THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120361
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH LENGTH: 62 lines
As residents across eastern North Carolina struggle to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Fran, some are wondering whether they will even able to go home again.
They are the residents of North Topsail Beach, a fragile ribbon of barrier island battered by Hurricanes Bertha and Fran. Fran destroyed about 90 percent of the town's structures.
A day after Fran hit the Onslow County community, Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. questioned whether residents should be allowed to rebuild. And now, the leader of the state Senate, Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, says the state should consider ways to limit development.
``We need to get out with the least amount of cost possible and don't come back,'' Basnight said Tuesday after some legislators toured Topsail Island by helicopter and North Topsail Beach on foot. ``You just can't live in certain parts of the coast. They're not made for the homes.''
North Topsail Beach should never have been anything other than a state park, Basnight said as he peered into a three-story home whose bottom floor was washed out.
Most of the development in North Topsail Beach came after Congress passed a law in 1982 prohibiting federal flood insurance and emergency aid to certain areas of barrier islands. Congress was trying to prevent development on disaster-prone stretches of sand.
Portions of North Topsail Beach are covered by the law, the Coastal Barrier Resources Act. There are exceptions to the aid ban, however.
Despite his criticisms, Basnight said he thought the Department of Transportation probably would pay to rebuild State Road 1568, a road already moved back from the ocean at taxpayers' expense after developers reneged on a promise to pay for the work. The road also was repaired about eight weeks ago after Bertha hit.
``What can you do?'' Basnight asked. ``It's their road; it's their responsibility to rebuild it.''
Legislators said the state cannot just abandon the road, making redevelopment impossible.
``These people made an investment based on state codes,'' said Sen. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven.
During the helicopter tour Friday, Hunt said the state might consider barring people from rebuilding in the town. On Wednesday, he said state officials are not prepared to say how much reconstruction will be allowed at North Topsail Beach.
``We obviously haven't decided yet,'' said Jonathan Howes, secretary of the state Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources. ``Our people are still out doing assessments. We're still trying to get a handle ourselves on exactly what the federal government will do and what they won't do.''
If the state decided not to let homeowners rebuild at North Topsail Beach, FEMA could offer financial and technical help in relocating people whose primary homes are at the beach.
``We don't tell the state what to do,'' said Morrie Goodman, FEMA spokesman.
One problem state officials face is what to do about people whose lots no longer exist.
``There are some people who literally don't have a lot any more,'' Howes said. ``The legal determinations regarding that will have to be figured out. Obviously, you can't allow people to build back on lots that aren't there.'' by CNB