Lou’s Views
News & Views / December Edition
Calendar of Events –
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Discover a wide range of things to do in the Brunswick Islands for an experience that goes beyond the beach.
For more information » click here.
Calendar of Events Island –
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Parks & Recreation / Programs & Events
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Reminders –
News from Town of Holden Beach
The town sends out emails of events, news, agendas, notifications, and emergency information. If you would like to be added to their mailing list, please go to their web site to complete your subscription to the Holden Beach E-Newsletter.
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Paid Parking
Paid parking will be enforced in all Holden Beach designated parking areas. It will be enforced from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. daily, with free parking before and after that time. All parking will use license plates for verification.
Visit https://hbtownhall.com/paid-parking for more information and to view a table with authorized parking areas.
Solid Waste Pick-Up Schedule
GFL Environmental change in service, October through May trash pickup will be once a week. This year September 28th will be the the last Saturday trash pick-up until June. Trash collection will go back to Tuesdays only.
Please note:
. • Trash carts must be at the street by 6:00 a.m. on the pickup day
. • BAG the trash before putting it in the cart
. • Carts will be rolled back to the front of the house
GFL Refuse Collection Policy
GFL has recently notified all Brunswick County residents that they will no longer accept extra bags of refuse outside of the collection cart. This is not a new policy but is stricter enforcement of an existing policy. While in the past GFL drivers would at times make exceptions and take additional bags of refuse, the tremendous growth in housing within Brunswick County makes this practice cost prohibitive and causes drivers to fall behind schedule.
Solid Waste Pick-up Schedule –
starting October once a week
Recycling –
starting October every other week pick-up
Yard Waste Service
Yard debris is collected on the second (2nd) and fourth (4th) Fridays during the months of October, November, and December. Yard debris needs to be secured in a biodegradable bag (not plastic) or bundled in a maximum length not to exceed five (5) feet and fifty (50) pounds in weight. Each residence is allowed a total of ten (10) items, which can include a combination of bundles of brush and limbs meeting the required length and weight and/ or biodegradable bags. Picks-ups are not provided for vacant lots or construction sites.
Curbside Recycling – 2024
GFL Environmental is now offering curbside recycling for Town properties that desire to participate in the service. The service cost per cart is $119.35 annually paid in advance to the Town of Holden Beach. The service consists of a ninety-six (96) gallon cart that is emptied every other week during the months of October – May and weekly during the months of June – September.
Curbside Recycling Application » click here
Curbside Recycling Calendar » click here
Trash Can Requirements – Rental Properties
GFL Environmental – trash can requirements
Ordinance 07-13, Section 50.08
Rental properties have specific number of trash cans based on number of bedrooms.
* One extra trash can per every 2 bedrooms
..
§ 50.08 RENTAL HOMES.
(A) Rental homes, as defined in Chapter 157, that are rented as part of the summer rental season, are subject to high numbers of guests, resulting in abnormally large volumes of trash. This type of occupancy use presents a significantly higher impact than homes not used for summer rentals. In interest of public health and sanitation and environmental concerns, all rental home shall have a minimum of one trash can per two bedrooms. Homes with an odd number of bedrooms shall round up (for examples one to two bedrooms – one trash can; three to four bedrooms – two trash cans; five – six bedrooms – three trash cans, and the like).
Building Numbers
Ocean front homes are required to have house numbers visible from the beach strand.
Please call Planning and Inspections Department at 910.842.6080 with any questions.
§157.087 BUILDING NUMBERS.
(A) The correct street number shall be clearly visible from the street on all buildings. Numbers shall be block letters, not script, and of a color clearly in contrast with that of the building and shall be a minimum of six inches in height.
(B) Beach front buildings will also have clearly visible house numbers from the strand side meeting the above criteria on size, contrast, etc. Placement shall be on vertical column supporting deck(s) or deck roof on the primary structure. For buildings with a setback of over 300 feet from the first dune line, a vertical post shall be erected aside the walkway with house numbers affixed. In all cases the numbers must be clearly visible from the strand. Other placements may be acceptable with approval of the Building Inspector.
Upon Further Review –
Wildlife officials push back on straw bales for sand fencing
Thorough research needs to be done on how wheat straw bales might affect oceanfront habitat before the state allows them to be used as an alternative to sand fencing, a state wildlife official said. The North Carolina State Wildlife Resources Commission has repeatedly stated its concerns in recent years about straw bales being used as a tool to protect and build up oceanfront dunes, Maria Dunn said in a recent meeting of the state Coastal Resources Commission. Dunn, who is with Wildlife Resources Commission’s Habitat Conservation Program, said that the agency understands the desire to try and maintain shorelines, but pointed out what she said are “significant differences” between traditional sand fencing and bales. “We have not objected to traditional use of sand-fencing material as long as installation was done in a manner to effectively collect wind-blown sand and not impede or block areas of the shore for public use and wildlife habitat,” Dunn said at the coastal commission’s Nov. 13 meeting. “Appropriate installation includes the location along the appropriate area of the beach profile, orientation and alignment of fencing, distance between fencing, and length of fencing down the beach profile.” The proposed rule change the coastal commission approved in April establishes specific guidelines for where and how bales may be placed on a beachfront. But the potential impacts to shoreline habitat and the animals, including endangered species and plants, that rely on that sandy habitat, remain grossly understudied, Dunn said. “It was asked if research was available on how bales impact wildlife resources on habitats on ocean shorelines,” she said. “But since they are not permitted on any other Atlantic shoreline’s state shore there is no research or data available to share with you.” The rule amendment was introduced as a way to help save permittees from waiting for sand fencing to become available during times when it is in high demand. But unlike traditional sand fencing, straw bales could potentially introduce invasive and nonnative ocean shoreline plant species to shores, influence sand temperatures and, when initially installed, take up 48 times the area that traditional sand fencing uses, Dunn said. Under the proposed rule amendment, bales cannot be placed in sections more than 10 feet long, 2 feet wide and 3 feet high and ties or binding must be removed from the bales. A permittee must repair or remove damaged, nonfunctioning, or bales sections or stakes moved from the alignment in which they were authorized. Only local governments, state and federal agencies and large, oceanfront homeowners associations would be permitted to use bales. A state Division of Coastal Management official told the Coastal Resources Commission in August that the division does not expect a significant uptick in the use of straw bales because they tend to cost more than traditional sand fencing, which would need to be replaced more frequently than fencing, and the verdict is still out on how efficiently bales trap sand. Ocean Isle Beach became the first in the state to test straw bales on a portion of its ocean shore in 2023. Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith told Coastal Review in late August that the bales worked well, were cheaper than sand fencing and easily accessible during a time when the town could not get sand fencing because of high demand. Dunn said that the town’s pilot program was monitored by little more than photographic documentation and some surface temperature readings. There was no designed, controlled experiment comparing different bale installments to traditional sand fencing to see which application best collected windblown said, she said. “We would recommend that such an experiment is designed with input from state and federal agencies to determine the best type of sand management tools to collect sand for dune structure while minimizing impacts to wildlife resources,” Dunn said. Smith said in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon that she never saw a Wildlife Resources Commission representative visit the island to check sand temperatures at turtle nests or conduct other monitoring. “On any decision we have to make we can always say ‘what if,’” Smith said. “She has no evidence of some of those what-ifs. I don’t think anybody wants to do any environmental damage.” The town is working on a dune project that will begin sometime this winter. Since the proposed rule amendments have not been made formative, the town has opted to use traditional sand fencing “to move our project along and get it permitted,” Smith said. Sand temperatures play a significant role in determining the sex of sea turtles in a nest. Dunn said that a half-degree variation can change how many males or females are within a nest and possibly whether a nest remains viable. Temperatures were not taken at sea turtle nest cavity depths in Ocean Isle Beach, she said. “We don’t want to artificially create more females,” said Deb Allen, Ocean Isle Beach Sea Turtle Protection Organization coordinator. “We need a balance of males to females.” Allen pointed to studies that show when nests incubate at higher temperatures it can affect the physical and cognitive abilities of hatchlings, slowing them in their ability to make it from the shore to the ocean. “We want them to come out of that nest and we want them to crawl to that ocean as fast as possible,” she said. The coastal commission in August unanimously approved the fiscal impact analysis of the proposed rule. The fiscal analysis measures how a rule may affect a government’s revenue and expenditures to help prepare for or prevent budget shortfalls. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, and Office of State Budget and Management also approved the fiscal analysis. A public hearing on the proposed amended rule was held Oct. 30 in Morehead City. The public comment period on the rule ends December 2. The division has not yet received comments from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to its public information officer, Christy Simmons. The wildlife service did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. Division officials anticipate that the amended rule will become effective April 1, 2025.
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Teetering on the edge: How North Carolina communities are dealing with disappearing beaches
A slow-motion catastrophe is eating away beaches from the Outer Banks to Brunswick County as rising seas and stronger storms batter the state’s coast. But solutions aren’t easy, popular or cheap.
Under sunny and warm late-October skies, Frank Thompson picked the fishing rods out of his pickup while his sons grabbed the bucket and rest of the fishing gear. The Ohio native was making his annual pilgrimage to the N.C. coast, and this year he had decided to give Topsail Island − specifically North Topsail Beach − a try because he had heard the fish were running strong and the beaches weren’t crowded. What he hadn’t expected, though, was finding enough beach at high tide to actually have the space to cast. “We’ve got maybe 2 to 3 feet at the toe of the dunes, so that should be fine,” Thompson said with a smile as waves lapped under some of the threatened oceanfront homes at the Onslow County beach town’s northern tip. “And if we get wet, we get wet.” While Rodanthe on the Outer Banks became North Carolina’s poster child this past summer for collapsing homes and the inevitability of Mother Nature winning the oceanfront battle as seas continue to rise and climate change fuels bigger and stronger storms, it is at the northern end of Topsail Island where the struggle is even potentially more dire. And while erosion has been a problem in North Topsail for a long time, thanks in large part to the adjacent New River Inlet, a permanent answer appears no closer today than in past decades. “No, there really is no long-term solution that will bring the beach back,” said Dr. Robert Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University. “These areas near inlets are the most dynamic areas along barrier islands, and unfortunately that’s what we’re seeing and have been seeing in North Topsail Beach.”
