Lisa Schaeffer spent last Saturday afternoon cleaning up after Tropical Storm Hanna. Her 44-year-old white cottage stood intact -- five yards from the sea. "There used to be a street in front of our house, and then a row of cottages," Mrs. Schaeffer says. "We're fortunate we're still here."
OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. -- Lisa Schaeffer spent last Saturday afternoon cleaning up after Tropical Storm Hanna. Her 44-year-old white cottage stood intact -- five yards from the sea.
"There used to be a street in front of our house, and then a row of cottages," Mrs. Schaeffer says. "We're fortunate we're still here."
For years, local residents and the city of Ocean Isle, on the border of South and North Carolina, have worked furiously to hold back the tide, spending millions to pump sand back onto beaches and erect long lines of giant sandbags. But the waves keep pushing closer, wiping away houses and leaving others standing condemned above the rolling surf. Now, Ocean Isle and others are trying to convince the North Carolina legislature to lift a nearly 30-year-old ban on jetties and other hard structures that might stop the erosion.
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