As the nation heads into a crucial 2020 election in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic, Dare County officials are confident that they are prepared to protect the integrity of the process, regardless of how heavy the turnout is. Voting is a relatively simple process — a matter of indicating preference for the candidates or […]
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Shoaling, Weather Derail Bridge Debris Plan
July 22, 2020 | Local News | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review | 1
In 2016, as construction on the Marc Basnight Bridge that would span Oregon Inlet and replace the Bonner Bridge was beginning, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Division of Marine Fisheries came up with solution for the Bonner Bridge: The bridge would be dismantled and the debris would be used to maintain and expand […]
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As OBX visitors come, questions remain for hospitality industry
May 8, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Outer Banks Voice | 1
In a coordinated effort among the three counties of the Outer Banks, the area will reopen to visitors on Saturday, May 16. When the rental homes, hotels and motels do reopen, it may appear to be business as usual. But for the people who work in the hospitality business, it will be anything but. “This […]
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Program Gets At-Home Students Connected
May 8, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review
On Saturday, March 14, Gov. Roy Cooper ordered all North Carolina schools to close. Classes would continue, but instruction would be entirely online. Two days later, the nonprofit Outer Banks Community Foundation rolled out the first of its COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants, which it awards in times of crisis. The $4,500 grant awarded to the Dare Education Foundation helped […]
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Historic Outbreak: Spanish Flu on NC Coast
April 29, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review
In April, Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the national COVID-19 task force, called out shaking hands as a particularly dangerous custom that should be relegated to the past. “ I don’t think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you,” he said in a Wall Street Journal podcast. “Not only […]
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COVID-19 and the cyberspace classroom
April 20, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Outer Banks Voice
OBX teachers, students, parents adjust to online learning For the second time in North Carolina history, our schools are closed from Kill Devil Hills to Asheville. In 1918, schools were shuttered from two to four weeks trying to stop the spread of the Spanish Flu, the deadliest pandemic the world has ever seen. On March […]
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OBRA helps restock Ocracoke restaurants
March 6, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb
The damage from Hurricane Dorian is still there on Ocracoke. It’s improving, homes are being rebuilt, businesses reopening and slowly but surely, the village is recovering. “The Island is getting better all the time,” Ocracoke resident and owner of Ocean Atlantic Rentals Greg Honeycutt said. “I hate to use the word normal, but we’ll come […]
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‘Jug-Handle’ Bridge Work An Intricate Dance
February 20, 2020 | Local News | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review
A project the size of the “jug-handle” bridge north of Rodanthe is like some intricate dance routine carried out with mammoth custom-built gantry cranes, massive 155-foot pilings and teams of workers each with their own tasks. “The whole system is one big train. You only move as fast as your slowest part of the train,” […]
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Time Span: Recalling First New Inlet Bridge
January 31, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review
Hurricane Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout Aug. 27, 2011. As the storm tracked across eastern North Carolina, the waters of Pamlico Sound first drained to the south and west, flooding the coastal mainland. When the winds shifted, a 6-foot-high wall of water crashed onto the dunes of Pea Island, flowing across the sand toward […]
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Nonprofit Offers Help For Dorian Survivors
January 7, 2020 | Island Features | By: Kipp Tabb | From The: Coastal Review
Federal and state money to help Ocracoke and Hatteras recover from Hurricane Dorian has been slow getting here, but one Outer Banks nonprofit has been moving far more quickly than any government agency to provide relief where it can. Jeff Byard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s associate administrator for the Office of Response and Recovery, […]
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