“Laboratory-reporting omissions” during the past four days apparently accounted for the recent declining trend in single-day case reports statewide, according to a notice posted online today by the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services.

A correction of the mistake resulted today in a more than 75-percent increase in single-day laboratory-confirmed cases over yesterday’s single-day total, as the NCDHHS reported 1,979 new cases and a positivity rate of 6.4 percent.

Since yesterday, 42 more people have died as a result of COVID-19, for a total of 2,092 fatalities.

COVID-19-related hospitalizations, which the NCDHHS announced recently in another data correction had been underreported, dropped today to 1,147 from 1,167 yesterday.

The subject of the “turnaround time” for COVID-19 tests came up during the media portion of Governor Roy Cooper’s briefing yesterday afternoon, in which he announced a five-week extension of Phase Two in North Carolina’s reopening.

The five-week extension marks the third time that the Governor has “paused” Phase Two since he implemented the phase on May 22.

Test-result turnaround time is critical to effective contact tracing, and contact tracing is critical to assessing the spread of COVID-19, which has an incubation period of from two to 14 days.

“Different labs have different turnaround times,” HHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said yesterday in response to a reporter’s question about delayed test results.

Although Dr. Cohen said the “overall” turnaround time for test results statewide is three to four days, she also acknowledged that some laboratories are taking as long as six to seven days.

North Carolina has joined a bipartisan purchasing coalition with at least six other states, including Maryland and Virginia, that plans to buy 3.5 million COVID-19 tests that deliver diagnostic results in 15 minutes.

The rapid antigen tests, which are being manufactured by Becton, Dickinson and Co. of New Jersey and Quidel Corp. of California, are reportedly not as sensitive as those done in labs, but they are cheaper in addition to being much quicker.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, negotiated the test purchase deal during the final days of his term as chairman of the National Governors Assn., which ended yesterday. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, now steps into this role.

“With severe shortages and delays in testing and the federal administration attempting to cut funding for testing,” Hogan said in a statement Tuesday, “the states are banding together to acquire millions of faster tests to help save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19.”

So far, four states led by Democratic governors have joined the coalition: Louisiana, Michigan, Virginia, and North Carolina. The other three members are Republican-led Massachusetts, Ohio, and Maryland.

“Testing is key to slowing the spread of COVID-19,” Governor Cooper said yesterday, “and I’m proud to work with other governors on this plan to expand testing in North Carolina.”

North Carolina is expected to buy 500,000 rapid-antigen tests or one-seventh of the 3.5 million tests purchased by the coalition, according to today’s Raleigh News & Observer.

An antigen is a toxin or other foreign substance—such as a bacterium or a virus—that induces an immune response in the human body, especially the production of antibodies to fight the antigen.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/6/20

 

North Carolina “will remain paused in Stay-at-Home Phase Two for five more weeks”—until 5 p.m. on Sept. 11—Governor Roy Cooper announced at a 4 p.m. briefing today.

While the COVID-19 metrics tracked by the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services are “overall stabilizing,” HHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said before the Governor announced the extension, “We still have much work to do.”

Dr. Cohen characterized the statewide indicators of the single-day number of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 tests, the single-day number of COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and the positivity rate (which, she said, is “hovering near 7 to 8 percent”), as either starting to stabilize or to “level off,” but as still being too high.

Secretary Cohen “has a glimmer of hope,” she said, because she “sees subtle signs of progress.”

Later in the briefing, she advised people to “hold on to that hope.”

“Stable is good,” the Governor said after listening to Dr. Cohen’s report, “but declining is better.”

Then he added: “Stabile is fragile.”

With public schools K-12 and public colleges and universities reopening this month, either with a combination of in-person and remote learning, or with just remote learning, both the Governor and Dr. Cohen endorsed a five-week extension of Phase Two, rather than a three-week extension, as was done with the executive order currently in effect.

Executive Order 151 expires at 5 p.m. Friday. We will post a link to the new executive order when it is available online.

