Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Hurricanes on sandy shorelines · By Dirk Frankenberg
Living near the beachfront
Figure 19. Houses built this close to the beachfront must be built like a pier to withstand a hurricane. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 19 shows a well-constructed house sited on a low beachfront lot. As on Oak Island, this lot was overwashed by Hurricane Floyd’s storm surge and surface waves. This house withstood this onslaught as well as any beachfront property could be expected to, but still had some damage to its deck and some overwashed sand on its first floor. Note that the deck is only slightly damaged, probably because it was built with supports made of 8-inch by 8-inch timbers. This has been required of construction on Figure Eight for some time. These timbers are substantially stronger than the 6- by 6-inch or even 4- by 4-inch supports commonly used in coastal construction elsewhere. A house sited near the beach must effectively function as a pier during hurricanes. Houses can be designed to function in that way, but they can’t be built cheaply.
