Re: Coastal NC living with marina dockage - Caveat Emptor!

past <—Isabel (2003), Francis (2004), Ophelia (2005), —> future

Start with Wikipedia, then go to the National Weather Service storm assessment archives, The Federal Emergency Management Agency archives, and the United States Geological Survey storm assessment documents in the USGS library and publications warehouse. After that, try the various coastal North Carolina news outlets. Be sure to look for downtown New Bern, NC and historic New Bern, NC specific information. If you spend a lot of money building in that area, expect to spend a lot more money defending it and rebuilding it on a regular basis. If you actually choose to live there expect to have to deal with a lot of service interupptions like no electricity, no water, no city services after ocean spawned storms. They do not have a good track record of getting things working again there after hurricanes.

I just read that one of the major insurance companies (Allstate?) just recently decided not to insure any more Carolina coastal properties because of the inevitability of future hurricane destruction.

Nice area though…

Boy, talk about a tough crowd.

Fly up and down a coast, any coast, and you know what? People want to live there and choose to do so knowing the risks.

Live in Kansas and face tornados. Live in California and face earthquakes. Live anywhere and face something.

Or, just stay in bed and hide and face atrophy.

Ain’t freedom of choice grand?

Thanks again for posting generalized information that may or MAY NOT apply. Perhaps you need to investigate before posting inflammatory crap. Have you been to New Bern?

The downtown area of New Bern has:

-a new convention center
-a billion dollar condo/marina project
-a beautiful historic district that has weathered 150 years of whatever mother nature has and still looks beautiful

But hey, if you want to live in the middle of nowhere flatland your whole life - enjoy! Watch out for earthquakes, lightening, drunk drivers and more.

Sheesh

Jay

POSTED BY A LONGTIME NEW BERN RESIDENT ON ANOTHER MESSAGE BOARD:

I lived in New Bern from 86 to 2001.

Went through Bertha, Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, Dennis twice.

New Bern does not flood. The river is very wide and has high banks. Downtown does flood, but you will not be there during a storm anyway. If you live in a yard with lots of pine trees around your house, cut them all down, pine trees are the number one house killer during hurricanes in New Bern. Hardwoods are fine though.

Basically, dont worry about Hurricanes at all in New Bern…just get rid of the Pine trees, and go with maples (not silver) and hardwood trees.

In reply to:


past future
Start with Wikipedia, then go to the National Weather Service storm assessment archives, The Federal Emergency Management Agency archives, and the United States Geological Survey storm assessment documents in the USGS library and publications warehouse. After that, try the various coastal North Carolina news outlets. Be sure to look for downtown New Bern, NC and historic New Bern, NC specific information. If you spend a lot of money building in that area, expect to spend a lot more money defending it and rebuilding it on a regular basis. If you actually choose to live there expect to have to deal with a lot of service interupptions like no electricity, no water, no city services after ocean spawned storms. They do not have a good track record of getting things working again there after hurricanes.


Why the negative slam? Anyone who can afford to live there is surely smart enough to do their own homework. What does it matter to you? What ulterior motives could you have?

…pasted from a geology website…

North Carolina/Virginia Continental Shelf - Submarine Landslide
…Closer to home, Driscoll and others (2000) found evidence of a large submarine landslide off of the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. This slide, called the Albemarle-Currituck Slide, occurred approximately 18,000 years ago, in which over 33 cubic miles of material slid seaward from the edge of the continental shelf, most likely causing a tsunami…Investigation of the outer continental shelf just north of the slide and the slide’s structure found that cracks in the continental shelf exist. These cracks may indicate a progression towards slope failure and the potential for another submarine landslide to occur that could trigger a tsunami on the order of a few to several meters in height, similar to a storm surge resulting from a Category 3 or 4 hurricane.

Volcanic Eruption and Landslide - La Palma, Canary Islands
The Canary Islands are a volcanic island-arc chain located in the eastern Atlantic Ocean just west of the Moroccan coastline. La Palma is the western-most and the youngest of the Canary Islands, and is volcanically active with 3 large volcanoes. It is home to the most active volcano of the Canaries, Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted in 1949 and 1971. It is here that some researchers point to as a possible ticking time bomb for large tsunami creation in the Atlantic Ocean.

During the 1949 eruption, an extremely large block of the volcano’s western flank abruptly dropped 4 meters due to the development of a fault along the crest of the volcano. Scientists have deemed this western flank to be indeed unstable. Based on a study of past landslide deposits and existing geology of the volcano, Ward and Day determined that the west flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano may experience catastrophic failure during a future eruption, resulting in a landslide of a block of 15-20 km in width and 15-25 km long into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Computer modeling suggests that such an event could trigger a massive mega-tsunami hundreds of meter in height that would propagate to the north, south, and west. Within 9 hours, an estimated 10-25 meter wave could reach the US east coast.
Various modeling simulations of the Cumbre Vieja tsunami event are available for viewing via the University of California Santa Cruz (download required Apple QuickTime)

If a tsunami isn’t frightening enough there are webpages predicting many other plagues destined for North Carolina including meteors, UFOs and alien abductions, global warming, etc.[;)] Sorry, Jay, just want to see this thread keep going[:)].

