There it sits, on the beach.Moving the shipping channel closer to Bald Head, and then pumping the dredged channel sand over to Oak Island has devastated the southwestern tip of Bald Head, and now the Old Bald Head Dune faces imminent collapse. The bird habitat is gone, and no turtles have nested near there this year.
Photo courtesy of Marvin Neuwirth
Update: The Star-News reports in an article titled "No deaths or major damage as hurricane Bill passes"...
My Dad also reports they're losing 10 feet with each high tide. No major damage though, according to the (a-hem) f'ing headline."Battered on Bald Head
The peak of the season is worrying Bald Head Island residents and officials, where the beaches continue to erode.
Officials evacuated eight homes on Sandpiper Trail as well as on South and West Bald Head Wynd because the homes had five feet of water underneath them, Bald Head Island Mayor Larry Lammert said.
He said power to the homes was turned off as a precaution to avoid any chance of electrocution. Most of the people in the homes were leaving anyway because the rentals run from Saturday to Saturday, he added.
Bald Head Island resident Watts Carr said the island has been gradually eroding since the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started dredging the Cape Fear River shipping channel earlier this year.
“The hurricane, certainly, just makes it worse,” he added.
Carr and others are wondering how the island will hold up if at storm actually hits land. Since February, island officials said they’ve lost more than 150 feet of beach in places, with erosion losses continuing as the island tries to find its new equilibrium.
Lammert said he believes Hurricane Bill wiped away the last of the sea turtle nests Friday night.
“It’s just terrible,” he added"