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Outer Banks highway survives weekend storm… barely

Posted at 5:17 PM, Sep 24, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-28 14:53:35-04

Outer Banks, N.C. - It's déjà vu in Dare County.

Just a month after a section of NC 12 was finally fully repaired, a coastal storm has again threatened the road's stability.

The road survived the weekend, but the heavy surf wiped away the dune, leaving the sandbags exposed.

Brenda Hachtman and her husband Steven watched it happen last May after another coastal storm wiped out the dune and an entire lane of NC 12.

The storm shut the road down for weeks while crews took action to fix it. Once crews repaired the road, they then came back in August to put in sandbags and build a more permanent dune.

"It took out this lane on this side from that stretch up there down to here. They pushed in some sand and after a while, they put some new black top down and here we are a few months later. They are probably going to lose some road again." Steven Hachtman said.

"Oh tremendous, absolutely tremendous loss. It`s so sad to see nature doing what it does," Brenda Hachtman said."The ocean is very powerful."

NCDOT is in the process of getting a permit to rebuild the dune, but it could take 3-6 weeks.