The three hurricanes which hit the North Carolina coast spent their fury elsewhere. Even on the outer fringe, however, the Brunswick County beaches were put to a severe test.

Although we escaped major damage, the test clearly demonstrated that our defenses against a severe blow are inadequate, incomplete, and an invitation to disaster if or when we are again subjected to both high winds and high water.

Even the diluted fury of Connie, Diane, and Ione broke through our dikes in several places, damaged our highways, and considerably weakened the dikes themselves.

At Holdens Beach, engineering surveys have been made under the supervision of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners. The estimated cost of restoring the protective dunes to the condition in which Connie found them is being submitted in another document through civil-defense channels.

Structural damage to homes and other improvements at Holdens Beach seems negligible when compared with Hazel's devastating destruction. It consisted largely of the replacement of shingles, in many cases the replacement of the entire roof covering. We estimate that about 50 buildings were substantially affected, and that the average cost of repair was approximately $100 per building.

Mr. JONES. May I interrupt there for a moment? Congressman Carlyle has just come in.

Mr. RYAN. Maybe I should inform the Congressman that he is listening to one of his constituents now. He is our Congressman from Brunswick County listening to one of his constituents imposing upon the time of the subcommittee, with a subject that they are only incidentally concerned with.

Mr. JONES. The constituent has a good Congressman and the Congressman has a good constituent.

Mr. RYAN. We feel that way.

Water damage from the heavy rains which followed Diane and Ione hit Holdens Beach and individual property owners harder than they were hit by either wind or tide. Torrential and prolonged rains following each of the storms have so saturated the soil that septic tanks could not be adequately drained. Existing drainage lines have had to be replaced. There have been, perhaps, 15 or 20 properties so affected. The average cost to the property owners has been estimated at about $150 per unit.

This is something I hope you gentlemen will try to grasp and pass the word along where it will do some good. I know anything you learn is going to do some good, but I hope you will see to it that the committees which are interested in this phase of the North Carolina situation understand something of this.

As to the cost of restoring the dikes, it should be borne clearly in mind that only to restore what the relatively mild storms of recent months destroyed is to invite a continuing expense. This is largely the expenditure of Government money, and it is going to continue and continue to be heavier on any kind of temporary restoration, because it will not stand the big storms.

The storms this season have clearly shown that we were in no condition to have withstood another foot of tide or another 10 or 15 miles an hour added to the velocity of the winds-and that if we had gotten a combination of the two, our dikes would have dissolved; the break

throughs would have been so extensive as to have caused considerable damage behind the dikes.

We face a grave problem in our need for greater and stronger storm defenses. We need to strengthen, heighten, and broaden every foot of more than 3 miles of dikes erected after Hazel. Holdens Beach is no more able to finance this imperative construction than are the other beaches.

Before Hazel, storms of the intensity of Connie, Diane, and Ione were not unknown in Brunswick County. Hazel wrought such destructive changes at Holdens Beach, as at other beaches, that even the defensive construction since undertaken puts us in no condition to withstand some of the heavy blows we took in our stride in the decade or so before 1954.

Every rule of caution and of preparedness dictates that we live in expectation of another hurricane which might rival Hazel's intensity. Before Hazel, there were more than 200 habitable structures at Holdens Beach. Now get this: On October 15, 1954, after Hazel had passed, only 19 buildings remained on their foundations. Of those which were gone, 160 could be counted total losses. Their average cost had been not less than $8,000; the value of contents has been conservatively estimated at $1,500 per building. The buildings totally destroyed represented an investment in excess of $1,500,000.

Approximately 40 buildings which could be returned to their original locations; could be rebuilt where they finally landed; could be salvaged at least in part, it has been conservatively estimated that the cost of restoration ran about one-half the value of the structures. Furnishings and contents, except for almost negligible salvage, was almost complete. This category of structural damage and loss of contents, added close to a quarter million to the immediate and direct cost of Hazel, at Holdens Beach alone.

The heaviest actual losses are incalculable: Loss of income; loss of time; retardation of plans for developing the beach; loss of attractiveness to sportsmen.

Holdens Beach owed much of its appeal to exceptional fishing facilities. It was quickly accessible to the finest deep-sea fishing bottoms

on the coast.

Mr. JONES. May I interrupt you again? We have Congressman Durham here with us.

Mr. RYAN. Incidentally, if any of you members of the subcommittee are fishermen, we would love to have you come to Brunswick County, because you would have the best deep-sea fishing there is in the world, and I will say that in the face of some of these gentlemen from further up the coast.

