DOT takes on DOI over Bonner Bridge replacement

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has taken on the U.S. Department of Interior over its opposition to the current plan to replace the aging Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet.

In a letter to North Carolina Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr and U.S. Rep Walter Jones and four of his colleagues on Sept. 2, Jim Trogdon, DOT’s chief operating officer, made the department’s most aggressive argument so far for proceeding with the bridge replacement without further delays or environmental studies.

The Department of the Interior submitted comments on the Environmental Assessment  and claimed in an Aug. 5 letter to the congressional delegation that the “new plan put forth by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration does not address environmental and statutory issues associated with this project.”

Trogdon strongly takes issues with DOI in his letter to the delegation.

Piping Mad: The story behind the documentary that is going viral on the Internet

Jeff Johnston is the chief executive officer of the Greystone Project, a public affairs and public relations company based in New York.

He is also an avid fisherman.  He’s been coming to Hatteras to fish for  more than 20 years and likes nothing better than to load his gear in his off-road vehicle and head to Cape Point for four or five or six days of fishing.

He did not like what he saw happening on the island after a court-sanctioned consent decree that ended a lawsuit by environmental groups against the National Park Service and resulted in extensive beach closures for nesting birds and turtles on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Rob Schonk started coming to Hatteras as a youngster with his parents and siblings in about 1958.

Hurricane Hangover - With Slide Show

Yesterday morning, my good friend and Island Free Press writer, Anne Bowers, said she thought islanders were suffering from hurricane hangover.

I knew exactly what she was talking about.

Most of us on Hatteras and Ocracoke spent Wednesday getting ready for the storm.   We awoke Thursday morning to the news that Earl was again a strong Category 4 with winds up to 145 mph.  Then we spent the rest of Thursday watching, waiting, and worrying about what was to come.

Many of us got little or no sleep Thursday night as the hurricane passed offshore --  thankfully.  First we were pummeled by storm force northeast winds and then even worse northwest winds after Earl passed by.

By daylight on Friday, the winds, which gusted up to 85 mph at my colleague Donna Barnett’s house in Hatteras village, was pushing the Pamlico Sound over the islands.

Watching and Waiting – UPDATED

 09/03/2010 8:42 pm

We have all made it through the storm with no injuries and very little damage.

I thought we had it made about 3 a.m.  The wind wasn’t too bad, but then came that shift to the northwest.

And the sound tide rushed in.  Much of it was still on the highway today.

Here in Brigands’ Bay, about three feet of tide came up under my house at about dawn this morning.  Many of the lawns are strewn with trash, but that is about the worst of it.

Could have been much worse.

You can read a story and see a slide show on Hurricane Earl on the Local News Page.