The Virginian-Pilot
© March 8, 2013
Communities on the Outer Banks have taken serious hits in the past year, including major storm damage, repeated shoaling at Oregon Inlet and, most recently, disruption of ferry service vital to Ocracoke Island.
But one of the most feared events – implementation of the National Park Service’s rules for beach driving early last year – didn’t create the havoc that many critics had predicted.
According to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, gross occupancy receipts hit an all-time high of $382 million last year, with figures for December still pending. Receipts for Hatteras Island – where opponents of the beach rules anticipated ruin – reached $106.5 million during the first 11 months, up 7.9 percent over 2011.
Business also was booming at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, where the number of visitors topped 2.4 million – up from roughly 2.1 million the previous year.
For the wildlife protected by the beach driving rules, it was a very good year. Eleven piping plover chicks survived long enough to learn to fly, and the National Park Service recorded 222 sea turtle nests – a record for the national seashore.
Despite these encouraging signs, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones – a Republican whose
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