‘A tough spot for everyone’
Since 1964 when the first federal nourishment project pumped sand onto Carolina Beach’s eroded beach, mining offshore sand to rebuild battered beaches has been North Carolina’s go-to to keep its sandy strips plump for tourists and to protect pricey oceanfront property. But pumping sand isn’t practical for all parts of the coast and is increasingly becoming more challenging, due to a declining supply of compatible sand to meet all the demands − especially for Brunswick County beach towns − and the rising costs of nourishment projects. These increasing obstacles come as the threats to oceanfront properties continue to rise, notably due to climate change. According to a review of 2020 imagery by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, more than 750 of the state’s 8,777 oceanfront structures were considered at risk from oceanfront erosion, with no dune or vegetation between them and the Atlantic. In many beach towns, property owners and sometimes local governments have installed sandbags to hold back the encroaching ocean, although environmentalists and other say the temporary structures do little but shift the sand-eating waves to neighboring sections of the beach − often prompting the installation of more sandbags. In places like Rodanthe and North Topsail Beach, where money for beach nourishment is in short supply, another factor is at play. Natural elements have conspired to prevent either area from naturally or easily re-establishing their dune lines. In Rodanthe, the foil is largely powerful ocean currents. At the north end of Topsail Island, New River Inlet and a relatively flat topography combine to work against an easy or cheap solution to the chronic erosion woes. Since 2020, 10 homes, and five just this year, have fallen into the Atlantic in Rodanthe, most recently on Sept. 24. The resulting debris fields have spread far and wide along Hatteras Island, impacting the environment and forcing the closure of beach areas in the nearby Cape Fear National Seashore and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge due to public health and safety concerns. The potential losses in the more densely populated northern end of North Topsail, where walls of sandbags taller than a basketball net protect some oceanfront homes and condos, could easily exceed those numbers. “It really is a challenging situation, a tough spot for everyone up there because these temporary Band-Aid solutions like adding more sand are providing benefits that are having shorter and shorter lifespans,” said Kerri Allen, coastal management program director with the N.C. Coastal Federation.
Rising costs and limited benefits
North Topsail isn’t the only beach town in Southeastern N.C. − or even on Topsail Island − dealing with a disappearing beach and its knock-on effect on coastal economies that rely on tourists to put heads in beds and valuable beach property to fill local coffers. In Surf City, which occupies the mid-section of Topsail Island, the town is finalizing its plans with the Army Corps of Engineers for a long-term federal nourishment project to boost its eroded strand. The 50-year project, which is estimated to cost at least $187 million over its lifespan, with Washington covering 65% of the cost and the state and Surf City splitting the remaining 35%, could start late next year if all the necessary permits and other regulatory approvals are secured. The first phase of construction would see an estimated 7.9 million cubic yards of sand pumped onto the town’s nearly 6-mile-long beach, with further nourishments taking place roughly every six years. In Topsail Beach, which covers the bottom third of Topsail Island, the town earlier this year wrapped up a roughly $25 million beach nourishment project that it largely paid for itself. North Topsail Beach also has aggressively been moving to shore up its beachfront with several different nourishment projects. But a big chunk of the town is in a Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) zone, a classification that prevents the expenditure of federal dollars on projects − including beach nourishment − in hazardous coastal areas. That means the town has to dip into its own budget to fund the work or seek aid from the state. While North Topsail has a shoreline protection fund, which includes revenue generated from the town’s accommodation tax and paid parking and collects about $5 million a year, and dedicates significant capital funds annually to beach projects, that doesn’t go very far when you have 11 miles of shoreline to maintain and protect. In some cases, the state has stepped up to help out − including a $10.5 million grant to support a 2.5-mile beach nourishment south of the north end that’s going to kick off later this year. Those budgetary pressures played a large role in the town withdrawing from Surf City’s federal nourishment project, which originally was supposed to also include nourishing 4 miles of beach in North Topsail. Town officials said the price tag of North Topsail’s portion jumped nearly 200% between 2012 and 2021 to almost $34 million.
‘Financial calculus just doesn’t work’
The general idea of retreat or relocation of threatened structures isn’t often embraced by local officials, who face challenges from unwilling sellers to a lack of money to fund buyouts to questionable political will to pursue pulling back − especially when it could mean abandoning some of a beach town’s most valuable tax base. Environmentalists and others, though, say retreat is coming. The only question is whether it will be managed, done in a controlled way, or unmanaged as historically has been the case in most areas. Five years ago, Young’s team from Western Carolina came up with a different proposal for North Topsail Beach than simply throwing good money – or sand – after bad money. In short, the authors suggested that instead of spending those resources on 7% of the town’s tax base that is seriously at-risk, dedicate them to the 93% of the town’s tax base that is sustainable over the next 30 years. “It’s clearly cheaper for the town in the long run than simply trying to hold the line,” he said. “The financial calculus just doesn’t work to keep fighting the sea.” The paper suggested the town look into buying out the nearly 300 at-risk properties and parcels at the north end. The 2019 paper said the purchase cost would be nearly $55 million but would generate about $58 million in benefits – representing a savings of roughly $3 million over 30 years. “The fiscal analysis does not include many unquantifiable benefits from the proposed targeted acquisition,” the report states. “These include the transfer of amenity value to other properties, reduced emergency management costs for the municipality, reduced need for consulting engineering fees, improved beach access for all residents and renters, and, quite frankly, no more ugly sand bags and a return of a recreational beach that all residents and guests can enjoy.”
Terminal groin in the cards?
The proposal wasn’t pursued by North Topsail officials at the time, and Town Manager Alice Derian said town officials haven’t discussed a potential buyout program for north end property owners in recent times. Recent efforts to stabilize and enhance the beach at the town’s north end include a 2023 corps’ project that saw 160,000 cubic yards of sand dredged from New River Inlet placed on the north end. Then last year, the town and FEMA paid for trucked-in sand to be dumped in front of some of the threatened structures. In both cases, the sand didn’t last. Derian said North Topsail also is looking to see if it can potentially secure government help to replace roughly 88,000 cubic yards of sand, much of it at the north end, which was washed away by the unnamed storm that pummeled and swamped much of Southeastern North Carolina in September. Future efforts include another injection of fresh sand from the corps’ dredging of New River Inlet and, very far out, potentially the construction of a terminal groin. But that sort of project can take a decade to get permitted, and the construction and maintenance costs could easily reach $20 million or more. Young said North Topsail Beach and Rodanthe aren’t the country’s only coastal communities struggling with how to manage oceanfront areas beset with severe erosion woes. But with sea-level rise and more frequent and stronger storms likely and the rising cost of beach nourishment projects, beach towns are going to have to consider making tough choices. “This is not a proposal that would ruin your coastal economy but preserve your coastal economy by allowing you to invest your finite resources where it makes sense, and that’s so important,” Young said of the buyout study. “Places like North Topsail Beach need to come together as a community and have a real discussion about where they want to go moving forward.”
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Sand dollars: 12 things to know about NC’s coastal economy
The N.C. coast drives much of the economy in Eastern N.C. But maintaining the beaches that attracts millions of visitors a year isn’t cheap.
The coast is an economic engine for Eastern North Carolina, attracting millions of visitors every year who fill rental properties, lure new homeowners to the beach, and keep restaurants, bars and marinas busy in often isolated communities that might otherwise struggle to survive. But maintaining the drivers of that economy, namely keeping the beaches that lure the tourists to the coast wide and attractive, is becoming increasingly expensive and is a challenge that’s expected to increase in complexity and price in coming years as climate change keeps seas rising and storms getting bigger and stronger.
Here are things to know about North Carolina’s coastal economy.
- $187 million: Estimated 50-year cost of Surf City federal nourishment project.
- $40 million: Estimated cost of Oak Island’s proposed nourishment project, half funded by a state grant.
- $13.6 million: Cost of 2024 Wrightsville Beach federal nourishment project.
- 2 million: Visitors to the N.C. coast in 2022.
- 8,777: Number of oceanfront homes in N.C. as of 2020.
- 1964: First federal beach nourishment project takes place in Carolina Beach.
- 1,101: 2023 population of North Topsail Beach.
- 750: Estimated number of threatened N.C. oceanfront homes in 2020.
- 320: Miles of N.C. ocean shoreline, roughly half of which is protected/undeveloped.
- 22: Number of inlets along the N.C. coast.
- 10: Homes in Rodanthe that have collapsed into the Atlantic since 2020.
- 4: Current number of N.C. beach towns that have federal beach nourishment projects (Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Ocean Isle Beach).
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Corrections & Amplifications –
Zillow will now show climate risk data on home listings
The information is meant to help home buyers assess potential damage from extreme weather.
