OUTER BANKS, N.C. — Dare County leaders and Hatteras and Ocracoke Island organizations are all in Washington, D.C., this week, attending an annual summit that will allow leaders and organizations around the country to see firsthand the challenges the area is facing and how they can help change that.
"This is an opportunity to raise the profile of our challenges to a national audience. And also, really more importantly, what we're learning is that we're not unique or alone in these challenges," said Justin LeBlanc, executive director of the Ocracoke Access Alliance.
Neighbors and leaders are bringing the Outer Banks to the nation's capital this week for the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association's annual summit — a chance to learn about the challenges facing other areas of the country, but also spotlight theirs, along with exchanging ideas for the coastline's future.
"It's really an opportunity to change exchange ideas and find out new approaches and innovative solutions that other folks may have already adopted, while also helping them understand our challenge, so that they might be able to come up with ideas of their own from our challenges," said LeBlanc.
"I was just in a room with people from California to New Jersey to Florida to the Gulf Coast states, and they all have issues similar to ours. And so the opportunities to nationally go in and reach other delegations from other places that we don't know is important and helpful in moving the needle to fund all of our projects," said Dare County Manager Bobby Outten.
The delegation isn't just attending the meeting — some are also part of specific panels discussing issues News 3 has been closely reporting on for almost two years: the rapidly eroding shorelines in areas like Buxton, access to N.C. 12 and funding for future beach nourishment projects.
"We're presenting some issues that are important to Dare County. One is FEMA funding for nourishment projects and those kind of things. And the other is how to get funding and how to preserve access to Hatteras Island," said Outten.
Funding. That's always been a challenge for projects addressing these issues. The delegation is hoping to leave the summit with a way forward.
"We got a lot of issues, roads, bridges, threatened houses and there's some avenues for funding in D.C. that Hatteras just has not been a part of unfortunately. The State of North Carolina needs funding, Dare County needs funding, Hyde County needs funding. That's the biggest thing that's going to be the outcome of this meeting, it's going to have a group in D.C. to start getting us money," said Brian Harris, with the Buxton Civic Association.
Doors are being opened on issues that are not just paramount to the residents who call Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands home, but also to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit each year.
"The real challenge that we're trying to convey is that we're not trying to preserve N.C. 12 for the few thousand residents of the Southern Outer Banks communities, whether it's Ocracoke, Rodanthe, Buxton or Frisco. We're trying to preserve that highway and access to our communities for the hundreds of thousands of annual visitors," said LeBlanc.
