Can North Carolina save the only road to Hatteras Island from the ocean?
The North Carolina Department of Transportation spent about $2.5 million earlier this month repairing the pavement and protective sand dune along N.C. 12 after a coastal storm flooded the highway in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. Now another nor'easter has undone all that work. NCDOT is waiting for tides to subside enough that it can again rebuild the highway and the dune that's supposed to keep the ocean at bay. Meanwhile, NCDOT is again running 24-hour emergency ferries across Pamlico Sound to connect Hatteras Island with the mainland. The ferries began running early Thursday morning, with three boats making the roughly two-hour trip across the sound. The department also operated the ferries for four days in late September between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe while it worked to reopen N.C. 12 through the wildlife refuge. It cost NCDOT's Ferry Division about $235,000 to run the…