Potential home buyers are increasingly weighing the environmental threats their homes could face as the effects of climate change intensify across the United States. Eighty percent of buyers now consider climate risks when shopping for a home, according to a 2023 Zillow survey. To help homeowners navigate that uncertainty, Zillow is adding a climate risk threat score to every for-sale listing on its platform. Data from First Street Foundation, a nonprofit that assesses climate risk, will provide home buyers with scores that measure each property’s susceptibility to flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality risks. This information will be available on the Zillow app for iOS and website by the end of this year, while Android users will be able to access the data in early 2025, the company said in a release last month. Home buyers will be able to view this data on Zillow in two ways, either by looking at information within individual listings or by checking an interactive, color-coded map. The scores will display each home’s current climate risk, as well as the risk estimates for 15 and 30 years in the future — the most common terms for fixed-rate mortgages. Zillow also plans to offer tailored insurance recommendations to users alongside the risk information. First Street’s climate risk scores are established through models that measure the likelihood of a climate disaster in a given area and then the potential severity of the event, according to Matthew Eby, the company’s founder and chief executive. The company updates its models each year based on the natural disasters that have unfolded, Eby said. “This level of transparency is allowing people to choose the level of risk that they find comforting and then make an informed decision,” Eby said. “Will this change the buying experience? Absolutely.” The Zillow upgrade comes at an uncertain time for home buyers as climate change becomes more extreme. Some of the largest U.S. insurance companies have ended certain disaster protection coverage and raised premiums in response to climate risks, The Washington Post has reported. And more home listings today are affected by major climate risks compared to just five years ago, according to a report from Zillow published last month. Across all new home listings in August 2024, nearly 17 percent were at major risk of wildfire, while nearly 13 percent came with a major risk of flooding, the company said. This information could be especially valuable given that many states don’t require home sellers to disclose past flood or fire damage to potential buyers, even though more than 300,000 Americans moved to disaster-prone counties last year, The Post previously reported. A 2022 Post analysis of extreme flooding events across the country found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s flood maps fail to fully inform Americans of their flood risks. In a 2022 study published by real estate company Redfin, home buyers who had access to property listings that included flood risk information were less likely to view or bid on high-risk homes. That finding indicated a massive information gap for buyers regarding a home’s climate risk, according to some experts. “The information it provides is beneficial because otherwise, there’s just nothing out there for a home buyer or a renter to learn about the risk that they’re facing,” said Joel Scata, a senior environmental health attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Even if there’s debate over the methods used or the processes used, it’s better than nothing.” It’s difficult to determine the reliability of many climate risk models because the vast majority are not publicly accessible, said Benjamin Keys, a professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School who has studied the effects of climate-change-fueled disasters on insurance markets. But since the amount of climate-threat information buyers typically have has been “astonishingly low” for years, any improvement would aid transparency in the industry, he added. Climate risk modeling experts are still developing the best possible way to measure the probability of flooding, fires and other natural disasters in any given area, notes Jesse Keenan, a professor of sustainable real estate and urban planning at Tulane University. The data provided from consumer-facing models can be “uneven” depending on where a person is house-hunting, because some risks have been studied more extensively in certain regions than others, he said. “They’re not great,” Keenan said. “Some places they work well, and there’s a lot of places where the uncertainty is greater than the value.” Still, most prospective home buyers will weigh climate risks early in the hunt, and data on these risks can help flag issues they should investigate further, Keenan emphasized. For example, if a score indicates that a house is at a high risk of flooding, home buyers should talk to neighbors about their experiences or show up to the property on a rainy day. The tool should signal the start of the information-gathering process about a home’s climate risk, rather than the end, Keys added.
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Flood history questions added to real estate disclosure form
Sometimes it’s a puzzle why people don’t ask more questions, such as, “Has the river that’s down your road ever flooded your house, the house I’m thinking of buying?” The maxim “buyer beware” is wise advice no matter where a house is situated, but it’s good to have rules in place to cover homebuyers’ backs for the things they overlook or wrongly assume. As of July 1, prospective real estate buyers in North Carolina must now be provided the required North Carolina Real Estate Commission residential disclosure form by the seller that for the first time includes questions related to a property’s flood risk. The change in the form was requested in a petition for rulemaking filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center in December 2022 on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, the North Carolina Justice Center, MDC Inc., the North Carolina Disaster Recovery and Resiliency School, Robeson County Church and Community Center, and NC Field. “Most of those are small, local nonprofits that respond to disasters,” Brooks Rainey Pearson, senior attorney with the law center, told Coastal Review in an interview, referring to petitioners. “So, we really wanted to give a voice to the people on the ground who deal with the fallout from flooding.” Pearson said that the Real Estate Commission had quickly granted the petition at the time and agreed to add the questions proposed by petitioners. It was then delayed by mutual agreement, she said, to adjust the law to allow the commission to merely make changes in the form. That would avoid having to go through a lengthy rulemaking process. “It was a longer journey than it should have been, but not because of any pushback,” she said. “I think everyone understands that homebuyers deserve to know if the property has flooded before.” Questions about flooding that have been added to the disclosure statement include the following: Is the property located in a federal or other designated flood hazard zone? Has the property experienced damage due to flooding, water seepage or pooled water attributable to a natural event such as heavy rainfall, coastal storm surge, tidal inundation, or river overflow? Is there a current flood insurance policy covering the property? Is there a flood or Federal Emergency Management Agency elevation certificate for the property? Has (the property owner) ever filed a claim for flood damage to the property with any insurance provider, including the National Flood Insurance Program? The form also notes that the requirement to obtain flood insurance passes down to all future owners for those properties that have received disaster assistance. Joel Scata, senior attorney with the NRDC, a national environmental nonprofit organization that is one of the petitioners, said that in the past, the only flood information that had to be disclosed to homebuyers in North Carolina was whether the property was in a floodplain. “Now with the changes, a buyer is going to have access to much more detailed information,” he told Coastal Review. According to state law, residential property owners are required to complete the disclosure statement and provide it to a buyer before an offer is made to purchase the property. New construction or never-occupied properties are exempted. Every question must be answered with “Y,” “N,” “NR” or “NA” for “Yes,” “No,” “No Representation,” and “Not Applicable,” respectively. Despite stern language in the form about requirements, there is enough gray area to give pause to anyone with insight into human failings. “An owner is not required to disclose any of the material facts that have a NR option, even if they have knowledge of them,” the statement says. Also: “If an owner selects NR, it could mean that the owner (1) has knowledge of an issue and chooses not to disclose it; or (2) simply does not know.” The form does warn that failure to disclose hidden defects “may” result in civil liability. It also assures that if an owner selects “No,” it means that the owner is not aware of any problem. But if “the owner knows there is a problem or that the owner’s answer is not correct, the owner may be liable for making an intentional misstatement.” If an owner selects NA, it means the property does not contain that particular item or feature. Scata said that he believes that whatever remedies are available for enforcement are strictly civil, and do not include criminal charges in the case of fraud or misrepresentation. “A buyer could file a civil suit, claim that the seller intentionally misled the buyer, make a fraud claim,” he said. But damages and other penalties would depend on the impact of what wasn’t disclosed, he added. A buyer should take any “NR” answer as a cue to ask the owner about what they don’t want to disclose, Scata said, adding “it’s a good indication that something is wrong with the property.” That choice could not be removed from the form unless it was done through a change in the legislation, he said. “The buyer always has the right to go back and explicitly ask the seller the question,” he said. And don’t just push the question with the buyer, he said, but also go talk to neighbors about the situation with flooding episodes in the neighborhood. Also, real estate brokers by law have a duty to disclose what they know, or reasonably should know, regardless of the seller’s response. “So, if a seller says something like ‘No, there’s never been (flooding) on the property,’” Scata said, “but the Realtor knows that’s not true, there’s a duty on them to disclose. And they can be liable if they are complicit in that fraud.” In that instance of potential fraud by a broker, the buyer can file a complaint with the Real Estate Commission. According to an NRDC press release, homes in North Carolina with prior flood losses would be expected to average an annual loss of $1,211, compared to $61 for the average home. In 2021, there were 13,237 homes purchased that were estimated to have been previously flooded. The expected annual flood damage totals for those homes were estimated at about $16 million. With climate change causing more intense rain and stronger storms, flooding is only going to become more of an issue, Pearson said. “Before when you only had to disclose if the house was in a floodplain, well, that’s no longer a good indicator of whether your house might flood,” she said. “The best indicator of whether your house might flood is whether it’s flooded before. And so, we think, just for the sake of transparency, people deserve to know that. But they also deserve to know that because — I believe it’s called behavioral economics — when people have more information, they’ll make different and better decisions.”
