Surf City, North Topsail Beach and Carteret County are getting an additional $281 million for storm damage restoration projects, Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) announced.
The communities continue to recover from Hurricanes Matthew and Florence.
Senators Burr and Tillis led efforts to secure the additional funding, signing a letter with Congressman Rouzer in, urging the Army Corps of Engineers to consider the Surf City/North Topsail Beach project that was awarded.
“Each storm that hits North Carolina takes a toll on our beaches and river basins,” Senator Burr said in a press release.
“After the historic damage inflicted by recent hurricanes, it was clear that more preventive measures needed to be taken to better protect our coastal communities. This additional $281.5 million allocation will do just that. I applaud the Corps of Engineers for investing more than $321 million in North Carolina so we can reduce the impact of future storms.”
The island lost about 25 feet of sand to the storms in the 1990s and erosion continues to destroy two-to-three additional feet annually.
Hurricane Florence caused an estimated $63.59 million in damage to Surf City’s beach and $49 million to North Topsail Beach’s.
About $237 million will be spent to build dunes and widen 10 miles of the Topsail Island shoreline, including about 4 miles of southern North Topsail Beach and six miles of Surf City. The Corps will use an additional $44.5 million to build nearly six miles of dunes and widen 22.7 miles of beach on Carteret County’s Bogue Banks, according to the release.
Monday’s announcement followed recent news that the Corps would use $39.6 million from the disaster relief package to build a long-awaited levee around Princeville in Edgecombe County.
A timeline for construction of the new beaches was not immediately available.
Carteret County recently kicked off the $28 million second phase of repairs to replace about two million cubic tons of sand on 9.5 miles of beach including west Emerald Isle, Pine Knoll Shores and Salter Path.