A hurricane tore open Oregon Inlet in 1846, and the Outer Banks have been negotiating with that fact ever since. The gap separated Bodie Island from Pea Island and handed everything south of it — all of Hatteras Island — to the mercy of shifting water. By 2014, portions of Hatteras Island had eroded to 25% of their original width. The weather station built at Hatteras in 1901 eventually lost its coastal warning tower to hurricane damage; the Tropical Storm flag only recently flew again over the village for the first time in decades. The channel at Oregon Inlet requires constant dredging to stay navigable. The answer to the crossing itself cost $252 million and opened in 2019, built to a 100-year design life. The Banks don't pretend permanence. They just keep building toward the next hundred years.