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Odds & Ends –
Brunswick County to explore creating a stormwater utility
Brunswick County commissioners will not pause new development. Instead, board members agreed during their Monday night meeting to further explore the possibility of creating a stormwater utility as a way to address mounting concerns about the county’s ongoing building boom. “The stormwater utility would help solve the problem of increased growth, polluted stormwater, and improve the drainage capabilities of the county that are susceptible to flooding,” Commissioner Pat Sykes said. “Within this we should be able to designate certain areas as special protection areas. These areas would determine, should they be low, medium or high density.” This utility is created to collect fees from property owners, which are then used to maintain and improve drainage systems. Sykes eventually seconded a motion made by Chairman Randy Thompson to direct county staff to move forward with coming up with a plan to establish a temporary moratorium on new commercial, multifamily and single-family home construction. Thompson suggested a moratorium would span 120 days. Commissioners voted down the motion 3-2. “I’m sorry, but I’m not in favor of a moratorium,” Commissioner Marty Cooke said. “I don’t see legally we can do it.” Thompson reiterated concerns he raised at the board’s Sept. 23 meeting as reasons for implementing a building pause, one he and supporters of a moratorium say is needed to give the county time to examine its water and wastewater service capacity, current fire service adequacy, impacts of pending construction, floodwater management, and update its unified development ordinance, or UDO. “I honestly believe that all these things need to be addressed,” he said Monday night. “They need to be addressed quickly, but it takes time to address them properly and so that is why I am still firmly in the belief that we need to do a moratorium.” Others agreed, arguing that the county can make the case a building moratorium is needed to address imminent public health and safety concerns. Gene Vasile, president of the Alliance of Brunswick County Property Owners Association, said Thompson’s comments at the Sept. 23 meeting summarized the most serious consequences of “excessive development.” “Ask yourself, how can developments the size of small towns be approved in areas that are served by volunteer fire departments?” Vasile said. “The consequences of rapid development without advanced planning for its ramifications are serious and irresponsible. In the interest of public health, safety and good order, a moratorium on the approval of certain new development is essential.” Shallotte Mayor Walter Eccard shared those sentiments, saying he believed county commissioners have the authority to declare a moratorium “for the purpose of addressing public safety and adequacy of infrastructure.” Eccard, who said he was speaking as a resident of the county, referenced widespread damage in the county caused by flooding from the unnamed storm that dumped more than 15 inches of rain onto the area last month. “The impact of recent uncontrolled growth and its related clear-cutting raised, at a minimum, serious questions with respect to the adequacy of the county’s rules for stormwater control, flood mitigation and other matters,” he said. “As you know the recent storm resulted in local flooding, road closures, bridges destroyed, limitations of emergency vehicle access and inadequate evacuation routes. These present serious public health and safety concerns.” Major new developments, Eccard said, have been approved without a review of whether existing fire and emergency services could adequately serve them. “It’s clear to many of us that this is a recipe leading to catastrophe,” he said. Rather than call for a building moratorium, St. James Mayor Jean Toner asked commissioners immediately approve text amendments to the county’s UDO that address trees and green space, transportation overlay zoning and transportation impact analysis. Toner said rampant clear-cutting, high-density housing and inadequate requirements for developers to create open space, “have created a situation where development is neither well-managed nor responsible.” “Since 2020 the county has approved 37,500 new housing units,” she said. “UDO text amendments are necessary to mitigate the problems that result from these changes. Revisions to mitigate flooding associated with stormwater runoff are overdue. How much more flooding, damaging homes, businesses and roads and bridges, must we experience before change is made?” Rather than establish a building moratorium, County Manager Steve Stone recommended to commissioners amend the county’s stormwater ordinance and enhance the flood prevention ordinance. Specifically, Stone suggests developers be required to include stormwater designs for a 100-year storm event rainfall. Currently, the ordinance requires plans for a 25-year event. “It’s technically feasible to implement this change within 120 days of beginning the process,” he said, referring to a stormwater ordinance amendment.
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Brunswick considers creating stormwater utility, expanding buffer requirements to improve resiliency
Two months after an unnamed storm inundated Brunswick County with severe flooding and damage to local roadways, officials are evaluating options to enhance stormwater management. Last month, Brunswick County Commissioners struck down chair Randy Thompson’s motion to request staff prepare information for an imminent 120-day development moratorium due to issues including strained water and wastewater capacity, flooding and stormwater management, and the adequacy of the county’s emergency services. County manager Steve Stone recommended the county instead continue to evaluate the feasibility of a moratorium and amend stormwater rules to require systems to handle 100-year storm events. Commissioners unanimously passed a motion for staff to present potential updates to the county’s stormwater ordinance at the October meeting. Stormwater engineer Richard Christensen and deputy engineering services director Brigit Flora carried out the presentation at last week’s commissioner meeting. Recommended changes include enhanced protections of riparian buffers — undisturbed vegetation, such as trees or shrubs, adjacent to natural drainage ways — and the potential creation of a new stormwater utility for the county. The utility would be a separate legal entity in charge of stormwater management planning, engineering, administration, maintenance, and permitting. It would be paid by user fees and determine rates based on properties’ runoff generation and stormwater controls. Staff’s presentation stated upgrading stormwater control measures to handle a 100-year storm event — 10 to 11 inches over 24 hours — would increase management costs and reduce developable land; standard stormwater conveyance systems within the county are designed to handle a 10-year storm event of seven inches within 24 hours. September’s Potential Tropical Cyclone #8 dropped upward of 20 inches of rain in 24 hours and was considered a 1,000-year storm event. Commissioners requested staff provide additional information at the December meeting and did not take a vote last week. Brunswick County’s stormwater ordinance requires 30-foot riparian buffers be maintained on streams, ponds, lakes, and other water bodies in the county. Christensen and Flora noted the vegetation strips trap and filter pollutants from upland stormwater and maintain the integrity of natural drainage systems. However, Brunswick County currently does not require riparian buffers around wetlands; staff recommended adding new requirements for wetlands and increasing buffer width to 50 feet. Residents have repeatedly raised concerns about the impact of development in the county — consistently ranked among the fastest growing in the state — on stormwater management. Brunswick County Conservation Partnership founder Christie Marek first floated the idea of a development moratorium at the planning board’s August meeting to ensure infrastructure can meet demand and address negative impacts of growth. The issue was salient before the planning board approved the 2,950 unit Ashton Farms development in March after rejecting it last year. The planning board endorsed the project after applicant Thomas & Hutton Engineering revised its plan to include 30-foot wetland riparian buffers in Natural Heritage Program areas and expanded stormwater ponds capable of handling 100-year storm events. In neighboring New Hanover County, its Unified Development Ordinance requires 25-to-100-foot buffer zones from conservation areas. Conservationist Andy Wood argued protections have not been adequately enforced and views the reduction of riparian buffers in Brunswick and New Hanover counties as a contributor to degradation of local waterways. “When you destroy the riparian buffer for short-term development,” he said, “you’re ultimately ruining water quality both at the surface and in the aquifer. And relative to travel and tourism at the ocean, because our dirty surface water flows out to the beach.” Wood is a member of Save Sledge Forest, a group that seeks to conserve a 4,030-unit development proposed in a 4,039-acre Castle Hayne property including roughly 3,000 acres of wetlands. The North Carolina Land and Water Fund cited Sledge Forest’s riparian buffers along the northeast Cape Fear River and Prince George Creek among its reasons for considering the property a top state priority for conservation. A portion of the waterway was added to the Department of Environmental Quality’s impaired water bodies list this year due to arsenic and hexavalent chromium found in fish tissue. DEQ added several Brunswick County water bodies to the 2024 list. In the Lumber River Basin, 2.2 miles of Leonard Branch river connecting to Juniper Creek joined due to fecal coliform and Lockwoods Folly River from Royal Oak Swamp to SR 1200 was included for dissolved oxygen. Sustainable engineering firm Stantec Consulting Services Inc. cited stormwater runoff from development in the Lockwoods Folly River Basin as a contributor to declining water quality in a 2010 report. The firm included riparian buffer restoration among its recommendations to improve water quality in the region. Riparian buffer regulation has been fiercely contested over the last decade. Business associations representing development and real estate interests have argued developers are insufficiently compensated for protecting riparian buffers and advocated for less expansive mandated buffer size. The North Carolina Home Builders Association took credit for helping pass a 2015 bill which prohibited local governments from enacting stricter riparian buffer regulations than the state’s 50-foot guideline. The Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, an influential Wilmington-based business association, also expressed support for the legislation. The bill still allowed municipalities to apply to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission for greater buffers with local scientific evidence to justify regulations. Sen. Bill Rabon — who has served as Brunswick County’s senator since 2011 — supported a 2017 bill that would have removed local governments’ abilities to apply for individual standards. He argued municipalities “use the provision to get around buffer rules” during a 2017 committee meeting. The 2023 Farm Bill removed protections for up to 3 million acres of state wetlands and further reduced riparian buffer protection in the state. A provision drops the penalty for removing timber in a riparian buffer from a maximum of $25,000 to the value of timber removed. The Department of Environmental Quality allows developers to pay into a mitigation bank to compensate for impacts to riparian buffers. Environmental Management Commissioner Michael Ellison — former director of DEQ’s Division of Mitigation Services — circumvented the Environmental Management Commission’s proposed 2014 update to stream protection rules after engaging in private meetings with industry representatives. The EMC publicly criticized his actions.
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North Carolina G.O.P. Brushes Aside Democratic Governor to Expand Power
After cloaking a bill that strips key powers from Democrats as hurricane aid, the state’s Republican-controlled legislature overrode a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to pass it into law.
