sand were moved offshore. Summer waves were 

 starting to restore sand to the beach just as the 

 powerful Fran moved in. 



With a sparse supply of protective sand, 

 Fran's waves and surge quickly swept away 

 the remaining dunes. In many cases, the water 

 overwashed segments of the barrier islands from 

 Bogue Banks south to Kure Beach. In some areas, 

 20 to 30 feet of beachfront were washed 

 away. 



"It is difficult to measure the 

 long-term effects of Fran, but it was 

 very devastating to the beaches and 

 infrastructure," says North Carolina Sea 

 Grant researcher Bill Geary. 



"Recovery is particularly difficult 

 to measure on developed beaches where 

 there is nourishment," he adds. "Clearly, 

 the majority ofTopsail Island, particularly 

 North Topsail, is worse off than before 

 Fran." 



From the high-rise bridge to the tip 

 of North Topsail, the dunes remain in 

 bad shape, says Geary, a University of 

 North Carolina at Wilmington scientist. 

 "There are a lot of new homes, but not 

 a lot of dunes for storm protection," he 

 adds. 



Surf City, in the middle ofTopsail 

 Island, has seen some recovery, Geary 

 says. "All the dunes were destroyed 

 during Fran. Many have been rebuilt 

 artificially." 



Of those areas in Hurricane Fran's 

 strike zone, Wrightsville and Carolina 

 beaches fared best, according to Geary. 

 The damage at Wrightsville Beach was 

 primarily overwash and erosion in the 

 central section, from Johnny Mercer's Pier 

 to the Holiday Inn, he says. 



during Fran, many beach communities began to 

 see beach nourishment as extra protection from 

 coastal storms, according to Walter Clark, North 

 Carolina Sea Grant coastal communities and 

 policy specialist. 



But beach nourishment doesn't come 

 without high cost and controversy over 

 environmental impacts. 



TOP: A satellite image of Fran on Sept. 5, 1 996, shows the storm 

 before landfall. BOTTOM: The storm damaged many homes at 

 Ocean Bay Village in North Topsail Beach, located in Onslow Cou 



Prior to the 1 996 storms, both Carolina and 

 Wrightsville beaches had received thousands of 

 tons of sand in "nourishment" projects. Rogers 

 says that the limited storm damage on those 

 beaches emphasizes his point: More is better 

 when it comes to sand and storm protection. 



Tony Caudle, who was Wrightsville Beach 

 town manager in 1996, agrees. "In some 

 locations, the beach was devastated, but few 

 structures were lost," he says, adding that the 

 worst damage was at the Holiday Inn, just north 

 of the protected area of the beach nounshment 

 project. 



Because Wrightsville Beach fared so well 



In Emerald Isle, the average cost was 

 $1 .7 million per mile of sand replenishment for 

 projects in 2003 and 2005, according to Town 

 Manager Frank Rush. "There are many variables 

 for beach renourishment, including how far away 

 the sand source is," Rush explains. 



"Our beach nourishment project saved the 

 day during Hurricane Ophelia. Areas with regular 

 overwash and heavy damage came through the 

 storm unscathed," he adds. 



Not all communities can afford nourish- 

 ment projects — some opponents argue the 

 investment may wash away in the next big storm. 



North Topsail is sand-starved as the 

 nearby ocean floor has a hard bottom that 



traps the sand in between the natural reefs. Beach 

 nounshment there is more costly at about $1 2 to 

 $1 5 a cubic yard, says Geary. "This is two to three 

 times what it would cost normally." 



Buildings most often are destroyed by waves 

 and erosion that accompany storm-induced floods. 

 Erosion can scour out footings, causing structures 

 to collapse. 



And the power of even small waves can 

 pound piliings and damage homes. Research 

 shows that a 1 .5-foot or taller breaking wave 

 can easily destroy a well-built house designed 

 for 1 20-mph winds, Rogers says. 



Wind gusts — which were clocked 

 between 1 1 and 1 20 mph during Fran — did 

 not directly damage many buildings, Rogers 

 found during a post-storm assessment. North 

 Carolina's building code requires that barrier 

 island structures withstand winds of 1 30 to 

 140 mph. 



Rather, most destruction was caused 

 by storm surge that reached more than 1 2 

 feet above sea level — a height at or above 

 the 100-year flood level. "The worst damage 

 was caused by water levels, wave action and 

 erosion," Rogers says. 



Current building practices include an 

 \ open piling foundation, combined with a high 

 first-floor elevation, so that waves can pass 

 through unimpeded. 



On Roger's advice, in 1 986 the N.C 

 Building Code Council had added new rules 

 for erosion-prone areas, requiring pilings be 

 sunk 5 feet below sea level or 1 6 feet below 

 ground level. 



Of the 205 Topsail Island structures 

 built after the piling foundation standards 

 were set in 1 986, 200 buildings survived Fran 

 and Bertha. But 1 80 oceanfront buildings 

 built on shallower pilings were destroyed by 

 erosion, Rogers notes. He suspects the five 

 newer buildings lost were not in compliance with 

 the 1986 code. 



A post-Fran report from the Federal 

 Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) urged 

 better construction and inspection practices to 

 ensure proper installation of the pilings in order to 

 meet the state's code requirements. 



The N.C. Building Code Council makes 

 updates every three years — and 2006 is one of 

 those years. 



"So there could be more code changes," 

 Rogers says. 



Early this year, the council implemented rules 



Coastwatch I Early Summer 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 



