Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Hurricanes on sandy shorelines · By Dirk Frankenberg
Living in dunefields
Figure 18. Three houses built on the dunefields of Figure Eight Island. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
If you don’t build in a maritime forest on a barrier island, you probably will have to build in the dunefields or the mid-island flats. Most houses on Figure Eight are built on one or the other.
Figure 18 shows three choices for construction on nearshore dunes. Most of the house on the left is built in front of the dune, the middle house is built on top of it, and the one on the right is built behind it. The risk of damage from storm surge and overwash decreases with distance from, and height above, the open beach. The dunefield here is relatively high, so the houses in the middle and on the left are theoretically better protected than the one on the left, but all three appear to have survived Floyd and Dennis without much damage.