(Dare County public schools pre-K-12 are reopening with 100 percent remote learning. The first day of school is Aug. 17.)

The extra two weeks, Dr. Cohen explained, will give State officials time to evaluate the impact of reopening schools—especially higher-educational campuses—on COVID-19 transmission and case numbers and “to look at trends as we go forward.”

The Secretary specifically acknowledged an increased risk of viral spread associated with college and university campuses, where students who come from all over the country gather and may mingle—with or without wearing masks and/or observing social distancing.

“Any type of gathering of people has risk,” she said, not just campus gatherings. “The virus is with us. It is in our communities.”

On Monday, North Carolina arrived at “the solemn benchmark” of 2,000 COVID-19-related deaths, the Governor observed at the start of the briefing, which lasted only 15 minutes before he started taking questions from the media.

As he does at every press conference, the Governor sought to individualize everyone who has died and to express his condolences to their loved ones, describing the fatalities as “North Carolinians who are missed dearly.”

As of today, the number of COVID-19-related deaths statewide is 2,050.

North Carolina has recorded a total of 129,288 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Governor said, reciting NCDHHS data—1,127 of them today. There currently are 1,167 people hospitalized with the disease.

The positivity rate today was 5.7 percent, which is closer to the 5 percent that Dr. Cohen would like to see.

Saying he earlier today had visited Hurricane Isaias-devastated Bertie County, where two people died and dozens of others were injured, Governor Cooper reflected that “A hurricane on top of a pandemic is cruel.”

Both the Governor and Dr. Cohen attributed the declining, but still elevated, number of people presenting to emergency departments statewide with Covid-like symptoms, and the stabilizing of the other disease metrics to mandatory mask-wearing.

“We know what works,” Dr. Cohen said.

Although “our cases are still too high,” she continued “. . .  hard work [has been achieved] with face coverings.”

The Secretary also said it is “time to double-down on the simple strategies” of the three Ws: wearing a mask; waiting six feet behind someone; and washing hands frequently.

“Keep wearing your mask,” she stressed.

Asked by a member of the media whether he thought that North Carolina would progress into Phase Three before a vaccine becomes available, the Governor replied: “I hope that we will.”

“If people will do the things that we keep telling them to do,” he said, “we can definitely decrease the numbers.”

The extended pause in Phase Two means that bars, gyms, fitness centers, movie theaters, entertainment arcades, and other close-contact venues will remain closed, and restaurants will continue operating at a reduced capacity.

“Bars are high-transmission areas,” the Governor said in responding to a question from the media about the late-night drinking curfew he imposed.

In an executive order that took effect last Friday at 11 p.m., the Governor sought to prevent “restaurants from turning into bars after hours,” he said, by restricting the indoor sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

See Executive Order 153 at https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/EO-153-Restricting-Late-Night-Service-of-Alcoholic-Beverages.pdf

The Governor and Dr. Cohen also confirmed that State officials are continuing to discuss with the Republican National Committee the possibility of holding a “safe convention” in Charlotte later this month.

COVID-19 IN DARE COUNTY

The Beacon gave an update yesterday on COVID-19 in Dare County, before Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the Dept. of Health and Human Services, analyzed the latest cases. We elaborate today.

Thirteen people tested positive for the disease between Friday and yesterday—six of them Dare County residents and seven of them nonresidents. All of the 13 newly diagnosed people are in home isolation.

In her update yesterday, Dr. Davies attributed six of the new COVID-19 cases to direct-contact transmission and seven to “unclear” transmission, an indication of “community spread.”

Of the six people who acquired the virus by direct contact, four of them did so outside of Dare County, she said.

Dr. Davies also reported that all six of the new resident cases are symptomatic, while only four of the seven non-resident cases are.

See https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6532/1483

While we were writing this report, three more COVID-19-confirmed cases were reported on the DCDHHS dashboard: two residents and one non-resident. The residents are both between the ages of 25 and 49 and are in home isolation. The nonresident is a woman age 65 or older who has been hospitalized.

