Trying to change Mother Nature is arrogant, rethug thinking.

Unfortunately, that is what is in charge out there.

[biophile]

3. The wise man builds his house upon the rock; the foolish man builds his house upon the sand

This metaphorical song is one from my childhood church and it has stuck with me. Now I no longer consider myself a Christian, but do not deny certain wisdom in the various teachings.

[The Wizard]

4. Bribery doesn't cost

it pays.

[mopinko]

5. buy these idiots out, and stop any new building.

hurricane season this yr may b 1 for the books. these ppl need to go elsewhere.

[OnlinePoker]

7. I don't know where you're getting that from

Every recent prediction is saying below to near-average for this year, mostly due to the wind shear caused by the oncoming El Nino.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Atlantic_hurricane_season

[mwmisses4289]

6. Huh. looks rather like an area in texas called surfside beach.

After Ike in 2008, several houses that were already iffy ended up standing in the gulf. They became eyesores as their owners fought for years to change the judgements. It took a few more smaller storms and Harvey in 2017 to finish the jjob.Looks like several of those places won't last beyond the next major hurricane to hit them.

[flvegan]

8. Sand alone ain't gonna do it.

But they already know that.