In reply to:


POSTED BY A LONGTIME NEW BERN RESIDENT ON ANOTHER MESSAGE BOARD:
I lived in New Bern from 86 to 2001.
Went through Bertha, Fran, Bonnie, Floyd, Dennis twice.
New Bern does not flood. The river is very wide and has high banks. Downtown does flood, but you will not be there during a storm anyway. If you live in a yard with lots of pine trees around your house, cut them all down, pine trees are the number one house killer during hurricanes in New Bern. Hardwoods are fine though.
Basically, donÂ’t worry about Hurricanes at all in New Bern…just get rid of the Pine trees, and go with maples (not silver) and hardwood trees.


Bonus Question: The name of the developer is UHF Development. Can you identify what UHF stands for?

But in a more serious vein – this is a follow up perspective from a CURRENT area resident (technically from Trent Woods, an incorporated town contiguous with New Bern) who has lived here since 1987 (unlike Mike Radomsky, I have not counted the number of days I have now lived here) [;)]:

First, anyone really interested might want to look at other property sales information (i.e. the prices paid according to county records, “just the facts ma’am” type material - not sales promotion material) available for download: Craven County Property Sales Information.

Re: Flooding – There is a small park at Union Point, immediately adjacent to the development under discussion, with only marginally less elevation, which has been under water during some of the storms mentioned. That said, no there has not been any flooding of buildings in the downtown area in this time frame (at least not that I know of). I have heard that there WAS flooding of the downtown area during Hurricane Hazel in 1954, though I could not find any stories or photographs on a quick web search. Per one web site: “On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel delivered a devastating blow to North Carolina. It was the only category 4 hurricane to hit the state in the 20th century, and by most measures, was the worst.”

Another web site on the topic: National Geographic article about HazelÂ’s effect in North Carolina.

ItÂ’s worth remembering that a storm of this magnitude is quite capable of tremendous damage far from where you would normally expect, as Hazel also caused major damage as far north and inland as Toronto/southern Ontario, Canada.

An earlier post referred to loss of power and water following hurricanes. Personally, I have never lost water following a hurricane. Yes, we have lost electricity following some (but not all) of the hurricanes mentioned above. The longest power outage I have personally experienced has been for about 2 or 3 days. In contrast, my parents lost power for at least 7 days following Hurricane Hugo in the late 1980s – but they were in Charlotte, NC, a LONG way from the coast. (Anecdotally, I have heard that some coastal NC pilots, being reasonable and cautious, relocated planes to Charlotte, with unfortunate results). On the plus side – we don’t deal with power outages due to ice storms, perhaps a reason not to live in vast swaths of the US. [;)]

Re: Insurance – This has been a changing field, and insurance costs HAVE risen considerably. My house is riverfront (on the Trent River, rather than the Neuse River), with some great elevation, so flooding is NOT an issue in my specific location (if the water level ever reaches my house, it will be at least in the second story of downtown buildings), and the additional hit has been with WIND insurance rather than FLOOD insurance. I would be surprised if flood insurance won’t be needed for this RiverStation development, however. Insurance cost and availability has been affected far from here as well – I have read, for instance, that many residents of Long Island (New York) – not exactly the usual suspects for hurricane bait – have also experienced significant increases or insurance companies fleeing their market and no longer writing coverage for the area.

As far as the viewpoint “Basically, donÂ’t worry about Hurricanes at all in New Bern” Â…… I donÂ’t think I will ever be that sanguine. (Hurricane Hugo at one point was predicted to hit the North Carolina coast near New Bern, but swerved to make landfall in South Carolina. And when will the next Hazel type storm hit?). But it is a manageable risk. And (to me anyway) the matter is far different from someone deciding to build on the ocean front (particularly the Outer Banks or other barrier islands), where a Category 1 hurricane can wipe your investment (and you, if you stick around for the storm!) out. THAT makes no sense to me.

So what is the obvious take home message from all of the above? Clearly, that itÂ’s a slow day here at work the day following Christmas!

This thread needs to be renamed : “CHICKEN LITTLE or HOW I BOUGHT THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA FOR UNDER A BILLION”

SHEEEEEEEESH folks !

For cryin out loud, its nice ! over there …

But hey, the thread has been most* entertaining…

But first, I need sip of that tasty beverage… .(inhales):

http://www.iberianature.com/material/megatsunami.html

I’d never live there (NC), I like waiting for the next big earthquake…12 years and counting…

Plus, the other issue, is that if an asteroid the size of Mt Ranier hit anywhere in the Atlantic, the entire eastern seaboard would be destroyed by the waves which would be over 100 meters in height. You would be better off in St. Louis, but your boat will need to be at Lake of the Ozarks.

AND IT IS !

What’s wrong with Greers Ferry? It is closer to home and no yankees coming for the weekend, unless Andy Groth thas a breakdown in 4AG.

In reply to:


What’s wrong with Greers Ferry? It is closer to home and no yankees coming for the weekend, unless Andy Groth thas a breakdown in 4AG.


Jim,

I gotta have another one of those breakdowns over AR before too long. [:)] Maybe once it warms up.

P.S. You’re Welcome. [;)]