Island Free Press reporter Anne Bowers headed up the beach yesterday, a trip that she just could not wait to make after Highway 12 reopened.
She reported that the trip was eerie and a little unsettling. She had spent countless days since Hurricane Irene on Aug. 27 in Rodanthe and at the site of the repair work on Highway 12.
It was a hub of pickup trucks, tractor trailers, equipment, supplies, and, most of all, folks working 24/7 to rebuild the highway at the S-curves and install a temporary bridge over an inlet that was formed on Pea Island. Anne got to know a lot of the workers when she was gathering information, along with her husband, Don, who photographed the work.
Yesterday, it was quiet. Gone were the trucks, the equipment, the workers. She said it seemed strange. On her way back, she swung by the ferry docks in Rodanthe, which was a hub of activity when the emergency ferry was running. It too was deserted and quiet.
The trip took Anne a good part of the day, not that she had that much to buy. But everywhere she went, she met neighbors and friends from Hatteras who were also shaking off cabin fever. Everyone, she said, wanted to stop and talk.
Hatteras and Ocracoke islands? residents and visitors are relieved, elated, and excited about having Highway 12 back.
The Island Free Press has been flooded with e-mails and Facebook comments on the great job that was done by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and its contractors, the NCDOT Ferry Division, and the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative for helping us get our lives back to some sort of normal after the storm.
They deserve every one of the accolades.
I haven?t been up the road since the highway opened, but the reviews on the temporary bridge are starting to trickle in.
?It is the ugliest bridge I?ve ever seen,? said a friend in Hatteras village. ?But if it gets us to the other side, it?s okay by me.?
Someone else noted that it looked like it had been put together with used and rusted parts, but he, too, was thrilled to have it.
On the other hand, GeeGee Rosell at Buxton Village Books, reported that a tourist said it was the ?cutest little bridge? she had ever seen.
I am already tired of writing about the ?temporary bridge? on Pea Island.
First, there is nothing all that ?temporary? about it. It?s going to be part of our lives for a while.
NCDOT officials hope to have a more permanent solution to the ?hot spots? on Highway 12 in five years or fewer ? and that?s just the plan.
This little temporary bridge is going to be very important to us for years to come.
Cute or ugly, I think it deserves a name.
NCDOT has not named it and apparently has no plans to do so. But we can name it, so today we are beginning The Island Free Press Name the Bridge Contest.
I?m not holding my breath for DOT to install a sign with our name on it, but it will be our name.
Send your nominations to us via the comments on this blog or on our Facebook page.
Please remember that the name must be suitable for a newspaper read by the whole family ? and my grandchildren.
The Island Free Press staff will chose some finalists and put them out there next week for readers to vote on.
The winner will receive a framed photograph of the bridge by Island Free Press photographer Don Bowers.
AND NOW ON TO THE INLET
Speaking of names, it?s becoming apparent we need a better name for the new inlet on Pea Island than the one we have tried to make stick ? New New Inlet.
We started using the name after Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge biologist Dennis Stewart said in an article after the storm that it was the name the U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff members were calling it.
The reason, he said, is that the inlet formed by Irene is in the area of an inlet that was formed after the 1933 hurricane and has since closed up. Remnants of the bridge used at that inlet are still visible on the soundside of the island ? or at least they were before Irene.
I?ve heard from readers who don?t like that name. Several noted that it is not exactly in the location of New Inlet. And some just didn?t like it, period.
Right after Hurricane Isabel in 2003, everyone began calling the breach formed by that storm between Hatteras and Frisco Isabel Inlet, and that has stuck, though some have shortened it to Izzy Inlet.
So what should we call the new inlet on Pea Island? Pea Island Inlet? Irene Inlet? (I could do without that one.)
This is not another contest, but I am interested in what you think.
HURRICANE IRENE READER SURVEY
The Island Free Press Reader Survey: Hurricane Irene Response has been posted online since Sept. 12, and more than 2,100 Hatteras and Ocracoke residents, non-resident property owners, and visitors have answered the survey?s question on the preparation for and response to the storm by local, state, and federal agencies and other organizations.
It?s been seven weeks since Hurricane Irene. With the reopening of the Highway 12 we are returning to some sort of normal, though we have a long way to go in the recovery ? physically, emotionally, and economically.
We think that the time has come to end the survey and begin looking at the results.
The survey will remain online through Sunday, Oct. 23, to catch any of you who still want to participate.
Then we will take it down and begin the very large task of looking at and tabulating the results.
All of what the survey tells us will be made public and will be available to any agency or group that is interested.
There will be many stories that will come from the responses to the questions, and we?ll be writing them for weeks, if not months.
But we hope to give you a quick snapshot of the results as soon as we can after Oct. 23.
So, this is the last call for responses.
And we really are pleased that so many of our readers have participated.
