Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Small sand volume barrier islands · By Dirk Frankenberg
Hurricane Floyd overwash
Figure 10. Evidence of a later overwash on Topsail Island. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
Figure 10 shows the result of an overwash event from Hurricane Floyd in 1999. The pile of vegetation and road tar in the right foreground is evidence of the destruction of a previously existing dune and parking area. In the middle distance we can see the beach access walkway that had been built over the pre-hurricane dune. If you look closely under the walkway you can see a sandpile that indicates what the new dune will look like when it is built by earth-moving machinery. In the background you can see the bathhouse that once was behind the dune now standing on the upper beach itself. Note the tilt to the access ramp, mute evidence that storm waves washed under and around this building during the storm.