As of today, 363 COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed in Dare County, 205 residents and 158 nonresidents. The age breakdown of the 363 cases is as follows:

51 are age 17 and under;

86 are between the ages of 18 and 24;

130 are between the ages of 25 and 49;

57 are between the ages of 50 and 64;

39 are age 65 or older

Dr. Davies’s next case update will be Friday.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/5/20

Pass the word. We saw a lot of recycling cans at the roadside yesterday already.

The Town announced on Monday–and we twice reported–that recycling pickup would occur tomorrow, not today.

If you would like to be on the Town’s email list, so you will receive its biweekly newsletter and any bulletins it issues, just call Town Hall and ask to be added.

THE BEACON, 8/5/20

Although it cites sand and water remaining on some Hatteras Island roadways in low-lying areas, Dare County Emergency Management has ordered that access to the island become unrestricted for all residents and visitors starting at 2 p.m. today.

See DCEM Isaias Bulletin #7: https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6526/398

The bulletin reports that “initial damage assessments have been completed” for Hatteras Island, and only limited storm “impacts” have been observed.

A prohibition on ocean swimming off of Hatteras Island remains in effect, however.

DCEM has not posted a follow-up bulletin to its 10 a.m. Isaias Bulletin #6 in which it said that initial damage assessment was under way for all of Dare County, and reports thus far had indicated that only minimal damage occurred overnight.

As far as we can tell, it is business as usual on the Outer Banks, with retail stores and other commercial enterprises open and operating.

In Southern Shores, we have observed branches and other tree debris in yards and roadways, as well as minor soundside flooding. We have not seen, nor received any reports of, fallen trees.

For reports from Dare County and the towns of Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head, and Manteo, see Bulletin #6 at https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6526/398.

As previously reported, the only announcements made by the Town of Southern Shores concern the postponement of curbside recycling pickup from tomorrow to Thursday and cancellation of today’s Town Council regular meeting.

The Town Council will meet for an emergency meeting today at 4 p.m. with the intent of postponing consideration of most of its regular meeting business agenda until its Aug. 18 morning workshop meeting.

COVID-19 UPDATE: Since last Friday, 11 people have been diagnosed in Dare County with COVID-19: five residents and six non-residents. All are in isolation in their home counties, according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

Nine of the cases, including all of the Dare County residents, were reported on Saturday. Four of the nine are between the ages of 18 and 24; three are between the ages of 25 and 49; and the remaining two are age 65 or older.

One non-resident case was reported on both Sunday and Monday, each a person between the ages of 25 and 49.

Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, is expected to give an update later today about the 11 new cases.

[UPDATE AFTER POSTING: It never fails. No matter how many times we check the DCDHHS dashboard before posting a blog about COVID-19, an update inevitably occurs just after we have posted. The dashboard now reports two new COVID-19 cases today, one a male Dare County resident age 65 or older and the other a female nonresident between the ages of 50 and 64. Both are in home isolation. Dr. Davies has at least 13 new cases to brief later today.]

Statewide, the single-day case reports and hospitalizations had been declining since last Thursday, with positivity rates in the range of 5 percent to 6 percent—until today’s metrics were posted on the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.

Today’s metrics show a marked increase in the number of single-day cases reported and a positivity rate of 9.8 percent.

As of yesterday, 1,057 people were hospitalized in North Carolina because of COVID-19; today, 1,166 people are–an increase of 10 percent.

Sadly, more than 2,000 people have now died in North Carolina because of COVID-19. The death total is 2,010, according to today’s NCDHHS dashboard.

N.C. Governor Roy Cooper’s Executive Order 151, which extended the “Safer-at-Home” Phase Two of North Carolina’s reopening for three weeks, expires Friday at 5 p.m.

Governor Cooper will give a briefing at 3 p.m. today about Tropical Storm Isaias.

