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After The Storm
Tuesday, August 31, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC
Reports are beginning to come from Hatteras Island and areas north along the coast.
Highway 12 is over washed and impassable from Nags Head to Rodanthe and again from Avon to Buxton. The National Guard is reported to be present on Hatteras Island. ICC personnel who live on the island continue to communicate on conditions including the status of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
One worker lost his truck to storm surge Monday while going to check on the lighthouse and the construction site; fortunately he walked away and got a ride back safely to his home.
The lighthouse is standing tall! The only damage reported is from winds that knocked out the weather station at the top of the tower, and a glass pane around the sixth level is missing. As predicted, sand has washed in and around the new foundation, the result of heavy rain and persistent winds. Wind gusts have been lessening Tuesday, but the rain continues. One of four weather modules show the possibility of Hurricane Dennis coming back in over the Chesapeake and/or Cape Hatteras areas.
A resident on Hatteras island tells us in a phone conversation that water is standing from the heavy rains. Due to power outages in many areas of the island, little communication by television and radio has been possible. Phones provide connection among residents. Wind and rain continue in the area.
After workers are able to get back to the construction area, approximately two days are needed to restore the work site at the light station. De watering will continue and final brickwork and foundation details will then resume.
The following report dated August 31 is given by National Park Service Ranger Bob Woody:
-Quote-
"A quick assessment of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and its construction area reveal that 90% of the site is under 1 or 2 feet of fresh water and seawater including the foundation hole where the brick work was being completed. The Construction Zone fencing was blown or washed away. The weather monitoring station at the top of the lighthouse was destroyed by wind. But the lighthouse has survived in good order; pumping of the water will begin/continue until the foundation hole is again dry and ready to complete the "bricking".
The relighting ceremony scheduled for 7PM on Saturday, September 4, 1999 is still planned as long as people can get to the site. There appears to be road damage just north of Buxton; a complete assessment by county, state and National Park Service people will be made today of the extent of the road damage. The light will be relit at 8PM on Saturday, September 4th regardless."
-End quote-
As of noon today, hurricane Dennis has stalled about 125 miles off the Hatteras coast due to a Canadian high pressure front, and is sending Northeast gale-force winds along the coast. The Outer Banks Sentinel newspaper reports power outage in Nags Head, and reporters are putting the next issue to bed from a relocated office at the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills.
For weather conditions from Hatteras to Duck, look at
http://www.outer-banks.com/weather.cfm
You can personally check the present and predicted weather conditions for the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Masonry Continues
August 14, 1999
Cheryl Roberts
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC
From Cape Hatteras, Timothy Crimmins, Quality Control Officer for International Chimney, Inc. (ICC), filled us in on the latest developments at the construction site. Brick by brick, workers from Masonry Building Corporation of Virginia Beach are helping to build the layers of the brick foundation between the underside of the lighthouse and the concrete pad.
This is part of the continued history of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. We might be reminded that this lighthouse was not born with history, but has grown its own history over the past 129 years. Newly relocated 1,600 feet from high tide, the history continues.
Photos courtesy National Park Service
In the first of two photos, "oil house and brick columns," courtesy the National Park Service, [Large Image] you can see that the lighthouse once again rests on the orange shoring towers that have hydraulic jacks to help with support.
The brick oil house is over its new foundation and Expert House Movers expect to lower the 1904 structure onto its new foundation sometime Monday and then begin the completion of its brick foundation wall.
In the foreground of the first image are cubes of brick, part of a total of 140,000 to 150,000 bricks, waiting to take their places in the foundation beneath the tower. They will be laid in columns five feet high and twenty-six inches wide to conjoin the base of the lighthouse with the five-foot thick concrete pad. On the average, eight masons and seven helpers are working each day. To the left of the worker, center left, you may be able to get a glimpse of something blue. This is one of several large fans set up to cool workers who have been laboring in a record hot and humid southern summer.
Photos courtesy National Park Service
In the second image, a close-up view of the brick columns shows [Large Image] the center wall of bricks running from one side of the tower to the other. Known as the "spine" wall, running in a north-south direction, it is complemented by "rib" columns of brick. On Monday, ICC plans to depressurize shoring towers situated by two of fourteen "corridors," or columns of brick. Once movers and engineers are satisfied with the load transfer, work will commence to fill in gaps with more brick columns as shoring towers are removed. One area at a time, shoring towers will be depressurized and a load transfer will be made to the brick columns until the load of the lighthouse rests on brick infill and the concrete pad. Time estimated for this final work phase is approximately four to six weeks.
Repeated testing has been done by structural engineers to determine the amount of time needed for the newly placed mortar to cure and to be able to accept the load of the tower onto each brick column. Slowly, the brick infill will become a solid unit.
Granite face stones of the original first plinth will be replaced and earth will cover the entire foundation to leave the lighthouse looking like its venerable self.
