Here on Hatteras and Ocracoke in recent years we?ve had more than the usual number of reasons to feel that we are under siege by forces beyond our control.
For the last three years, we?ve seen hurricanes take out our fall shoulder season. Two ? Earl and Irene — wiped out the important Labor Day weekend. Two ? Irene and Sandy — seriously damaged Highway 12 on northern Hatteras Island and then piled up sand in the ferry channel that made the crossing from Hatteras to Ocracoke difficult, and at times, impossible.
Furthermore, environmentalists have succeeded in getting large areas of the seashore closed down for birds and turtles and have also tried to stop the North Carolina Department of Transportation?s plan to replace the aging and decrepit Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet.
The irony that Mother Nature has been kinder to us this year but that we are still under siege has not been lost on anyone on these islands.
This week, we have been under siege by mad dogs and zealots.
On Tuesday, the federal government shut down because mad dogs and zealots in Washington, D.C., could not come to agreement on passing a continuing resolution to keep it operating at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
All of the beaches and many other facilities on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore are closed.
Also, on Tuesday, the mad dogs and zealots who have tried for years to stop the Bonner Bridge replacement filed an appeal in their lawsuit, just two weeks after a federal judge ruled that they did not make their case.
First, the government shutdown.
The first four days of the seashore shutdown have been more or less uneventful.
Though technically all beaches and parking areas are closed on the oceanside and soundside, those folks who have wanted to get to the water have managed.
Many have parked in the villages and hiked across private land, apparently without too much objection by property owners.
Others have parked at accesses that are technically closed and hiked over to the closed beaches without getting hassled by a skeleton staff of park law enforcement rangers. In fact, park rangers have generally been tolerant of folks ? as long as they don?t try to take an ORV onto the beach or cause trouble.
Many business owners report that sales are down, but that they are hanging on for now, hoping for a quick end to the shutdown.
However, if the shutdown starts to drag on into weeks or more, Hatteras and Ocracoke businesses will be in big trouble, as will be the islands? entire tourism industry.
More economic woes after the last three years of storms will be a serious blow to our business community.
And many visitors who are already weary after beach resource closures and three years of hurricanes will find the government shutdown is the final straw.
Ending the government shutdown can be done easily and quickly if the mad dogs and zealots in Washington just pass a clean resolution to keep the government operating ? a resolution that does not include other demands on policy or budget issues.
Once the government is operating again, Republicans and Democrats can start slugging it out over other issues and trying to resolve them.
The other mad dogs and zealots who have dampened the lovely fall weather this week are the environmental groups that will not give up their years-long battle to stop the plan to replace the Bonner Bridge with a parallel span and a phased approach over several years to hotspots on Highway 12.
While DOT continues to repair the bridge and keep it safe for the traveling public, time is running out.
And the mad dogs and zealots refuse to give up the fight.
After the initial relief on Sept. 16 when a federal judge ruled against them in a two-year-old lawsuit, it immediately became clear that they could keep the fight going for years in the state courts ? whether they appealed or not.
On Oct. 1, the groups did appeal the ruling by federal judge Louise Flanagan of the Eastern District of North Carolina. In a 42-page opinion, Flanagan systematically dismantled all of the legal issues put forth by the plaintiffs.
She agreed with DOT that the long-bridge option was not feasible both because it is too expensive and that the expense would have to be made up front and not in phases. And she agreed that ferries were not a viable option to move residents and tourists off the island.
So what is it that the mad dogs and zealots don?t get about the fact that the options are not realistic?
They just insist that they are and keep on filing in every court they can think of.
We say that enough is enough.
First and foremost, replacing the bridge at the earliest possible time is a public safety issue.
NCDOT keeps patching and repairing it and inspecting it, but this cannot go on indefinitely.
Closing the bridge or having to place load limits on it would economically cripple Hatteras and Ocracoke.
And an accident with injuries or deaths would be a public outrage ? with hearings and reports after the fact about what went wrong.
Why can?t someone stop this madness now ? before there is a public safety or economic disaster?
Sure, we all have a right to legal redress and the environmental groups have made liberal use of the courts.
But they have lost.
They may have a legal right, but it is not moral or just for the mad dogs and zealots to continue their crusade until the bridge is useless ? especially since few of them live here and even fewer of their hordes of donors have probably even been here.
(Editor?s note: We will resume our look at the finances of the environmental groups involved in the lawsuits that have and will continue to affect the island next week. You can go into the blog archive ? on the left ? to see the three already published on the Southern Environmental Law Center, the National Audubon Society, and Defenders of Wildlife. Still to come are the National Parks Conservation Association and the National Wildlife Refuge Association.)
