Flooding in North Carolina’s coastal communities has rapidly worsened in scale and frequency as a result of climate change, but stormwater management is a costly problem, even when there’s political will, funding and community support.
Higher groundwater levels, heavier and more frequent rain storms and flooding associated with climate change threaten both individual and centralized systems for wastewater along the N.C. coast.
Maintaining the vulnerable sliver of Outer Banks highway known as N.C. 12 has long been a challenge, but state officials say they are now adopting a more resilient approach to infrastructure design.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse Thursday as part of a regional tour of national parks and refuges to promote President Trump’s “Opening Up America” guidelines to safely access public lands.
“You’ll see barricades, and our crews go home,” State Transportation Secretary Eric Boyette said last week about the department’s finances without access to COVID-19 relief funds.
The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership recently funded three new gauges for the state Flood Inundation Mapping and Alert Network to help better predict flooding in the low-lying northeast region.
As the lockdown to stem the coronavirus pandemic appears more and more to be a long-term situation, those in the fishing and shellfish industry and related businesses are struggling to find markets for their catch.
Outer Banks residents, seasoned by threatening storms, are no strangers to preparedness, but although there’s some familiarity in the new routine, the threat of COVID-19 is unlike anything before, and health care capacity could be tested.
Some farmers call it an overreach, but water quality advocates say the Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule that the Trump administration seeks to repeal and replace is crucial for North Carolina’s wetlands and seafood industry.
The Elizabeth II, a 16th-century representative sailing ship moored at Roanoke Island Festival Park, has been unable to sail for years because of shoaling at the entrance to Manteo Harbor, but a long-delayed dredging project now appears likely.