Republicans in North Carolina muscled through a sweeping expansion of their own power on Wednesday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto of a bill that will give the G.O.P. increased control over elections, judicial appointments and whether its laws stand up in the courts. Perhaps most striking was how Republicans did it: They titled the legislation “Disaster Relief” but filled it with measures that had nothing to do with aid for areas devastated by Hurricane Helene and instead eroded the power of top state Democrats. Just 13 of the bill’s 131 pages dealt directly with the storm. Republicans moved swiftly to pass the bill last month, only for Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, to veto the legislation. Republicans then moved to overcome his veto in the final weeks of their single-vote supermajority in the House, where they lost key seats in November. Even as Donald J. Trump carried the state, Republicans fell short in several other top races, including for governor, attorney general and secretary of state. The override vote, which passed by 72 to 46 along party lines, follows four years of efforts by Republicans nationwide to gain greater control over the mechanics of elections, a push initially fueled by Mr. Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential contest. State Representative Tim Moore, the departing Republican speaker of the House, said openly before the vote that the bill was meant to help his party win future elections. “This action item today is going to be critical to making sure North Carolina continues to be able to do what it can to deliver victories for Republicans up and down the ticket and move this country in the right direction,” Mr. Moore told the Trump ally and conservative podcaster Stephen K. Bannon on Wednesday. Lawmakers in North Carolina have a tradition of trying to lock in their political power after election losses. Democrats wielded such tactics in the 1990s, but more recently Republicans have led the way. After Mr. Cooper beat the Republican incumbent in 2016, the legislature stripped the governor’s office of key powers and reduced the number of staff members he could appoint by more than 1,000 positions. Republicans in the state have also long used voting laws to try to gain an upper hand in elections. In 2016, a federal appeals court struck down a voter identification law passed by Republicans, saying its provisions deliberately “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” (A less restrictive voter ID law was passed in 2018.) The House vote on Wednesday means that the bill will now become law in North Carolina, after the State Senate voted this month to override Mr. Cooper’s veto. Democrats have vowed to challenge the legislation in court, arguing that changes to the state election board and other measures were unconstitutional. The law will significantly restructure the state election board, the top authority over voting in North Carolina, wresting appointment power away from the governor’s office and handing it to the state auditor, who will be a Republican next year. The change is likely to put the board, which currently has three Democrats and two Republicans, under G.O.P. control. The legislation will also significantly restrict the governor’s ability to fill vacancies on state courts, including the Supreme Court, by limiting the options to candidates offered by the political party of the judge leaving the seat. And it will curtail the ability of the attorney general — currently Governor-elect Josh Stein, and next year Jeff Jackson, another Democrat — to challenge laws passed by the legislature. Beyond those proposals, the law will make major changes to state election procedures. It will significantly shorten the time voters have after Election Day to address problems with their mail and absentee ballots — a process known as curing — and will require local election officials to finish counting provisional ballots within three days of the election. Though Republicans currently enjoy a one-vote supermajority in the House, a successful override of the governor’s veto was not a foregone conclusion in Raleigh, the capital. Three Republican state representatives from western North Carolina had voted against the initial bill, arguing that it had not done enough to bring new storm aid to their region. As recently as Tuesday, at least one of them, Mark Pless, had indicated he was unsure how he was going to vote. But on Wednesday, Mr. Pless, along with the two other lawmakers from the region, Mike Clampitt and Karl E. Gillespie, backed the move to enact sweeping changes to state government. In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Pless reiterated that he believed the bill had been rushed and, on initial inspection, had provided no aid for western North Carolina. “Since that day I have spent hours examining the bill to understand the content and explore options to get funding to the hurting people of western North Carolina,” he said. “I have discussed the needs with numerous elected leaders local, state and federal. I am convinced there is a path forward and money will be available next quickly to provide help to the people of western North Carolina.” Mr. Cooper responded to the veto override in a statement: “Western North Carolina small businesses and communities still wait for support from the legislature while Republicans make political power grabs the priority. Shameful.” Dozens of protesters gathered inside and outside the chamber on Wednesday before the vote, singing “This Little Light of Mine” and holding signs that read “stop the power grab” and “Western N.C. needs disaster relief, NOT more voter suppression.” Western areas of the state are still struggling to recover after Helene ripped through in late September, causing roughly $53 billion in damage. In October, the legislature approved about $877 million in recovery aid, including $50 million in loans for small businesses. But local leaders called for far more, and Mr. Cooper had sought a $3.9 billion proposal. A drive down Lyman Street in the River Arts district of Asheville revealed block after block of devastation, with crumpled buildings, tangled steel and debris stretching for nearly a mile. Residents and small businesses have been waiting for more help from the legislature and have grown frustrated about the intrusion of politics. Two Democratic state representatives from the western part of the state — Eric Ager and Lindsey Prather — criticized the override effort from the chamber floor, listing at length the residents and businesses still struggling to recover from the hurricane. “This bill just doesn’t meet the moment, and it doesn’t meet North Carolina’s values,” Mr. Ager said. “We should have done more sooner. You know, we talk about figuring all this out. The people in North Carolina are tired of hearing that help is on the way. It’s not coming. And that’s, that’s the way people feel.” State Representative Dudley Greene, a Republican from Avery County in the state’s northwest, tearfully recounted his experience when the hurricane hit, and how at one point he had slept in a Walmart parking lot. He defended state lawmakers’ response to the disaster, saying that recovery would take time, and indicated that the money shifted in the bill was better than nothing. “To say we’re not doing anything, we’ve done it, and we continue to do it,” Mr. Greene said. “We’ve allocated money that hasn’t had time to even be spent yet, and will allocate more, I’m sure.” Mr. Stein, the governor-elect, has been critical of the effort. “The bill, to be clear, is a power grab, not disaster relief,” he told reporters at the Democratic Governors Association’s winter meeting last week in California. “It’s petty and wrongheaded, and it’s contrary to what the voters of North Carolina had just done in this election and who they elected.”
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North Carolina GOP changes election rules before losing supermajority
Republicans in the state legislature gave an ally control over the state’s elections board, rewrote ballot-counting rules and chipped away at the power of the incoming Democratic governor.
Flexing power just before they lose their supermajority, Republicans in North Carolina’s legislature overrode a veto Wednesday to give one of their allies control over the state’s elections board, rewrite ballot-counting rules and chip away at the power of the incoming Democratic governor. The move came as Republicans sought to claim three seats in the legislature and a spot on the state Supreme Court by throwing out tens of thousands of ballots in races they lost last month. The state Democratic Party is fighting that effort by asking a federal judge to ensure votes don’t get tossed because of administrative errors. The developments offer the latest test for democracy in the swing state while highlighting North Carolina Republicans’ brand of go-to-the-mat politics. Courts could soon review how ballots were counted in last month’s election, and judges will almost certainly be asked to review the new law limiting the power of the incoming governor, Josh Stein (D). The dispute over the state Supreme Court is one of the last of its kind in the country. Election disputes have been less protracted this winter than four years ago, when Donald Trump and his supporters filed lawsuit after lawsuit to contest his loss of the White House. Under the measure lawmakers approved Wednesday, Stein will lose the power to appoint members of the state and county elections board. Those duties will be handled by the incoming auditor, Dave Boliek, who will be the first Republican to hold the job in 16 years. The auditor is responsible for reviewing state finances and previously has not had a role in running elections. Republicans rushed the lame-duck bill through the legislature to get it in place before they lose the veto-proof majority that in recent years has allowed them to sideline the outgoing governor, Roy Cooper (D). Republicans will still have large majorities in both chambers, but their strength in the House in January will fall below the three-fifths margin they need to override vetoes without the help of Democrats. The legislature passed the bill last month, and Cooper quickly vetoed it. The state Senate overrode the veto last week, and the House overrode it Wednesday. That will put the law into effect — and queue up an all-but-inevitable lawsuit. The law also limits the legal arguments the incoming attorney general, Jeff Jackson (D), can make in court, eliminates the jobs of two judges who have ruled against lawmakers and requires the governor to fill any vacancies to the state’s top courts with appointees recommended by the political party of the departing judge. That will prevent Stein from appointing Democrats to fill future openings on the state Supreme Court if any Republicans step down. The bill will give voters who cast provisional ballots three days instead of nine to provide election officials with information that ensures their votes count. And it will require election officials to tally absentee ballots on Election Day that night, forcing them to work through the night in some cases. Republicans said the main purpose of the bill was to provide $227 million in Hurricane Helene relief. Critics called the assistance hollow because additional legislation will be needed to allocate the funds. Three House Republicans from areas affected by the hurricane voted against the measure when the legislature first considered it, and GOP leaders worried they could prevent the bill from being overridden. Hours before the legislature took up the bill, Speaker Tim Moore (R) appeared on former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast to urge people to call Republican lawmakers to insist they vote to override the measure. “We need the MAGA world to step up and remind our Republicans to stand strong,” Moore said. Moore said the measure would improve elections, saying it shifted authority over the state elections board to the auditor “because, frankly, I think we need auditing of the elections.” The push to limit the power of Democrats in North Carolina echoes legislation lawmakers passed eight years ago to restrain Cooper just before he was sworn in. That measure also would have given Republicans more control of elections, but courts blocked that element of the law. Democrats, meanwhile, have grown alarmed by the fight over the state Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a 5-2 majority and an appetite for cases with political dimensions. Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appeals judge, filed challenges on technical grounds to more than 60,000 votes after losing the race by 734 votes to Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat who joined the court in 2023. Many of the ballots Griffin challenged were cast by longtime voters who do not have their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on file as part of their voter registrations. Griffin asked election officials to discard ballots if voters didn’t update their registrations with that information. Democrats who control the state elections board rejected that idea Wednesday, with Chairman Alan Hirsch saying discounting votes on such grounds is “anathema to the democratic system.” Griffin challenged other types of ballots as well, such as those cast by overseas and military voters who did not provide a copy of their ID and overseas voters whose parents are from North Carolina but who have not lived in the state themselves. The board rejected those challenges, in part because it found Griffin had not properly notified voters he was protesting their ballots. Griffin can appeal in state court under a process that could ultimately put the matter before the state Supreme Court. That would leave it to Riggs’s colleagues to decide whether she can remain on the court. Hoping to avoid that outcome, the state Democratic Party on Friday filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to declare that the state must count the challenged ballots. Democrats believe the federal courts offer them more protection, while Republicans want to see the matter play out in state court given the GOP tilt to the state Supreme Court. Republicans in August made some of the same arguments about voter registration that Griffin is making now. That case is ongoing, but a federal judge last month said his final ruling will affect future elections but not ones that have already been held. Democrats expressed outrage over the challenges. “It’s a political temper tantrum that is expensive and it is exhausting,” said Kimberly Hardy, a Democrat and assistant professor of social work whose ballot was challenged. When Griffin filed his ballot challenges, he contended he was seeking to protect democracy in the state. “These protests,” he said in a statement, “are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.” North Carolina’s Supreme Court has shifted to the right since 2016, when the state abandoned nonpartisan court races and required candidates to run as members of political parties. Republicans won a 5-2 majority in 2022 and immediately reconsidered decisions the court had just made so they could put in place a voter ID law and a redistricting plan that favored the GOP.
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Republicans in North Carolina pass sweeping changes to consolidate power
The last-minute inclusions in a lame-duck bill will strip the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general of significant authority before the GOP loses its legislative supermajority.