We expect the Governor to address COVID-19 and the expiration of his latest executive order tomorrow afternoon, although his Office has yet to give notice of a scheduled briefing.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/4/20

 

 

After making landfall at 11:10 p.m. yesterday at Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., near the South Carolina border, a hurricane-strengthened Isaias moved inland, staying well clear of the Outer Banks coastline.

Ocean Isle Beach is a community of 8,000 people, according to The Weather Channel. It is located an hour’s drive south of the Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach area and just 22 miles north of North Myrtle Beach, S.C. When Isaias came ashore at Ocean Isle, it had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, making it a Category One hurricane.

The Outer Banks did not experience the heavy rainfall and high winds that had been forecasted. We have not learned yet of any damage in Southern Shores or in any other Dare County beach towns.

[UPDATE: Dare County Emergency Management posted Isaias Bulletin #6 about its initial damage assessment after we posted our blog. DCEM reports scattered power outages on the Outer Banks and some soundside flooding. See https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6526/398.%5D

The Outer Banks remains under a tropical storm warning and a storm surge warning “until further notice,” according to the National Hurricane Center. The Weather Channel reported this morning that it would be “breezy for the next couple of hours” in our area.

The local forecast calls for a partly cloudy day, with a high temperature in the upper 80s, and no rain. The winds will be from the southwest at 15 to 20 mph.

The only notification so far today by the Town of Southern Shores has been a rescheduling of the curbside recycling pickup from tomorrow to Thursday. The Town canceled yesterday today’s 5:30 p.m. Town Council meeting.

At 8 a.m., the National Hurricane Center reported that Isaias, which has weakened to a tropical storm again, was 15 miles south-southeast of Tappahannock, Va., and moving rapidly north-northeast at 33 mph. It has maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

The center of Isaias is expected to pass through Philadelphia at noon and New York City at 4 p.m. as it travels the Interstate-95 corridor today, exiting Maine by tomorrow morning  at the latest. It brings with it a threat of heavy rains, damaging winds, tornadoes, and coastal flooding.

Governor Roy Cooper announced that one person died in Windsor when a tornado associated with Isaias hit a mobile-home park around 1 a.m. today. A number of other residents of the park also were reportedly injured.

Windsor is in Bertie County, between Edenton and Williamston, along U.S. Highway 17, which the National Weather Service identified yesterday as a high-risk area in Eastern North Carolina for flash flooding and strong tropical-storm force winds.

The Beacon would appreciate hearing from people about any damage that they observed or learned about as a result of Isaias. Please post your comments on the blog or on the Facebook page. We will do our own assessment later in the day.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/4/20

Dare County officials will announce reentry plans for Hatteras Island tomorrow afternoon, after an assessment of storm damage has been made, according to a bulletin issued at 5:16 p.m. by Dare County Emergency Management.

DCEM’s Isaias Bulletin #5 further advises people to make their “final preparations” for the tropical storm, whose effects will be felt in the Outer Banks from late tonight into tomorrow morning.

At 5 p.m. Tropical Storm Isaias was centered 60 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C., and 120 miles south-southwest of Myrtle Beach, S.C., according to the National Weather Service. It was traveling north at 15 mph and had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

Isaias “is still expected to strengthen and regain hurricane status before making landfall” near the South Carolina-North Carolina border, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. report.

In terms of a storm’s impact, “there is little difference” between a strong tropical storm like Isaias and a Category One hurricane, according to the NHC’s report.

Isaias’s predicted northward trek into the interior of North Carolina will lessen its impact on the northeastern coastline.

The primary threat to the Outer Banks continues to be a storm surge that may cause flooding on the ocean and soundside. Tree damage and power outages also may occur.

See Isaias Bulletin #5 at https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6524/398

The Morehead City Weather Forecast Office of the National Weather Service reported at 6 p.m. that there is an increased risk of flash flooding and strong tropical-storm force winds along, and west of, U.S. Highway 17 in Eastern North Carolina.

