Daily News

KILL DEVIL HILLS

North Carolina regulators are preparing to enforce a May 1 deadline to clear the state’s beaches of sandbags that protect homes, hotels and roads.

The N.C. Coastal Resources Commission began a meeting in Kill Devil Hills yesterday, prepared to hear complaints about the looming deadline. Beachfront-property owners and local officials have repeatedly said that the sandbag rule will doom some oceanfront homes.

“I think it’s going to be very tough to pull out these sandbags knowing that after the first good high tide you’re going to have houses dropping in the ocean,” Debbie Smith, the mayor of Ocean Isle Beach and chairwoman of the N.C. Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association, told the Wilmington Star-News.

Sen. Marc Basnight, a Democrat from coastal Dare County and the Senate majority leader , said he opposes a blanket order to pull out all sandbags. He told the newspaper that sandbags out of the surf zone that are protecting property should be allowed to stay.

“If it’s a case where they’re sitting in a beach area blocking someone from swimming or creating an obstacle course on the beach, then they should be removed,” Basnight said.

Several property owners have applied for extensions to keep the sandbags longer. Others have threatened legal action. (more…)