Houses for Sale Emerald Isle, NC 4

Why would anyone want to live on a coastal island? After all, no less an authority than Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr., deemed "America’s foremost philosopher of the beaches," by the New York Times, and James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Geology at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University writes: “We strongly recommend against barrier island property purchase. Better to choose a high elevation inland site.”

Over the next few weeks, I am focusing my blogs on drilling down into Pilkey's recommendation for several reasons. First, I live on a barrier island and I own two ocean front properties on that barrier island, Bogue Banks, in Emerald Isle, NC. And, I've owned these two properties for well over 20 years. Second, I am a real estate agent who sells real estate in Emerald Isle, NC and elsewhere on the Crystal Coast. Third, I know Dr. Pilkey's research intimately. Fourth, I know Dr. Pilkey, personally.

From my previous blog post, clearly residents in the Midwest take their chances with wind and water, much like we here who live at the coast along the Atlantic Ocean. We could go on but I think it is abundantly clear that moving inland does not necessarily mitigate wind and water weather events. But, inland property owners have yet one more worry: earthquakes.

At 2:15 a.m. on December 16, 1811, residents of the frontier town of New Madrid, in what is now Missouri, were jolted from their beds by a violent earthquake. The ground heaved and pitched, hurling furniture, snapping trees and destroying barns and homesteads. The shaking toppled chimneys in Cincinnati, Ohio and rang church bells in Charleston, South Carolina. Two more major quakes struck, on January 23 and February 7. Each New Madrid earthquake had a magnitude of 7.5 or greater, making them three of the most powerful recorded in the continental United States and shaking an area ten times larger than that affected by the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the risk of another New Madrid-scale catastrophe in the next 50 years is about 7 to 10 percent.

Based on major weather events, alone, you might argue that this large swatch of America should revert back to native Prairies. Indeed, a growing number of homeowners across the US Midwest are in agreement, restoring their yards and former farmland to the native prairie that existed in pre-settlement days. Also, you could make the argument that it takes more than a bit of a gambler’s mentality to live or purchase property in the Midwest.

Millions of former residents apparently would agree, having left the Plains states for California and other parts west over the last 160 years. Migration accelerated in the 1930s after a severe drought hit the southern and Midwestern plains. As crops died and winds picked up, dust storms began. Crops literally blew away in "black blizzards" as years of poor farming practices and over-cultivation were exposed by the lack of rain. The one-two punch of bad weather and economic depression put many farmers out of business. Thousands of Dust Bowl refugees — mainly from Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico — packed up their families and migrated west, hoping to find work and a reprieve from severe weather events.

I could go on but I think it is abundantly clear that moving inland does not mitigate wind, water or earthquake weather events from threatening your home. That being said, to learn more about life in Emerald Isle, NC, go to my website, www.EIHomesforSale.com and request my free Guide to Living Were You Vacation or text your email address to: 919-308-2292.