EDITOR’S BLOG: Year in Review – The stories that grabbed our attention in 2023

Since The Island Free Press (IFP) was launched 16 years ago, it has become an annual tradition to look back on the stories that grabbed our islands’ attention and left a permanent mark. Started by our co-founder and original editor, Irene Nolan, it’s a tradition that we’ve been proud to carry on since she passed away in March 2017.

Our previous “year in review” installments were fairly straightforward, as the biggest stories of the year were obvious. 2022 was the year that the Jug Handle Bridge opened, the Frisco UFO burned down, and three oceanfront Rodanthe homes fell into the ocean. 2020 and 2021 were the years of the Coronavirus pandemic, and 2019 was the year of Hurricane Dorian.

But when it comes to big island-shaping news, what is 2023 known for?

Ask 20 different islanders that question and you’ll likely get 20 different answers. If you live on Ocracoke Island, you may say 2023 is the year of the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry (or lack thereof). If you live in Rodanthe, then you may say 2023 is the year of continued home collapses and erosion concerns, or the year of learning to live with a roundabout.

In past years, it has been easy to root through 12 months of archives and identify the headlines that made the biggest splash.

This year, however, was not as easy. Instead, compiling this year’s list required research on article views, reviewing social media comments, and identifying signs that a story would have a future impact.

So, without further ado, here is a brief round-up of the biggest stories of the year for Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands.

Rodanthe oceanfront homes

Many stories on the 2023 list are ongoing, and the dozen or so oceanfront homes in Rodanthe, which continue to be in danger of collapsing during some future storm, are no exception.

2023 started with a January meeting that attracted more than 100 in-person and 160 virtual attendees on the feasibility of a Rodanthe beach nourishment project. Beach nourishment has been used as a tool to temporarily ease erosion at two other hotspots on Hatteras Island –Avon and north Buxton – and in trying to find a solution for Rodanthe’s erosion problems, there was hope that beach nourishment might be a viable option in the northern Tri-villages as well.

You can read the full 2,000-word article here, but long story short, it’s not a feasible solution. Beach nourishment for Rodanthe is a severely cost-prohibitive project, even without considering the six other flooding-prone hotspots on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands, which are also a focal point of hand-wringing concern when a storm is brewing. (Northern Ocracoke, the Canal Zone on Pea Island, and north of Hatteras Village are especially big targets when it comes to flooding and erosion concerns.)

Two months after that January meeting, on March 13, another Rodanthe home collapsed into the ocean during a spring nor’easter, which was the fourth home to collapse in a little over a year.

Like previous home collapses, the debris field spread and the National Park Service picked up more than 70 truckloads of trash in the days that followed.

But here’s where the now-familiar story of Rodanthe home collapses takes a positive turn.

In November 2023, two more Rodanthe homes disappeared from the oceanfront shoreline, but this time on purpose, and for good reason.

The two homes were acquired by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) through funding from the National Park Trust and the Land and Water Conservation Fund as part of an initiative to remove threatened and uninhabitable oceanfront properties before they collapsed.

Both Rodanthe houses – located just a shell’s throw away from the one that accidentally collapsed in March – were torn down and the surrounding beaches were cleaned within a month. Best of all, thanks to the outsourced funding, the endeavor didn’t cost taxpayers a dime.

Could more homes follow suit? Possibly. The first two purposely-demolished homes were part of a pilot program of sorts, and if funding allows, it makes sense that more would follow. Superintendent David Hallac even said at the November demolition that the National Seashore has “actually come up with a prioritization system so that if it comes to future purchases, we’ll know which ones should be [removed] first.”

So, chances are solid that there may be more oceanfront home demolitions in Rodanthe come 2024. Whether they are intentional or occur at the whim of Mother Nature, however, is anyone’s guess.

Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry

As of this late-December writing, the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry is running on an amended schedule that is slightly longer, (90 minutes as opposed to 70 minutes), due to emergency dredging in the traditional ferry channel known as Barney Slough.

But this latest development follows a year of troublesome stories regarding the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry.

There was some good news in 2023 on the ferry front. For example, in May 2023, the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) launched a new text and email notification system which makes it much easier to keep tabs on ferry operations during storms and other unforeseen events. Also, for the first time ever, the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry extended its season through the middle of September.

But unfortunately, most ferry news in 2023 was bad news. The Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry had a shortened schedule for the bulk of the year, including the summer months, with many visitors waiting for several hours or more during peak times.

It was the topic of the day at a May meeting in Ocracoke with NCDOT representatives, and the issue even found its way to a float during Ocracoke’s annual Independence Day parade.

Will this improve in the future? Perhaps. Be on the lookout for an upcoming article on the budget and accounting-related steps that have already been taken to address these operational issues, and what may change in the months and years ahead. For example, implementing tolls for some of the NCDOT Ferry Division’s routes is not outside the realm of possibility. (There are currently seven routes statewide, and three vehicle ferries charge a fee for visitors, which are the Cedar Island-Ocracoke, Swan Quarter-Ocracoke, and Southport-Fort Fisher routes.)

Like many stories on this list, this is an evolving and “stay tuned” situation that will resurface in 2024.

Hurricanes Idalia and Ophelia

There were two notable hurricanes that brushed the Outer Banks this year, resulting in mostly minimal damage.

