Communities from Duck not far from the Virginia line south to Buxton on Hatteras Island are spending about $99 million to add sand to their ever-shrinking beaches.
In the summer of 2019, it was Virginia Beach’s turn. Beachgoers navigated around closed areas towered over by giant machinery, as a dredging company worked to raise the beach 9 feet above sea level and widen it to about 300 feet. The price tag was $22.6 million.
In the spring of 2020, a $20.3 million effort added sand to an eroding 5-mile stretch of Sandbridge Beach.
Even the last holdout on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Currituck County, has begun to study whether to start nourishing beaches. The Outer Banks section of Currituck includes Corolla, the Currituck Lighthouse, Carova Beach and wild mustangs popular with tour groups.