U.S. 17 is a north-south coastal highway that runs through Elizabeth City, Edenton, and Williamston, and continues farther south to New Bern, Jacksonville, and Wilmington.

Have a good night, everyone.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/3/20

 

Mayor Tom Bennett has determined that a “State of Emergency” exists in Southern Shores because of the “imminent approach of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaias” and has officially proclaimed its existence, as of noon today.

In his State of Emergency proclamation, Mayor Bennett readies law enforcement officers, Town employees, and other emergency management personnel to take necessary emergency action, in compliance with the Town’s Emergency Management Ordinance and Emergency Management Plan.

He also states that as “emerging events dictate,” he may issue subsequent proclamations “regarding but not limited to resident evacuation, curfew, purchase of alcohol, possession and transport of dangerous weapons and substances, etc.”

For details of the proclamation, see:

https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/STATE-OF-EMERGENCY-ISAIAS-SOUTHERN-SHORES.pdf

For an update from Dare County Emergency Management, see The Beacon’s previous posting about the Town’s scheduling of an emergency meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m. The only real change to earlier news is that Dare County is under a Storm Surge Warning now, as well as a Tropical Storm Warning.

Mayor Bennett refers to “Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaias,” but there is no National Weather Service or National Hurricane Center forecast that calls for Isaias to be of hurricane-strength when it passes by Southern Shores.

As we reported earlier, Isaias is predicted to increase to a Category One hurricane between Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C., where most track models have it moving inland, as a tropical storm, before it shifts to the coast again, north of the Outer Banks.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/3/20

The Town Council has decided to hold an emergency meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Pitts Center in order to vote on the debris monitoring contract with Thompson Consulting and cancel the remainder of its previously scheduled 5:30 p.m. meeting.

The Town Council will move all other agenda items—including the draft revised recycling contract and budget amendments, outlined by The Beacon earlier today—to its 9 a.m. workshop meeting on Aug. 18, according to the emergency meeting notice issued this afternoon.

Those of you who read The Beacon’s meeting preview will know already about the debris monitoring contract—which is necessary for the Town to secure FEMA funding for storm-debris removal—and will have a jump on the workshop meeting in two weeks.

Since we posted the meeting preview, Dare County Emergency Management has issued Tropical Storm Isaias Bulletin #4, informing people that both a Tropical Storm Warning (previously reported by The Beacon) and a Storm Surge Warning are in effect for Dare County until further notice.

“In addition,” the bulletin says, “a Beach Hazards Statement has been issued and a High Surf Advisory will become effective early Tuesday morning.”

To read the Beach Hazards Statement, which is in effect until 8 p.m. today, visit https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=NCZ203&warncounty=NCC055&firewxzone=NCZ203&local_place1=Southern%20Shores%20NC&product1=Beach+Hazards+Statement&lat=36.1209&lon=-75.7338#.XyhiY6-SnIU.

The Town of Southern Shores has issued a warning of soundside flooding, advising people to take necessary precautions now to protect their properties.

According to the DCEM, storm surge inundation may reach 2 to 4 feet above normally dry ground. You may monitor soundside water levels at https://fiman.nc.gov.

Isaias Bulletin #4 further advises that “ocean conditions are extremely dangerous and will remain so over the next few days. Everyone should stay out of the water, even experienced swimmers.”

When we visited the East Dogwood Trail beach access this afternoon, we observed several people swimming in the ocean. Surprisingly, we did not see a red no-swimming flag posted.

To obtain updated information about forecasted conditions for our area, visit http://www.weather.gov and type in your zip code in the upper-left search window. The Outer Banks will not experience the same storm conditions as Morehead City, N.C.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/3/20

The Town Council is on the verge of restoring true curbside recycling in Southern Shores after allowing Bay Disposal, LLC, to haul residents’ recyclables for eight months to a Portsmouth, Va. facility for incineration.