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North Carolina Republicans Push to Seize Power From Top Democrats
The state’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a sweeping bill that would erode the power of the Democratic governor and attorney general and hand the G.O.P. more control over elections.
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This and That –
Every year, the independent nonprofit ratings agencies Charity Navigator and Candid Guidestar evaluate charities nationwide based on fiscal transparency, accountability, and effectiveness. We are thrilled to share that this year the Coastal Federation earned the highest ratings from both Charity Navigator and the Candid Guidestar. Review the details on Charity Navigator and Candid Guidestar.
As a Federation supporter, you can be proud to support an organization earning top marks nationwide and you can be confident that your donation will be put to good use.
Mission:
Since its founding in 1982, the North Carolina Coastal Federation has worked with citizens to safeguard the coastal rivers, creeks, sounds and beaches of North Carolina. Headquartered in Newport, North Carolina with offices in Wanchese and Wrightsville Beach, the Coastal Federation works in three key program areas: environmental advocacy; restoring and protecting habitat and water quality; and educating citizens and community leaders. Our vision is for a natural, beautiful, and productive coast that is a great place to live, work and visit. Today the Coastal Federation consists of more than 11,000 supporters, 200 partner organizations, thousands of active volunteers and a 30-member professional staff and is considered one of the most effective coastal conservation groups in the state. The Coastal Federation remains a collaborative, grassroots organization, bringing together traditional and nontraditional organizations, government agencies and businesses to leave a legacy of a healthy coast for future generations.
What’s behind the name of this seaside town in Brunswick County?
How did a seaside community in Brunswick County, located midway between Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, get its name? The island of Holden Beach is named after Benjamin Holden, who bought four mainland tracts and the island between his plantation and the ocean in 1756. The island extended from Lockwood’s Folly Inlet west six miles to Bacon Inlet. Holden and his sons used the island for fishing and cattle grazing. John Holden, Benjamin’s grandson in 1924, began a commercial fishery on the island. Holden also started planning a vacation destination, which is called the Holden Beach Resort. It was the first subdivision of oceanfront property in Brunswick County. The town of Holden Beach was incorporated on Feb. 14, 1969. A new high-rise concrete bridge was dedicated on May 13, 1986, allowing better access to the more than 1,900 homes on the island. The Holden Beach Fishing Pier has been closed to the public since 2022, but steps are being taken to either reopen or revamp the structure.
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Factoid That May Interest Only Me –
Christmas Trees Recycling
Christmas trees can be recycled to help build sand dunes on the beach. It is a way to build more protection on the shore by using them as a natural and biodegradable sand fencing. The trees are positioned facing downward at a 45-degree angle. Once the trees are laid down, they are left completely exposed except for the tips, which are covered in sand. The needles of the branches catch the sand, and it starts to accumulate until gradually the sand will bury the tree and build up the dunes around them. As the tree biodegrades, it provides nutrients to the other plants and organisms around it.
Paid parking will now extend to all Brunswick beach towns
Seeing it as ‘inevitable,’ another Brunswick beach town votes for paid parking
This Brunswick beach town is the last island in Brunswick County to hop aboard the paid parking program express. During its Monday, Dec. 2, special meeting, Sunset Beach Town Council came to a consensus to implement a paid parking program in 2025. A discussion was held by council members but there was no public comment section during the meeting. The main reason the board has decided to look into paid parking is due to concerns about public safety and the need for control over parking, Councilman Charles Nern said. If the town does not start charging people to park, Sunset Beach will be “inundated,” said Councilman Peter Larkin, with people trying to take advantage of free parking because surrounding beach towns require payment for parking. “I think it’s inevitable,” Larkin added.
Here’s what to know.
Discussion and program details
Councilman Mike Hargreaves presented the topic and led the discussion, noting the board in September accepted “in conception” an island parking plan. The Sunset Beach Police Department currently uses SurfCAST through OttoConnect to manage parking citations. A paid parking program will be a new addition. The parking plan includes more than 250 paid parking spots but the plan and parking areas are subject to change. “It may not be perfect – that’s for sure – but the concepts are there,” said Hargreaves. “The plan is there pretty much, I think.” Most decisions regarding the details of the paid parking program will be made after the council chooses to hire a paid parking management company. Hargreaves said the town will work with property owners that may have paid parking spaces in front of their homes before officially designating parking areas. Council members talked about signage and coloring curb stops to mark parking spaces. Some board members are concerned that too many signs could be a problem. “It’s going to be a field of signs, it’s going to look like ‘Picketville,'” Councilman Mike Pozdol said.
Paying for the program
McGill and Associates, Hargreaves noted, gave the town cost estimates on startup program costs. The town could spend anywhere from $114,000 to $125,000 to initiate a paid parking on all the roads. Board members said they do not want tax payers to pay for the program. “We’re sticking with that,” said Nern. Town Administrator Lisa Anglin said property owners will pay for program installment costs such as surveying, signs and curb stops upfront using money from the general fund until the town is able to “recapture” the costs in paid parking revenue. “Before we can make any revenue off of parking, we have to delineate where parking is. … Those costs will 100% be paid out of general fund before any revenue is generated,” Anglin said. Staff recommends the town initiate on street parking before fronting the costs of building a parking lot.
A parking lot on the island
One grassy spot on Sunset Boulevard, named the “Boulevard Lot,” will also contribute to paid parking revenue. The town has yet to approve the lease agreement nor a plan for the Boulevard Lot. Anglin said the Boulevard Lot will need an engineering and construction company to make it a paved parking area. The town might keep its foot on the brake for the paving project since it could cost as high as $500,000.
Further discussion
Ocean Isle Beach earlier this year approved implementing a paid parking program in 2025 and has recently held two public input sessions. Ocean Isle Beach chose SurfCAST by Otto Connect as its parking management firm.
Though the town of Sunset Beach is going through with paid parking, council members have not selected a parking management firm. “There’s a tremendous number of details to work out,” Mayor Pro-Tem John Corbett said. Four proposals from parking management firms have been received, Hargreaves noted. He, Anglin and Nern have been tasked as the parking committee to make a recommendation on what firm they think would be best.
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Former Trolley Stop lot becomes new parking area for Holden Beach visitors
Several months after a popular Holden Beach shop burned down, the lot where it once stood is now being used to help the town with one of its biggest problems: parking. Back in March, the Holden Beach Trolley Stop convenience store and bar burned down in an early morning fire. Since then, owner Jeremy Ridenhour has torn down the structure and turned the space into a parking lot. Visitors can park there all day for just $20, cash only, with 24 cars able to use the lot and visitors don’t need the town’s annual parking pass to park there. Ridenhour said this parking lot will help not just the town’s residents but visitors as well. “You know, we’re really here to help the people of the community and you know, help the people that’s not on the island, the people that live off the island to have a place to come and park,” Ridenhour said. “It’s real close, it’s located really close to the beach. Most of our parking, we have 24 parking places here that are closer than the town’s parking to the public access.” Ridenhour added that he isn’t planning on rebuilding the Trolley Stop but would be open to doing so if the opportunity presents itself.
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Hot Button Issues –
Subjects that are important to people and about which they have strong opinions
Climate
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There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
Why a two-year surge in global warmth is worrying scientists
Instead, global temperatures remain at near-record levels.
As 2023 came to a close, scientists had hoped that a stretch of record heat that emerged across the planet might finally begin to subside this year. It seemed likely that temporary conditions, including an El Niño climate pattern that has always been known to boost average global temperatures, would give way to let Earth cool down. That didn’t happen. Instead, global temperatures remain at near-record levels. After 2023 ended up the warmest year in human history by far, 2024 is almost certain to be even warmer. Now, some scientists say this could indicate fundamental changes are happening to the global climate that are raising temperatures faster than anticipated. “This shifts the odds towards probably more warming in the pipeline,” said Helge Goessling, a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. One or two years of such heat, however extraordinary, doesn’t alone mean that the warming trajectory is hastening. Scientists are exploring a number of theories for why the heat is been so persistent. The biggest factor, they agree, is that the world’s oceans remain extraordinarily warm, far beyond what is usual — warmth that drives the temperature on land up as well. This could prove to be a temporary phenomenon, just an unlucky two years, and could reverse. “Temperatures could start plummeting in the next few months and we’d say it was just internal variability. I don’t think we can rule that out yet,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth. But he added, “I think signs are certainly pointing toward fairly persistent warmth.” But some scientists are worried the oceans have become so warm that they won’t cool down as much as they historically have, perhaps contributing to a feedback loop that will accelerate climate change. “The global ocean is warming relentlessly year after year and is the best single indicator that the planet is warming,” said Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished scholar with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Other factors are temporary, even if they leave the world a bit hotter. One important one, scientists say, is that years of efforts to clean up air pollutants are having an unintended consequence — removing a layer in the atmosphere that was reflecting some of the sun’s heat back into space. Whatever the mix of factors or how long they last, scientists say the lack of clear explanation lowers their confidence that climate change will follow the established pattern that models have predicted. “We can’t rule out eventually much bigger changes,” Hausfather said. “The more we research climate change, the more we learn that uncertainty isn’t our friend.” Experts had been counting on the end of El Niño to help reverse the trend. The routine global climate pattern, driven by a pool of warmer-than-normal waters across the Pacific, peaked last winter. Usually about five months after El Niño peaks, global average temperatures start to cool down. Often, that’s because El Niño is quickly replaced with La Niña. Under this pattern, the same strip of Pacific waters become colder than normal, creating a larger cooling effect on the planet. But La Niña hasn’t materialized as scientists predicted it would, either. That leaves the world waiting for relief as it confronts what is forecast to be its first year above a long-feared threshold of planetary warming: average global temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than they were two centuries ago, before humans started burning vast amounts of fossil fuels. (Formally crossing this threshold requires at least several years above it.) The year 2023 is the current warmest year on record at 1.48 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average. However, 2024 is expected to be at least 1.55 degrees, breaking the record set the year before. Last year’s record was further above the expected track of global warming than scientists had ever seen, by a margin of more than three tenths of a degree. This year, that margin is expected to be even larger. While changes in temperatures of a degree or less may seem small, they can have large effects, Trenberth said. Like “the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he said. That includes increasing heat and humidity extremes that are life-threatening, changing ocean heat patterns that could alter critical fisheries, and melting glaciers whose freshwater resources are key to energy generation. And scientists say if the temperature benchmarks are passed for multiple years at time, storms, floods and droughts will increase in intensity, too, with a host of domino effects.
