How the Outer Banks are Vanishing — and Leaving NC Defenseless Against Hurricanes

The North Carolina Outer Banks have long served as a natural protection against storms and rising sea levels (Image)

Rising sea levels will be among the first and the worst climate-change induced calamities to hit North Carolina. 

As global temperature increases, ice sheets shrink and ocean waters expand in volume, which leads to rising sea levels. A recent UN report warns that unless drastic action is taken, coastal cities, Arctic communities and small island states will be devastated and may become uninhabitable. 

This problem, one which every coastal community will eventually have to reckon with, is moving particularly fast on the U.S. Eastern seaboard — and fastest in North Carolina. Researchers have called the accelerated sea level rise on the east coast  “sunny day flooding,” which was not expected to be a real problem for decades. Therefore, the state’s predicament is considered “instructive” for the rest of the world, particularly along the U.S. Atlantic coast. 

North Carolina’s barrier islands and vacationer’s paradise, the Outer Banks, are most affected by the encroaching sea levels. From 2011 to 2015, sea levels rose up to 5 inches in some locales. These levels are the fastest in the past 2,000 years, and are considered a direct consequence of climate change. Orrin Pilkey, a Duke University professor of geology, tells The News & Observer that the beaches and buildings in the Outer Banks are “doomed” if this “disaster” continues.

Rising sea levels could increase overwash from waves, cause significant erosion, and intensify flooding. “When Rising Seas Hit Home,” a report by MIT scientists, estimates that buildings near the coastline could see flooding at least 26 times a year — or about every other week — by the end of the century or sooner. The Outer Banks’ 30,000 residents and billion-dollar tourism industry will be crippled by this obstruction to routines and force the community to make tough choices. 

Most troubling, however, is the loss of North Carolina’s hurricane defenses. 

The barrier islands are equipped with natural defenses that buffer the inland shore against storms due to their unique formations. However, rising sea levels could disintegrate these islands, and increase storm impact across the state. Without them, storms, like Hurricane Florence in 2018, could be even worse. 

Commonly, governments dredge sand from the bottom of the ocean and erected on beaches to maintain receding shorelines. This process is known as “beach nourishment.” However, the efforts can cost as much as $8 million per mile, and are funded by an increasing occupancy tax, of which many residents disapprove. 

Not only is this solution extremely costly, but an “exercise in futility” according to Pilkey. These treatments can easily erode and often don’t last longer than 2 years. Reide Corbett, a North Carolinian oceanographer told The Washington Post that it was simply a “Band-Aid” for the overarching issue.

While measures can be taken to mitigate storm damage, they will not address the permanent effects of expected sea level rise, Pilkey said. Researchers recommend robust policies that take aggressive action aggressive action against climate change. If the United States accomplishes the goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement, it is estimated that almost 400 communities could be saved from chronic inundation. The Union of Concerned Scientists insists that there is still time to make these changes and save our coasts, but we must take action now.