If the Council approves at its meeting tomorrow a draft amended contract between the Town and Bay Disposal—formerly known as Bay Disposal & Recycling, LLC—and both parties sign it, Bay Disposal will start taking Southern Shores’ recycling to a materials recycling facility (MRF) in Portsmouth owned by Recycling and Disposal Solutions (RDS), Inc.

For the RDS arrangement to go forward, the Council also must approve a fiscal year 2020-21 budget amendment of $5,701 to cover additional costs.

The Town Council is currently scheduled to meet tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center. The public may attend in person or join a Zoom videoconference.

Agenda: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Agendas_2020-08-04.pdf

Meeting packet: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Meeting-Packet_2020-08-04.pdf

Since last December, when Tidewater Fibre (TFC) Recycling of Chesapeake stopped accepting its Outer Banks recyclables because of contamination, Bay Disposal has been taking Southern Shores’ recyclables to Wheelabrator, a waste-to-energy facility that burns most of them.

A recycling specialist with the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality told The Beacon this spring that although Wheelabrator burns most recyclables it receives, it actually recycles metal materials. If it did not, the specialist said, it would be illegal under N.C. law for Bay Disposal to transport any recyclables there.

The N.C. DEQ identified RDS’s facility as an alternate disposal site for Outer Banks recyclables and was hopeful that RDS would build a new MRF in Elizabeth City. The recycling company, which has offices in Virginia Beach and Roanoke, Va., never found a suitable building to buy to do so, however, according to the recycling specialist.

Then-Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett reported at the Council’s May 5 meeting that he had heard from a “representative” of TFC that the Chesapeake recycling company would be willing to resume processing Southern Shores’ curbside recycling at a rate of $95 per ton, excluding collection and delivery. The Town Council rejected this offer as too expensive.

Instead, Town Manager Cliff Ogburn and Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Haskett have worked with Town Attorney Ben Gallop on a revision of the contract that the Town has with Bay Disposal, with the understanding that Bay Disposal would transport Southern Shores recyclables to RDS’s Portmouth recycling center.

The amended contract would allow Bay Disposal to take the Town’s recyclables to Wheelabrator or another waste-to-energy facility only if RDS’s Portsmouth facility or another recycling facility becomes unavailable.

(The Beacon has written extensively about the recycling crisis in Southern Shores since last December. For a summary, see The Beacon, 5/10/20.)

The draft contract revision before the Town Council tomorrow amends an original three-year contract between Bay Disposal and the Town that dates to June 15, 2018 and expires June 30, 2021.

Other terms of the contract, such as those pertaining to its breach and termination, also have been amended, because the original terms were incomplete and/or disadvantageous to the Town. The new contract specifies that renewal may occur only for additional one-year periods.

As of July 29, Bay Disposal was “reviewing the draft amended contract, and we are waiting on confirmation of acceptance,” Mr. Ogburn wrote in a summary of this agenda item for the Town Council’s meeting packet.

After the contract is settled and signed, The Beacon is hopeful that Mr. Ogburn will give some attention to a public-education effort to inform both residents and visitors about what is recyclable and what is not.

BEACH STUDY MONIES, DEBRIS REMOVAL

In other agenda business, the Town Council is expected to amend the current fiscal year budget to pay Coastal Protection Engineering of North Carolina, Inc.—formerly known as APTIM—more monies for beach profiling, and to approve a debris monitoring contract with Thompson Consulting, LLC, whom Dare County identified as the low bidder in a Request for Proposal it released.

The debris monitoring contract that the Town would have “mirrors” the one that Dare County has with Thompson, according to Mr. Ogburn’s meeting summary.

For the town to maintain its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement for debris removal, it must monitor its debris removal operations, Mr. Ogburn explains in his written overview.

Monitoring “requires comprehensive observation and documentation of debris removal work performed from the point of debris collection to final disposal,” the Town Manager writes.