The original site has been smoothed over with some of the granite plinth stones marking the lighthouse and keepers' quarters sites. The former site of the historic structures is once again open to the public.
The U.S. Coast Guard has posted a change in the coordinates for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in their Local Notice to Mariners: Monthly Issue. The change is from 35°15'18.6"N, 075°31'10.5"W to 35°15'07.9"N, 075°31'43.7"W
The NPS has planned a re-lighting ceremony for 7:00 pm, Saturday, September 4th at the Cape Hatteras Light Station. Plans include music and a Coast Guard Helio fly over and a message from Cape Hatteras National Seashore Group Superintendent Bob Reynolds.
The weekend of Saturday, September 11, the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society will host its Annual Keepers Dinner at the Ramada Inn in Kill Devil Hills. Beginning at 5:00 pm we will begin an evening of celebration in the memory of the thousands of keepers and their families who ran personal marathons to keep a light all around American coasts and lakes and forgotten backwaters. Joe Jakubik, International Chimney Project Manager for the Cape Hatteras Light Station Relocation, will tell us the story of how the move was accomplished. ICC and Expert House Movers and the team of workers and engineers made it look sooooo easy. This will be your chance to ask all those questions about which you have wondered.
Sign Up for Lighthouse Society Announcements
Feb 1, 1999
Staff Report
The Outer Banks Lighthouse Society will update the progress of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse move throughout the Spring ... sign up to receive e-mail updates.
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Traveler's Guide to Buxton
August 31, 1999
John Mancini
ARTICLE
BUXTON, NC
About the Author:
John Mancini is President of
the Association for Information and Image Management, a Silver Spring,
Maryland trade association focused on the imaging and document management
industries. John and his wife Mary Glenn began going to Buxton 18 years ago
when they couldn't figure out where to go on their first married vacation
and have returned every summer ever since - now with three children of their
own and grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins in tow.
Every summer, we go to Buxton, and we've been doing so for almost 20 years.
No matter what.
To be honest, we don't really go for the excitement. We could probably win
a "Most Boring Visitor" contest each year if one were held.
We do pretty much do the same things every year. We rent a house in Buxton.
We go to breakfast at the Orange Blossom. We go to the beach for three and
a half hours in the morning to try and work off the Apple Uglies. We break
for lunch, which is almost always grilled cheese sandwiches, broiled in the
oven with a sliced tomato on the top. We go back to the beach for another
session in the afternoon. Then off to dinner, usually to Billy's. After
dinner, down to Frisco for a snowball - it's got to be Hatteras style - and
then back to the house and to bed.
Oh yes, one more thing. About mid-week each year, we all go for a walk down
the beach -- to the lighthouse. It started out with just my wife and me.
The number of participants in the trek has gradually expanded over the years
with kids and cousins and grandparents to a small gang.
During the years when lighthouse is open, we climb to the top. Of course,
this is only after swearing testimonials to the Park Service volunteer on
duty. "Yes, I solemnly swear that this 5 year old can, in fact, climb to
the top under their own power." We go over to the museum, and go through
the exhibits. I tell my kids stories about how my father - whom two of them
never got a chance to meet -- served on a four-stack destroyer off the North
Carolina coast during World War II, watching for German submarines.
Day after day. Year after year. And now, decade after decade. I guess you
could say that no matter how much I change from year to year - no matter how
much older or fatter or grayer I get - it seems that Buxton doesn't change.
And that's fine with me.
Until this year, that is.
For the first few days this year, I simply couldn't get over the fact that
the lighthouse wasn't there anymore. Not only had it been moved. And not
only was the light temporarily off. But most startling, you couldn't even
see it from the beach.
It was kind of like the reverse of all the fancy computer enhancements they
now do so routinely. You know the ones, where they insert some new person
or object into a picture like they did in "Forrest Gump." You see an old
film clip of some event from the sixties, and all of a suddenly, there's Tom
Hanks, magically inserted into the background. It looks so real that you
almost come to believe it, but in the back of your mind you know that
something is not quite right.
Sitting on the beach the first few days this year, I got the feeling that
someone had just airbrushed the lighthouse - my lighthouse -- out. Things
just didn't feel right. I got a gnawing feeling of imbalance, and spent the
first few days just plain mad at the whole situation.
On the last day of vacation, I had a catch with my almost 15 year old,
something that we have done hundreds of times. Between throws, I looked up
somewhat surreptitiously, expecting the lighthouse to magically reappear in
its familiar place at the last moment before we left. Kind of a Governor's
Reprieve, phoned in at the last second. But it didn't.
And then it struck me that this picture as well - the two of us having a
catch - a picture which at one time seemed like it would go on forever -
will be changing as well.
My mind drifted back to another time on the beach, when he was about seven.
He is the pitcher and I'm the catcher.
"OK, Dad. Now here are the signs. Use one finger for a fastball, two for a
slider, three for a knuckleball, four for a curve, five for a change, and
six for a knuckle-curve."
