For another year, a hurricane was the major news event of the year.
As the new year began last January, many folks in Avon and the tri-villages of Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo were still cleaning up and rebuilding after Hurricane Irene on Aug. 27 sent a historically high storm surge from the Pamlico Sound onto northern Hatteras.
And before the year was over, we were cleaning up and rebuilding after yet another hurricane ? Sandy in late October.
Sandy, which brushed by the Outer Banks, did not bring as much sound tide and did not cause as much damage to island homes and businesses as Irene did.
However, the punishing pounding of ocean waves in the huge storm once again badly damaged Highway 12. There were no new inlets, as there were in Irene, but the road in northern Rodanthe at Mirlo Beach and the S-curves took a beating.
After Hurricane Irene, the North Carolina Department of Transportation repaired the highway and installed a new temporary bridge at the inlet the storm cut through Pea Island in about six weeks.
After Sandy, DOT had hoped to have the highway repaired in about three weeks ? in time for Thanksgiving. But, alas, back-to-back northeasters in November sent ocean overwash over the highway at every high tide and brought work to a halt.
Finally, on Dec. 19, the highway reopened to all vehicles, but it is perilously close to the ocean until more sandbags are put in place and the dune repaired.
So once again this year, we relied on the emergency ferry between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe for access to Hatteras. Four-wheel-drive vehicles did have an access route around the S-curves, but all of our suppliers and residents and visitors without four-wheel-drive depended on the ferries.
Some of the other top news of the year included:
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
The Park Service?s off-road vehicle plan and final rule became effective in February and the park began selling the first-ever permits that are now required to drive on the beach and in other park areas off the highway.
The Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance sued the Park Service and the Department of Interior on Feb. 9 to overturn the final rule. That lawsuit was filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.
The judge in that case, Emmet Sullivan, said in July he was inclined to hand the case to federal court Judge Terrence Boyle in North Carolina, who oversaw a lawsuit against the seashore by environmental groups about the lack of an ORV plan.
In a touch of irony, the groups ? Defenders of Wildlife and the National Audubon Society, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center ? that had successfully sued the Park Service to force the restrictive new ORV plan petitioned the court to intervene on behalf of the Park Service in the CHAPA lawsuit.
The environmental groups were all in favor of the move, since Boyle has given them just about everything they asked for, the government said it didn?t care, and CHAPA opposed the move.
Sullivan has been silent on sending the case to Boyle?s court for five months — until this week.
On Dec. 23, Sullivan signed an order sending the CHAPA lawsuit to Boyle?s court in North Carolina.
Boyle has set a status hearing on the case for Jan. 23 in Raleigh.
The progress of this case should be interesting given Boyle?s chumminess with SELC senior attorney Derb Carter and some of the lack of knowledge about the case he has displayed in his previous status conferences.
We?re sure the transfer is just terrific for Derb and the rest of the crew.
Meanwhile, bills to overturn the ORV plan were introduced into both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Both had committee hearings.
The house passed the bill to return the park to the interim protected species management plan, but the Senate committee that heard the bill never voted on it. So there it has apparently died.
CHAPA says there will be another effort to overturn the ORV plan with legislation in the new Congress.
Seashore superintendent Mike Murray, who oversaw the process of formulating an ORV plan for the seashore, announced in May that he would retire at the end of July.
He has been replaced by Barclay Trimble, who in a stroke of good luck for him, arrived on the Outer Banks the week before Hurricane Sandy.
Opponents of the ORV plan were just waiting to pounce on him as he took over for Murray, who was highly unpopular on Hatteras Island by the time he left.
However, all attention turned to Highway 12 and access to the island after Sandy.
Few, if any, folks on Hatteras Island, as far as I can tell, have even met Trimble.
BONNER BRIDGE REPLACEMENT
Defenders of Wildlife and the National Parks Conservation Association, again represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, sued in July 2011 to stop DOT?s plan to replace the aging Bonner Bridge with a short bridge parallel to the current one and to solve the problems of the so-called hotspots on Highway 12 in a phased approach.
The lawsuit is still moving through the federal court. It was assigned to Judge Louise Flanigan in New Bern.
Meanwhile, SELC has asked state Superior Court to rule on the legality of the major CAMA permit that the state issued to DOT to proceed with the short bridge.
So now the bridge replacement is being fought in two different courts.
Also, the damage to Highway 12 in both hurricanes Irene and Sandy has renewed the dispute about a long bridge vs. the short bridge while SELC and its clients push for ferries for island access.
ON THE POLITICAL FRONT
For the second year in a row, the new Republican majority in the North Carolina House and Senate has pushed for increased ferry tolls and new tolls on ferries that currently are free.
One of the ferries they want to slap a toll on is the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry, which would be an economic disaster for Ocracoke Island and perhaps for Hatteras.
This year, the Republicans were beaten back again, but the issue will rear its ugly head again when the General Assembly convenes.
The state?s newly elected governor is a Republican and Democratic state Sen. Stan White of Dare County lost his bid for election to the seat to which he was appointed two years ago.
White was a freshman senator and in the minority party, but he did fight against ferry tolls.
We all wonder if the new state senator, Bill Cook of Beaufort County, will support us in the fight against increased ferry tolls and new tolls on free ferries.
TRAGEDY TOUCHES HATTERAS
A domestic violence tragedy played itself out on Hatteras Island last summer when Lynn Jackenheimer, a 33-year-old mother of two, went missing during a July 4 vacation on Hatteras with Nathan Summerfield, 27, the father of the younger of the two children.
The couple had rented a house in Salvo. Summerfield returned to Ohio with the children and law enforcement in Ohio and on the Outer Banks began a search for Jackenheimer.
Her body was found several weeks later in Frisco. According to law enforcement, she had been strangled and stabbed.
In August, police tracked down Summerfield in Ohio. He was returned to Dare County, where he was charged with first-degree murder. He is in the Dare County Detention Center awaiting trial.
AND THE REST OF THE NEWS
Island Free Press photographer Don Bowers has done a great job of taking us back through 2012 in pictures in the slide show that accompanies this blog.
His photos include beautiful sunsets, scary clouds, storms, recovery, and annual fundraisers and celebrations.
Some highlights:
- The Frisco Pier is still standing ? sort of.
- Ocracoke has its first-ever 5K run and the Hatteras Island Cancer Foundation had its ninth annual Fun Run.
- Shoaling plagued the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry.
- The Albatross Fleet celebrated its 75th anniversary of charter fishing.
- The Day at the Docks was extended to four days and drew hundreds to the Hatteras village waterfront.
- Islanders shaved their heads again to raise funds for cancer victims on St. Baldrick?s Day.
- Folks in crazy costumes made Bike the Light a fun time for all.
- Musicians played their instruments and sang and artists and craftsmen showcased their work at another Ocrafolk Festival.
Click here to view the slide show.