(Many thanks to our new Town Manager for the item summaries that he is writing for the Town Council’s meeting packet. These well-written, dated summaries explain the background of an agenda item; give the Town Staff’s recommendation on the item; and indicate the action that the Town Staff is requesting from the Council. They are a great asset to the public.)

Coastal engineer CPE-NC seeks $18,039 to prepare a 2020 beach profile analysis and report based on “profile data” it has already acquired. Profiling looks at shoreline and sand-volume changes.

Although it is well-known that East Coast beaches are at their widest in July and August, CPE-NC collected its data for purposes of evaluating the current status of the Southern Shores coastline before June 30. It did the same last year, with its May analysis.

CPE-NC’s initial 2017 study was conducted in December, when the beaches are their most eroded. They restore themselves in the summertime, according to all of the coastal environmental experts interviewed by The Beacon for past articles.

The Beacon questions the need for an annual beach profile study this year. Not only is short-term assessment of the coastline of little value, the Town has decided to do beach nourishment in 2022, regardless of the state of the coastline.

The Town Council previously authorized an appropriation of $17,357 to CPE-NC for the “profile data acquisition,” $5,208 of which was not dispensed during last year’s fiscal year budget and must be added to the current fiscal year budget. Thus, the Town is spending more than $35,000 on its 2020 beach profile and will likely pay for another profile next year.

PUBLIC COMMENTS

There will be two public-comment periods during the Town Council’s meeting, one before the Council takes up any business on the agenda and the second after it finishes its business. You may speak for up to three minutes in person at the meeting or email written comments to Town Clerk Sheila Kane to be read aloud by the Mayor or the Mayor Pro Tem. You also have the option of speaking for up to three minutes via Zoom.

To send written comments, email Ms. Kane at skane@southernshores-nc.gov. Be sure to include your name and address and indicate in the email subject line: “Public comment for Town Council meeting, 8/4/20.”

If you participate by Zoom, you may press the chat button during the meeting to tell Ms. Kane that you would like to speak during one or both of the public-comment periods.

The meeting ID on Zoom is 929 2956 6855; and the passcode is 576193.

 Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/3/20

 

The Outer Banks is now under a Tropical Storm Warning, an upgrade from yesterday’s Tropical Storm Watch, according to the National Weather Service.

As of 8 a.m., Tropical Storm Isaias was 100 miles east-southeast of Jacksonville, Fla., having remained well off-shore of the Florida coast as it passed by. It is now moving north at 13 mph., an increase in yesterday’s speeds of 7-9 mph.

Isaias’s maximum sustained winds have increased to 70 mph, the National Weather Service reports, but it is still only of tropical-storm intensity, not hurricane-intensity. Dry air and wind shear continue to impede Isaias’s organization into a more intense storm.

The National Weather Service has forecasted the possibility that Isaias could strengthen into a hurricane between Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C., and has issued a Hurricane Warning for that area. A tropical storm becomes a Category One hurricane when its winds near the center reach 74 mph.

In Southern Shores, we are likely to experience heavy rains—with the smaller raindrops typical of tropical storms—and strong winds, starting late tonight and continuing into tomorrow. Storm surge could result in flooding, especially on the soundside.

No one should tempt fate today by swimming in the ocean. But today should offer some sunshine and calm before the storm.

As a veteran of dozens of tropical storms and hurricanes, I know that NWS predictions often do not pan out, so I am prepared, but also watchful for changes in the storm’s forecasted scenario.

My biggest fear is damage from fallen trees and other tree debris in the Southern Shores woods. Everyone should move their vehicles to higher ground, and away from trees, and secure objects outside that could become damaging projectiles.

All storm-savvy Outer Bankers know about “flying projectiles”!

The Beacon will post news of bulletins issued today by Dare County Emergency Management. Please see our reports about DCEM’s first three Isaias bulletins for more information about the storm’s threat and Dare County’s response.

We will try to keep you updated on what Isaias actually does, in addition to what predictions suggest it may do. Enjoy your Monday.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 8/3/20