THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407170073
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
Each year, dozens of houses tumble into the Atlantic. Hundreds of others surrender pilings, porches and stairs to the sea. And thousands more become threatened as tides tear across their fragile, sandy shorelines.
Worried homeowners never know when their property might be swallowed by the ocean. But for $500, two university professors can provide enough information to help owners form an educated assumption.
``We want to acquaint property owners - and potential property owners - with the risks that they face. And we want to give them enough information to decide whether to build or buy a home,'' University of Virginia professor Robert Dolan said last week.
After collecting scientific data about storms, surges and erosion for more than 25 years, Dolan and John S. Fisher, a professor at North Carolina State University, formed a private consulting firm last month. Called Coastal Information Services Inc., the two-man operation from Raleigh is soliciting customers along the Outer Banks and coastal Virginia. It has information about individual areas from New Jersey to North Carolina.
The company offers Coastal Hazard Reports, which take 10 days to prepare and trace a half-century worth of data. The reports tell what the erosion rate is for a particular piece of property, which storms have most seriously altered that area, and how the shoreline is changing.
Most importantly, the reports offer a timetable for when the water will reach a building site - or how quickly a structure will succumb to the sea.
``We got so many phone calls over the years from people asking for information about a specific seaside lot,'' Fisher said. ``We do surveys for the state, developers and the Federal Flood Insurance Service. But most individuals couldn't afford such contracts. We saw there was a true need out there for this kind of service.''
Dolan is an environmental science scholar who has 30 years of experience in coastal geology. Fisher is a civil engineering expert who has logged two decades of work on hazard assessments and erosion control.
Throughout their careers, they have compiled leagues of data about shoreline shifts and oceanfront property trends.
``We have aerial photographs dating from 1940 which cover every inch of the mid-Atlantic seaboard,'' Dolan said while visiting the Outer Banks last week. ``We've digitized the shoreline position on computer programs. That way, we can predict which way they'll move.''
The first section of a Coastal Hazards Report gives the history of the oceanfront along a particular piece of property. The second shows storm surges and erosion amounts during severe storms. The last illustrates when the storm overwash will reach a particular point on the property - and when the shoreline itself will erode that far.
Dolan and Fisher admit that their work is fallible, however. One hurricane can wipe out an entire county.
Patrick Michaels, a University of Virginia climatology professor, asked Dolan and Fisher to look at a lot north of Corolla that he's considering buying. ``You hear so many different things about the real estate market down there,'' Michaels said. ``As an academic, it's reassuring to me to have somebody, whose authority stems from a scientific body of knowledge, giving information.''
``The $500 price seems quite reasonable to me, considering what I'm thinking about spending on the property,'' Michaels said.
Federal and state agencies compile annual information about erosion rates and shoreline changes. But most of the data available to the public is general - to a county, town or development. And most studies do not take into account individual effects of a specific storm, which is often the most telling sign of future turmoil.
``We recognize that we can't provide answers to everyone's questions. But we're trying to fill that void between general, public information and expensive engineering consulting studies which can cost tens of thousands of dollars,'' Dolan said.
Federal, state and local coastal experts praised Coastal Information Services' product. No one else in the country is offering such a service. But Duke University post-doctorate researchers David Bush and Rob Young are doing similar studies.
``We don't really believe in making predictions,'' said Bush, who studies under coastal geology expert Orrin Pilkey and is a partner in the newly formed Island Research Associates. ``Our idea is to go to a piece of property and do a risk assessment for an individual home site or building.
``For $500 or less, we'd fill out a checklist report with erosion rates, geological factors and a series of property damage mitigation techniques,'' Bush said.
``We'd just be assessing its potential for damage.''
Spencer Rogers, a coastal engineering specialist with the University of North Carolina's Sea Grant program, said the benefits of Dolan and Fisher's Coastal Hazard Reports are significant.
``Very few people along the coast are aware of the rapidness with which these pieces of land change,'' Rogers said from his office in Kure Beach, N.C. ``These reports will help people determine what conditions they face in the foreseeable future. They put the risk of that property into perspective.''
Brant Wise agreed. An associate at Coastal Engineering and Surveying of Kitty Hawk, he said the reports are unique and informative. But he warned of putting too much stock in predictions.
``Everything in those studies is approximate. And there's still room for error,'' Wise said. ``The information is valuable, in a sense, but a $350 survey which is required by the building inspector anyway provides almost the same information. We actually go to the site. They don't ever see it.
``What you get is a drawing from us and six pages of information from them.
``And there are still so many unknown factors about the ocean and storms that we don't understand - and, therefore, that no one can account for.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
COASTAL HAZARD REPORT
To order one:
Fax your name, address, phone number and the address of the
specific piece of property to (919) 676-8684, or call the same
number. Or you may write to: Coastal Information Services Inc.,
123932 Victory Church Road, Raleigh, NC 27613.
Photo
Dolan
by CNB