Trouble with record warm waters
Compared to past years when El Niño has faded, the current conditions are unlike any seen before. A look at sea surface temperatures following three major El Niño years — 2024, 1998 and 1983 — reveal that a La Niña-like pattern was evident in all three years, with a patch of cooler than average conditions emerging in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. But in 2024, the patch was narrow, unimpressive and dwarfed by warmer than average seas that cover most of the planet, including parts of every ocean basin. Known as marine heat waves, these expansive blobs of unusual oceanic heat are typically defined as seas being much warmer than average, in the highest 10 percent of historical observations, across a wide area for a prolonged period. Strong to severe marine heat waves are occurring in the Atlantic, much of the Pacific, the western and eastern Indian Ocean, and in the Mediterranean Sea. In October, ocean temperatures at that high threshold covered more than a third of the planet. On the other end, less than 1 percent of the planet had ocean temperatures in the lowest 10 percent of historical values. Warm and cold ocean temperature extremes should more closely offset each other. But what’s happening is a clear demonstration that oceans, where heat accumulates fastest, are absorbing most of Earth’s energy imbalance. Warm extremes are greatly exceeding cold ones. That’s a problem because what happens in the ocean doesn’t stay in the ocean. Because ocean water covers more than 70 percent of Earth, what happens there is critically important to temperatures and humidity on land, with coastal heat waves sometimes fueling terrestrial ones. Weather systems can sometimes linger, producing persistent sunny and wind-free days and bringing ideal conditions for marine heat wave development. These systems can sometimes straddle the land and the ocean, leading to a connected heat wave and transporting humidity. Trenberth said increasing heat in the oceans, particularly the upper 1,000 feet, is a major factor in the relentless increases in average surface temperatures around the world. And changes in ocean heat content can affect not just air temperatures, but sea ice, the energy available to storms and water cycles across the planet.
Factors that could trigger changes in global heat
Research has begun to unpack what else may be triggering such changes in global heat. One recent study found that a reduction in air pollution over the world’s oceans may have contributed to 20 to 30 percent of the warming seen over the North Atlantic and North Pacific, said Andrew Gettelman, a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the study’s lead author. Restrictions on sulfur content in the fuels used by shipping liners, put in place in 2020, have dramatically reduced concentrations of sulfur dioxide particles that tend to encourage cloud formation. Though it means lower pollution levels, with fewer clouds, more solar radiation is hitting the oceans and warming them. A study released Tuesday found that a decline in cloud cover likely contributed to perhaps 0.2 degrees Celsius in previously unexplained warming that hit the planet last year. Goessling and colleagues think that was the product of cleaner shipping emissions, as well as a positive feedback loop in which warming close to Earth’s surface leads to reduced cloud cover, which leads to even more warming. The study found that in 2023, planetary albedo — the amount of sunlight reflected back into space by light-colored surfaces including clouds, snow and ice cover — may have been at its lowest since at least 1940. There have also been questions about the roles other factors may be playing, such as an increase in stratospheric water vapor after a 2022 volcanic eruption. But Earth’s systems are so complex that it’s been impossible to parse what exactly is happening to allow the surge in global temperatures to persist for so long. “Is this just a blip, or is this actually an acceleration of the warming?” Gettelman said. “That’s the thing everyone is trying to understand right now.”
What happens next?
This year is widely expected to be the warmest year on record, driven largely by the huge stores of ocean heat. And for now, seasonal model guidance keeps the foot on the accelerator into early 2025, as far as widespread warmer than average seas go. Because of record ocean heat and global temperatures, atmospheric circulation patterns, jet streams and storm tracks across the planet will change. Temperature records will continue to be set. How big these changes are partly depending on how much warming occurs in the year ahead. But that is unclear because the cooling that usually follows El Niño still hasn’t arrived. It’s possible that normal planetary variations are playing a bigger role than scientists expect and that temperatures could soon begin to drop, said Hausfather, who also works for the payments company Stripe. Even without the cooling influence of a La Niña, a stretch under neutral conditions, with neither a La Niña nor an El Niño, should mean some decline in global average temperatures, he said. At the same time, if this year’s unusual planetary warmth doesn’t slow down into 2025, there would be nothing to prevent the next El Niño from sending global temperatures soaring — the starting point for the next El Niño would be that much higher. Whether that happens later in 2025 remains to be seen. But the lack of clarity isn’t a promising sign when some of the most plausible explanations allow for the most extreme global warming scenarios, Hausfather said. “The fact that we don’t know the answer here is not necessarily comforting to us,” he said.
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Warming oceans made every 2024 hurricane stronger study says
“Through record-breaking ocean warming, human carbon pollution is worsening hurricane catastrophes in our communities.” – Dr. Daniel Gilford, climate scientist
With the official end of the 2024 hurricane season on Nov. 30, a new study has found that climate change supercharged 2024’s hurricanes and tropical storms − including Tropical Storm Helene that devastated Western North Carolina − and made them on average one category stronger than they normally would have been. The report by Climate Central, a nonprofit climate research group, builds on research looking at storms between 2019 and 2023 that found 30 hurricanes were more intense than they would have normally been due to sea surface temperatures made hotter by global warming. For the 2024 season, the Climate Central analysis found that maximum wind speeds for all eleven hurricanes to form so far were increased by 9 to 28 miles per hour. That included pushing Hurricanes Beryl and Milton to become Category 5 monsters, storms that otherwise wouldn’t have reached that level of intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Water temperatures in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico were at or above record levels for much of hurricane season, allowing tropical weather systems to suck in more fuel and turbocharge themselves into super storms. Hurricane Milton, for example, rapidly intensified by 95 mph in just 24 hours, faster than any other storm in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center. “Every hurricane in 2024 was stronger than it would have been 100 years ago,” Dr. Daniel Gilford, climate scientist at Climate Central and lead author of the study, said in a release. “Through record-breaking ocean warming, human carbon pollution is worsening hurricane catastrophes in our communities.” Helene’s wind speeds were made about 13 mph more intense because of climate change. In late September Helene ripped through Florida’s northern Gulf Coast before tearing through Georgia, South Carolina and into Western North Carolina, where it caused massive flooding, washing away roads, bridges and in some cases whole towns. The deadly storm killed more than 100 people in the Tar Heel State and caused an estimated $53 billion in damages.
Increased risk, increased costs
The new report adds to the mountain of evidence that human-induced warming of the planet through the pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere is having profound impacts on the world’s weather, including the power, size and deadly impact of hurricanes. The increased threat from tropical weather systems has seen scientists and some political officials rushing to raise the alarm and hasten communities, especially along the coast, to become more resilient and better prepared for when − not if − one of these superstorms comes calling. Researchers also are warning that it isn’t just the storm’s winds that are being turbocharged by our warming climate. Helene dropped more than 30 inches of rain on parts of Western North Carolina, while an unnamed storm off the Cape Fear coast in mid-September that surprised local officials dumped more than 20 inches of rain on parts of New Hanover and Brunswick counties. The rising temperatures also are impacting sea levels, as warming waters mean ice in Greenland and Antarctica is melting more quickly than originally forecast. In a recent sea-level rise update report, the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission Science Panel said the evidence is becoming increasingly clear that the seas are rising, faster than originally thought in some cases, and that the trend will accelerate in the coming decades. The state’s top committee of coastal experts said North Carolina and coastal communities needs to plan to deal with at least 1 foot of sea-level rise compared to 2000 by 2050. An additional foot or more of sea-level rise, depending on how successful efforts are to slow the planet’s warming trend in coming decades, could easily occur before 2100. Some beachfront communities, like Rodanthe on the Outer Banks and North Topsail Beach on Topsail Island, are already facing severe erosion woes that threaten to accelerate more and more homes facing the threat of collapsing into the ocean, while communities like Carolina Beach struggle with tidal flooding that’s becoming increasingly common even without storms or King Tides. The private sector also is responding to concerns that climate change is making weather patterns more unpredictable, with some insurance companies either completely pulling out of states like Florida and Louisiana that have seen several direct hurricane hits in recent years or dramatically increasing homeowner rates to cover their potential risk of massive payouts if a big storm does hit. In North Carolina, the insurance industry is seeking to raise homeowner insurance premiums by 42% statewide and a staggering 99% in beach and coastal areas around Wilmington, citing the increased threat and uncertainty brought on by climate change as a primary driver. State regulators have challenged the proposal, and a decision made by N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey − which could be appealed by the insurance companies − is expected in the coming weeks. The National Flood Insurance Program, run by the federal government, also is pushing to significantly increase the prices it charges property owners as more areas are found to be either in floodplains or susceptible to massive rainfall events.
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Flood Insurance Program
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National Flood Insurance Program: Reauthorization
Congress must periodically renew the NFIP’s statutory authority to operate. On December 20, 2024, the president signed legislation passed by Congress that extends the National Flood Insurance Program’s (NFIP’s) authorization to March 14, 2025.
Congress must now reauthorize the NFIP
by no later than 11:59 pm on March 14, 2025.