He gets mad if I don't keep them all straight. He peers in for the sign,
nods his head very seriously like those guys on television, and then
proceeds to throw the same straight, looping pitch in time after time after
time. Each time, he asks how much the pitch moves. Each time, I lie with a
straight face.
Now, seemingly in a blink of the eye, he throws harder than I do. This
year, he threw one pitch so hard I thought he had broken a bone in my hand.
I find myself throwing what I think are a variety of impressive pitches, all
looking remarkably alike, while he can now throw a pretty good knuckleball
and a reasonable curve. I try to stretch this time out, long after we would
normally return to the beach house. I wonder how many more times we will do
this, conscious of the fact in another blink he will be gone and off to
college. Or worse, simply "too old" to be interested in having a catch on
the beach with his father.
When we get back to the beach house, after I take my outdoor shower -
another tradition, absolutely no indoor showers during the entire time at
the beach - I look around at the house and my wife and my kids. I try to
freeze this snapshot in memory, painfully conscious of exactly how precious
this place and these people are to me. But also aware that if something as
fixed and immovable as a lighthouse can change, this picture is even more
fragile and fleeting.
And in a curious way, perhaps the "old" lighthouse - the unchangeable one I
could always see from the beach, in the same place, year after year - has
imparted one last gift. A reminder that things do in fact change, however
much I might like to deny it.
But it sure felt a lot more comfortable the old way.
Relighting Ceremony Invitation
August 23, 1999
National Park Service
UPDATE
HATTERAS ISLAND, NC
RELEASE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
OUTER BANKS GROUP
The Saturday, September 4th, relighting ceremony for the Cape Hatteras
Lighthouse will take place on the original grounds of the Light Station in
Buxton, North Carolina. People attending the 7PM ceremony may sit in the vacant footprint left after the historic lighthouse was moved 2900 feet to save it from the Atlantic Ocean. The old site of the lighthouse is marked with a circle of large granite boulders which formed part of the lower plinth stones when the lighthouse occupied the spot. The ceremony will conclude with the lighting of the beacon at the top of the lighthouse.
The 60-minute ceremony will begin with the U.S. Coast Guard presentation of
colors and The National Anthem sung by Hatteras Island resident Joy Wegner.
The program includes brief comments by representatives of International Chimney
Corporation, the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Park Service, and original
lighthouse ballads sung by Bett Padgett and William "Mojo" Collins, both of whom have recorded songs on compact discs. The benediction, during which the
lighthouse will be relit, will be sung by Dave Grieder, of Frisco. A Coast
Guard military fly-over is also scheduled for the ceremony.
"While the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has been "relit" on occasion in the past,
this particular event will symbolically signal the beginning of a new historical era for this structure; one in which stewardship, trusteeship, and our own individual responsibilities for the preservation of our national heritage, will become part of the history of this lighthouse," said Bob Reynolds, Cape Hatteras National Seashore Superintendent.
"The first 129 years of history of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse are not lost.
The American people chose the best places for their parks because they felt
themselves at their best in them. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse's history
captures the best of the American character. Saving it has only added to its
glorious history and strengthened it as a place of wonder and reverence and as
a vessel of the American experience."
The National Park Service invites all interested visitors to come and enjoy this celebration of new beginnings for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. People
attending the ceremony are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs or ground
blankets so that they may sit and enjoy the ceremony. Following is the agenda.
THE CAPE HATTERAS LIGHTHOUSE RELIGHTING
7:00 PM, Saturday, September 4, 1999
Master of Ceremonies: US National Park Ranger John A. Gillikin
Presentation of Colors: Group Cape Hatteras Color Guard and US Coast Guard
Pledge of Allegiance: Ranger John Gillikin, National Park Service
The National Anthem: Joy Wegner, Music Teacher, Cape Hatteras High School
Invocation: Reverend James Huskins, Hatteras United Methodist Church
Welcome: Superintendent Bob Reynolds, Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Dedication and Commitment: Facility Manager Dan McClarren, Cape Hatteras National Seashore
House of Light: William "Mojo" Collins
Lighthouse Navigational History: Captain John Cook, US Coast Guard
US Coast Guard Fly-Over: Air Station Elizabeth City, US Coast Guard
The Relocation Project: Mr. Rick Lohr, International Chimney Corporation
Hatteras, if a Lighthouse Could Speak: Bett Padgett
A New Era of History Begins: Superintendent Bob Reynolds
Recognition of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Volunteers: Superintendent Bob Reynolds
Benediction Let the Lower Lights Be Burning: Dave Greider
Relighting of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse: Park Ranger/Historian Rob Bolling
Outer Banks Group Office
Manteo, NC
Telephone: (252) 473-2111
Fax: (252) 473-2595
Cape Hatteras NS
Fort Raleigh NHS
Cape Lookout NS
Wright Brothers NMEM
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