BUXTON, N.C. — There are massive pipes and bulldozers staged on the Buxton oceanfront this week in anticipation of the beach nourishment project kicking off. Two million cubic yards of sand will soon start to be pumped onto the Buxton oceanfront.
"It means there is a future for Buxton," said Jeff Dawson, a member of the Buxton Civic Association whose family history in the area goes back hundreds of years.
Last fall, house collapses were happening all around Lat and Debby Williams' home on the oceanfront, and their house was on the brink of collapse, too. But they were able to save the home and relocate it. Lat is excited about the projects kicking off but knows it's come with a cost.
"20 of our friends have lost houses. One thing we miss is just having that sense of community with some of the people that no longer have houses down here," said Lat.
Lat telling News 3 that when their home still sat on the oceanfront, it wasn't named. But when they were able to save it last year, that had to change. Right on the front it now says "Answered Prayers."
"My in-laws bought the house in 1980, their name was Callahan, and we just had a sign up with their name on it. We still got that sign hanging up, I saved it two days before we lost the pilings that it was nailed to, but we decided afterward that we needed to come up with a name and wanted it to be appropriate. So we talked about it a little bit and decided on 'Answered Prayers' because there were a lot of prayers being offered up for us to save the house," said Lat.
Twenty home collapses, countless beach cleanups and house relocations are what the last year has been filled with on the oceanfront. But now at the end of this summer, neighbors here can look at the future with a breath of fresh air once these projects are completed.
"It'll be back to normal, what it was used to be. I'm hopeful that that's going to be what we experience after they finish this this year," said Lat.
"The day has arrived. They are putting pipes on the beach, the jetty crew has shown up, big old cranes and stuff, it's very exciting," said Dawson.
Another exciting piece of this is the jetty repair project that is expected to start in August. Neighbors tell News 3 that having the beach nourishment paired with that repair is just as exciting as the beach nourishment itself.
"The insurance of a jetty. I don't think I can state how important that is. I think it's going to do tremendously. Now we'll have a jetty back, we're going to have some nourishment, hopefully that jetty will hold the nourishment. Buxton's business can now flourish again," said Dawson.
"What we're hoping is that the jetty will make enough of a difference to stabilize the beach. We know that we're still going to have some erosion, that's just natural down here," said Lat.
A special week here in Buxton and something that the Buxton Civic Association and neighbors here have had a big hand in seeing come to fruition. Buxton neighbors also thankful that Dare County leaders have worked hard to make these projects happen this year as well.
The expectation is for the nourishment project to take up to 90 days. The jetty repair is a little different. Crews will be expected to repair at least 450 feet of it by the end of the year but will have until June to complete the roughly 650 feet total of repairs.
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