Hurricane Dennis (Sep 1999)

This is what was left of the road from Avon to Buxton. There were chucks of asphalt strewn about with about 3 to 6 feet of sand piled over everything from the ocean to the sound. Looks like the ocean reached the sound, but no signs of an actual inlet a la Oregon Inlet or Hatteras Inlet. If I recall correctly the road was washed out from the first oceanside parking lot north of Buxton to about a 1/2 mile south of the Canadian Hole parking lot.

Dare County promises new asphalt by Wednesday, and we didn't believe that they'd make since they had only laid about 50' of it on the north end in the morning (the total span seems to be nearly a half of a mile). Ted James of Fox Watersports in Buxton said that he heard that there was some delay due to the National Park Service being concerned about turtle nests being disturbed by the new road being laid about 200' west of the current one. However, when we left that evening, the constant stream of asphalt trucks seemed to have made a significant dent in the project. Note: all the telephone poles are brand, spanking new. Question: why did they put them on the oceanside of the road again?

Shingle damage to Zoe's House on the north side eves. It looks like the edge got lifted and simply broke off. The house also experienced a few some tattered screens, and wet carpets around the two north-facing doors. It appears that wind driven rain made it up, past the top door seal, and down the inside of the door as well as the more typical route of under the lower weather stripping. The West windows and roof appear to have been leak free. The park forest style grill on the sound side was laying on its side and a few driveway fence posts had popped up. Judging from the weed line on the lattice it looks like the majority of our lot had between 2 and 3 feet of water. Some of the lower lattice pieces came loose at the ends.

We believe that this is the 4x4 truck that was shown upside-down, buried in the sand by the media. It's sitting at the gas station across from Fox Watersports in Buxton. Our local paper also featured a sand-locked tanker truck.

The Mirlo Beach area of Rodanthe (bordering the Pea Island Refuge to the north) was amazing. It looked like they had been hit with a snow storm of sand. This is Pelican Reef, an oceanfront home. The neatly-shoveled driveway reminded me of a typical northern winter after a 3 foot snowfall.

Entering Pea Island Refuge from the south, emergency vehicle in transit.

Leaving Pea Island Refuge to the north, one of the constant asphalt dumptrucks going for a refill. This is the area which has the permanent sign about "sand on the road". With the dunes stacked even higher, I'm sure even the slightest northeast winds will make this all buy impassable on a regular basis.

The south Oregon Inlet parking lot was filled with road equipment...

See the aerial photos on Glenn's Windvisions Website. Also, George has some really neat photos on his site as does Avalon Pier.