GenX
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Homeowners Insurance
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NC coastal insurance rates are going up, but by how much is still to be determined
Insurance companies want to raise homeowner insurance rates by 42% statewide and nearly double them around Wilmington’s coastal areas. The state is challenging the proposal.
While several major questions about the country’s future were decided on Election Day, many residents in the Wilmington area are waiting for another big decision to come down. But how much North Carolina’s homeowner insurance rates might go up, especially at the coast, is still to be determined more than 10 months after a proposal by state insurers that could see some premiums double in price. A hearing to review a request by the N.C. Rate Bureau, a 14-member board that represents the industry, to raise homeowner insurance premiums by 42% statewide and an eyewatering 99% in beach and coastal areas around Wilmington, started in early October. The hearing was triggered after N.C. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey rejected the initial proposal, calling it too much. State law gives Causey 45 days to issue an order once a hearing concludes, and the insurance industry always has the option of taking the issue to the courts if they reject the commissioner’s findings. But the hearing has yet to wrap up, and the court is on hiatus this week. With the hearing likely to wrap up around mid-November, several officials said it could be next month − potentially just before the new year − before Causey makes a decision, with any changes to rates likely not effective until mid-2025. That’s because of the complexity of the case, but also because this is an election year, and Causey was up for re-election in a heated campaign against Democrat Natasha Marcus, who has blamed Causey for giving in too easily to the industry when it comes to raising insurance rates. North Carolina is a regulated insurance market, meaning companies have to receive approval from state regulators to raise most rates, including those for homeowner and auto insurance. Causey has said he has fought hard since taking charge of the state insurance office in 2017 to keep rates down. But having not had a rate increase in more than four years, and a pandemic and several natural disasters in between driving up repair costs and prompting large insurance payouts, even Causey admits the industry deserves the chance to raise rates. But the rub is by how much, with officials worryingly noting that the current rate request doesn’t include the damages from this year’s Hurricane Debby, an unnamed storm that slammed the Wilmington area in mid-September, and the devastating floods from Tropical Storm Helene in Western N.C.
No settlement this time around
In many past rate disputes, the insurance department and industry have been able to negotiate a settlement before the issue reached the courts. In the 2020 homeowners filing, for example, the rate bureau requested an average 24.5% increase but settled with the state on 8%. That the parties haven’t been able to reach a deal this time around shows just how much is at stake this time around. For N.C. homeowners, it is a pocketbook issue. But for Causey and the state as a whole, it’s about maintaining a healthy and attractive market for insurance companies to ply their trade. Push too hard, and North Carolina could find itself in a similar position to Florida and Louisiana, where repeated hurricane hits and an inability to charge premiums to cover their exposure have seen many insurance companies flee those states or go bankrupt. That has prompted both states to set up government-run programs as “insurers of last resort” for homeowners who don’t have any other options. But that, in turn, has put all of the state’s taxpayers on the hook if a major natural disaster strikes. A major factor driving the insurance industry’s desire to significantly increase rates − which is quickly becoming a national and global issue − is the increased size and frequency of natural disasters in recent years, which almost everyone is tying to climate change. Insurance companies themselves aren’t immune to the increased costs associated with ever-more frequent and expensive natural disasters, which include hurricanes, floods, wildfires, heatwaves and droughts, with the cost of reinsurance − effectively insurance for insurance companies − increasing dramatically in recent years, doubling in some cases. Munich Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers, has said “the insurance industry is directly affected by the consequences of climate change.” “In recent years, tropical storms (called hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones depending on the region where they occur) have been accompanied by increasingly extreme precipitation,” the German-based company states in a report discussing climate change and its consequences. “There are also indications that the proportion of especially severe storms is rising.”
New Hanover County tops the NC risk list
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also has sounded the alarm about the rising risk to many areas posed by the increased risk of natural disasters as the world warms and weather patterns become more unpredictable. The agency has created a National Risk Index to help residents and businesses determine a community’s risk factors. It also allows parties to compare and contrast risks between communities. Not surprisingly, the index shows the most risk-prone areas of North Carolina are at the coast. Unfortunately for Wilmington, FEMA says New Hanover County is the riskiest county of all in North Carolina. The county was rated “very high” for the risk of ice storms and lightning strikes, and “relatively low” for earthquakes. But it was the threat of hurricanes that pushed New Hanover’s risk score up, with the county rated as “very high” for threats from tropical storms. The FEMA risk index states that New Hanover has about a 40% chance of dealing with a hurricane in any given year, with an average annual loss of nearly $267 million. On the plus side, the index says New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties are safe from avalanches, a cold wave, landslides, volcanic activity, and tsunamis.
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Hurricane Season
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Hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season is officially over
The season proved hyperactive, with five hurricanes hitting the United States.
Coastal residents can now take a collective deep breath — hurricane season is now technically over. By the books, Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. While surprises can happen, a hurricane has never hit the Lower 48 outside this window, according to records that date back to 1861. Five hurricanes slammed the United States. Four alone reached at least Florida. According to some estimates, damage exceeded $190 billion. More than 200 people died as a result of Helene, making it the deadliest mainland U.S. storm since Katrina — though thousands died in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, when Maria hit in September 2017. The season has been a hyperactive one. That’s according to ACE, or Accumulated Cyclone Energy — a metric that estimates how much energy storms churn through and expend on strong winds. A typical hurricane season averages 122.5 ACE units. This season has featured 161.6 units — above the 159.6 unit threshold required for a season to be “hyperactive.” That’s in line with preseason forecasts, which pointed toward anomalously warm ocean waters and a burgeoning La Niña pattern. La Niñas, which begin as a cooling of water temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific, tend to feature enhanced upward motion in the air over the Atlantic.
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Atlantic hurricane season races to finish within range of predicted number of named storms
2024 season came roaring back despite slowdown during typical peak period
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends on Nov. 30, showcased above-average activity, with a record-breaking ramp up following a peak-season lull. The Atlantic basin saw 18 named storms in 2024 (winds of 39 mph or greater). Eleven of those were hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or greater) and five intensified to major hurricanes (winds of 111 mph or greater). Five hurricanes made landfall in the continental U.S., with two storms making landfall as major hurricanes. The Atlantic seasonal activity fell within the predicted ranges for named storms and hurricanes issued by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center in the 2024 August Hurricane Season Outlook. An average season produces 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. “As hurricanes and tropical cyclones continue to unleash deadly and destructive forces, it’s clear that NOAA’s critical science and services are needed more than ever by communities, decision makers and emergency planners,” said NOAA Administrator, Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “I could not be more proud of the contributions of our scientists, forecasters, surveyors, hurricane hunter pilots and their crews for the vital role they play in helping to safeguard lives and property.” Twelve named storms formed after the climatological peak of the season in early September. Seven hurricanes formed in the Atlantic since September 25 — the most on record for this period. “The impactful and deadly 2024 hurricane season started off intensely, then relaxed a bit before roaring back,” said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Several possible factors contributed to the peak season lull in the Atlantic region. The particularly intense winds and rains over Western Africa created an environment that was less hospitable for storm development.”
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Inlet Hazard Areas
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Lockwood Folly Inlet
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Seismic Testing / Offshore Drilling
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Offshore Wind Farms
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Things I Think I Think –
Eating out is one of the great little joys of life.
Restaurant Review:
The Dinner Club visits a new restaurant once a month. Ratings reflect the reviewer’s reaction to food, ambience and service, with price taken into consideration.
///// October 2024
Name: Lucca Italian Chop House
Cuisine: Italian
Location: 4924 Main Street, Shallotte NC
Contact: 910.754.2334 / https://www.luccachophouse.com/
Food: Average / Very Good / Excellent/ Exceptional
Service: Efficient / Proficient /Professional / Expert
Ambience: Drab/ Plain / Distinct / Elegant
Cost: $26 Inexpensive<=20 / Moderate <=26 /Expensive <=35 / Exorbitant <=60
Rating: Two Stars
Lucca is a local Italian restaurant, dining in a casual relaxed atmosphere with a menu that offers something for everyone. An exceptional value, the food is very good, the portions are generous, and the prices are reasonable. All in all, we had a nice meal there, but it really wasn’t anything special.
Italian menu average price is $23 was $20
Chop House menu average price is $39 was $48
///// December 2022
Angelo’s which is permanently closed has rebranded and are now operating as Lucca Italian Chop House. It’s really like there are two restaurants that are both operating under one roof. The Italian menu prices are inexpensive ($20), serving a wide variety of pizzas, pastas, and traditional Italian dishes. Unfortunately, they no longer have a brick oven. The steakhouse menu prices are exorbitant ($48), meats are cooked in an 1800-degree Southbend Broilers. Dining is in a casual relaxed atmosphere with a menu that offers something for everyone. That works for the Italian menu , but not so much for the steakhouse menu which has prices of an upscale restaurant, and they just aren’t one. I’m sorry to say that it was simply not up to our expectations, we were disappointed.
Dining Guide – Local * Lou’s Views (lousviews.com)
Dining Guide – North * Lou’s Views (lousviews.com)
Dining Guide – South * Lou’s Views (lousviews.com)
Restaurant Reviews – North * Lou’s Views (lousviews.com)
Restaurant Reviews – South * Lou’s Views (lousviews.com)
Book Review:
Read several books from The New York Times best sellers fiction list monthly
Selection represents this month’s pick of the litter
THE DARK WIVES by Ann Cleeves
This is the eleventh entry in the Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope novel series. A murder investigation in the north of England, Vera and her team endeavor to uncover the connection between a troubled teen missing from a children’s care home and a pair of murders. Cleeves spotlights the problems of a for-profit approach to Britain’s child welfare system .
That’s it for this newsletter
See you next month
Lou’s Views . HBPOIN
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