Hatteras Island’s Only Highway Keeps Washing Away — And North Carolina Can’t Fix It

NC Highway 12 is closed between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe after a nor’easter, later named Subtropical Storm Josephine, undermined the road at the Pea Island Visitor Center. About 800 feet of pavement and more than 1,800 feet of protective dunes were lost, with further damage to the southbound lane during Friday’s high tide. There is no reopening date. Hatteras Island is now reachable only by an emergency ferry between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe, running 24 hours with limited capacity. Visitors are barred, and bulk fuel deliveries are restricted to two departures a day. The same stretch was repaired just 19 days earlier after a September storm, and that fix was a temporary gravel roadway. This video covers why the ocean keeps breaking this exact spot, the numbers behind it (nearly $51 million on Highway 12 trouble spots in Dare County over 15 years, more than 9,500 hours of closures since 2015, a $155 million bypass bridge at Rodanthe), the National Park Service warning that several oceanfront houses in Rodanthe are structurally compromised, and the four options North Carolina actually has. Should the state bridge Highway 12 permanently, keep buying sand, or accept ferries? Tell me in the comments. #HatterasIsland #NC12 #OuterBanks #Rodanthe #DareCounty #NorthCarolina #CoastalErosion #Josephine