Hurricane Idalia was a powerful and destructive Category 4 hurricane that caused massive damage when it made landfall in Florida on August 30, but the storm resulted in minimal overwash and heavy rains when it passed by the Outer Banks right before Labor Day Weekend.

The following week, however, three people died in the span of three days while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, which was still churned up from waves caused by both Idalia and distant Hurricane Franklin.

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall as a strong tropical storm with 70 mph winds at Emerald Isle on Sept. 23, causing widespread heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and significant storm surge flooding across eastern North Carolina. Minor-to-moderate flooding was reported along the soundside of the Outer Banks from Ocracoke to Duck, but again, impacts were temporary and mostly minimal.

Perhaps the biggest combined impacts from Idalia and Ophelia were the effects on a stretch of Buxton beach that had to temporarily close due to the exposure of leftover materials from a former U.S. Navy facility. A Precautionary Health Advisory was issued from approximately 46285 Old Lighthouse Road to the first jetty in Buxton on September 25, and efforts continue to clean up this stretch of Buxton shoreline.

Waves of renovation and restoration projects

2023 was arguably the year of renovations, restorations, and remodeling, as a long list of Hatteras and Ocracoke landmarks either started or continued plans for a massive makeover.

These ongoing projects, which began or continued in 2023, include the following:

• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse – For the third year in a row, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was closed for climbing in 2023 as a years-long renovation project continued for the lighthouse, surrounding grounds, visitors’ center, and other components of the Buxton site. A $19.2 million contract was awarded to Stone & Lime Historic Restoration Services, Inc. on Sept. 25 to repair the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and work will ramp up in 2024. Per the most recent update, lighthouse climbing opportunities will likely not be possible this summer, and may not be available until the summer of 2026.

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  Ocracoke Light Station – A Groundbreaking Ceremony was held in early December to mark the start of another light station project, this time on Ocracoke Island. The project, which is just getting started, will elevate the historic Double Keeper’s Quarters and transform it into a new visitors’ center, opening the historically closed grounds surrounding the Ocracoke Lighthouse to the public.

• Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum – Another local landmark undergoing an overhaul is the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, which continued its extensive renovation efforts in 2023. There’s not an exact date on when the massive transformation of the 7,500-square-foot exhibit space will be complete, but when the museum reopens, there will be a whole new interior with rotating exhibits and newly added artifacts for visitors to discover.
• Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station – 2024 marks the 150^th Anniversary of the Life-Saving Service in North Carolina, and there are big plans in the works for one of the most famous of the original built-in-1874 stations, Chicamacomico. The 150th anniversary is expected to be a year-long celebration, which will culminate with a series of events in October 2024, (which is when the Chicamacomico Station was officially completed), but the restoration of the 1874 station will start well before the fall celebration, with the first phase of the project expected to be finished by the end of the summer.

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  Island Inn – On Ocracoke Island, the Island Inn and Commons Project grew by leaps and bounds in 2023. The years-long project, which is spearheaded by the Ocracoke Preservation Society (OPS), is a large undertaking with multiple partners and volunteers who are working to transform the expansive site of the historic 1901 Island Inn, (also known as the Odd Fellows Lodge), into a new visitor center and public greenspace. With the addition of landscaping, public restrooms, artwork, and sitting areas, the site is unrecognizable from its raw state a year ago, and islanders can look forward to many more enhancements in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

• Frisco Pathway – A multi-use pathway for Buxton and Frisco villages took a huge step forward in 2023 with the installation of the first .27-mile-long section of the paved pathway in the fall. There’s a long way to go before a complete 7.6-mile pathway is installed throughout the villages of Buxton and Frisco, but this small step was a reason to celebrate for the many stakeholders who spent years making the project come to fruition.
• Cape Hatteras/Buxton Pathway – Meanwhile, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse pathway is a lot closer to being complete, with work beginning in December on the first 1.25-mile-long phase of the three-phase project. This first 10 to 12-foot-wide concrete section will extend from N.C Highway 12 to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, with a crossing near the pond on Lighthouse Road, and it’s hoped that the pathway will be open to the public in time for summer visitors.

A banner year for sea turtles… and flamingos

2023 was a milestone year for nesting sea turtles on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

The latest sea turtle nest ever recorded in North Carolina was discovered in Frisco on Dec. 3, and 2023 boasted the second-highest number of turtle nests reported on Ocracoke, Hatteras, and Bodie Islands since data collection began, with a total of 380 nests. 2023 also marked the first time that a leatherback sea turtle nest was discovered on Ocracoke Island in 11 years. (The nest was identified in June, and successfully hatched in late August with 19 baby sea turtles making their way to the ocean.)

Sea turtles were not the only wild visitors to the Outer Banks, either, as for the first time in memory, a group of pink flamingos paid Pea Island a visit after Hurricane Idalia. According to several avid birdwatchers in the area, at least a couple of flamingos were still hanging around as of November 2023, so time will tell if these new residents are considering a more permanent move to the islands.

What’s next, 2024?

Adhering to tradition, we’ll start the year with a peek at the stories we expect to be big news in 2024 with a new editorial, but with so many ongoing projects and evolving stories, we’re optimistic that there will be a few positive headlines in the coming months.

In the meantime, all of us at the Island Free Press hope that your 2023 was a banner year, and that 2024 will be even better. Thank you for reading the IFP, and we truly look forward to sharing the island stories that matter the most to you in the months, years, and decades to come.