Mr. LIPSCOMB. Mr. Chairman, I cannot let that go by. When you come to California I think we will show you some of the best fishing in the world.

Mr. RYAN. No. I am talking about this coast. I was excepting the Pacific.

Boats operating through Lockwood's Folly Inlet could reach the Gulf Stream in less time than boats from any other harbor on the North Carolina coast. Lockwood's Folly Inlet is no longer navigable except by boats of very light draft. Until this condition is corrected, Holdens Beach has lost one of its greatest assets and attractions.

The hurricanes brought terrific amounts of sand into these inlets upon which the fishing boats are dependent to get to sea.

The property owners at Holden's Beach respectfully submit that conditions at Holden's Beach, which are found in greater or only slightly lesser degree along the 35 miles of strand which comprise Brunswick County's shoreline, are beyond the ability of private enterprise to handle in a manner which will not greatly reduce 1 of North Carolina's and 1 of the Nation's greatest assets.

Ways must be found to extend both technical and financial aid to these stricken communities. They have not refused to exercise individual initiative in meeting and coping with their problems. They have, however, exhausted their resources; have come to the end of their rope.

These beaches must be rebuilt and protected.

We respectfully submit that this is no time to restrict the type of Federal services with which this subcommittee is immediately concerned, and without which the Brunswick County beaches would face a bleak, grim future.

We need financial aid, of course. But that need is no greater than the need for technical research to develop an effective resistance to erosion of the American coastline, and of engineering and construction facilities to implement the findings of such research.

Brunswick County has asked for little Federal help. It has received less. We have not benefited greatly from technical departments of the Federal Government. We have received no great help in bearing the financial drain of disaster. But unless such facilities of Government are maintained, strengthened, and made available to the Brunswick County beaches, an eroding, battered, beaten, and torn shoreline will become the weak link in America's coastal economy. I want to thank you gentlemen very much. If you have any questions, I hope I can shed some light on them.

Mr. JONES. What do you think about flood insurance?

Mr. RYAN. I think it is almost imperative that we have broader flood coverage than offered by any private companies. We feel private companies are unlikely to obligate themselves unless there is some form of Federal backing behind it.

Mr. JONES. Are there any questions?

Mr. LIPSCOMB. No questions.

Mr. RYAN. And I won't try to tell you anything about the Hoover Commission's report. I have my private opinion but I am not going to express it.

Mr. JONES. Thank you very much. I hope to read it in your column on next Wednesday.

Mr. RYAN. Thursday.

Mr. JONES. I see.

Our next witness is Mr. Charles Trott, of Long Beach.

Mr. FARRELL. He said he will not testify.

Mr. JONES. Doees he want to insert a statement?

Mr. FARRELL. No.

Mr. JONES. Mr. Glenn Tucker, mayor pro tempore of Carolina Beach.

STATEMENT OF HON. GLENN M. TUCKER, MAYOR PRO TEMPORE OF CAROLINA BEACH

Mr. TUCKER. Before I proceed with my own report, may I present to you a brief report sent in by Mr. L. C. Kure, who is probably one of the oldest developers in North Carolina, and the developer of Kure's Fishing Pier and the town of Kure Beach?

Mr. JONES. Did you testify before the House Public Works Committee?

Mr. TUCKER. I did, sir. Yes, sir.

Mr. JONES. I thought I recalled you.

Mr. TUCKER. When Congressman Carlyle had his bill up thereprobably, like the South Eastern North Carolina Beach Association and Mr. Ryan, we are somewhat off the beam as to the purpose and intent of your committee's investigation. Being a beachman, I presume I have confined my remarks largely to beach problems resulting from hurricanes, and I shall ask your indulgence with your sympathetic hearing, just as did Mr. Ryan.

Mr. JONES. We shall certainly be sympathetic.

Mr. TUCKER. This is the statement of Mr. Kure.

Mr. JONES. Without objection it will be made a part of the record at this point.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF L. C. KURE, DEVELOPER, KURE'S FISHING PIER AND THE TOWN OF KURE BEACH

To Whom It May Concern:

On October 15, 1954, Hurricane Hazel struck our coastal area where untold damage was done. After tides receded, and roads became passable, I personally made a tour of our coastal area from Manteo, N. C., to the South Carolina line. I could hardly believe what I saw. The total destruction of private homes, fishing piers, boat houses, party boats. (Some of these boats were several blocks from the water.) Other boats were totally destroyed and beyond repair. This condition was general everywhere I traveled. People were downhearted, not knowing where to begin to try and recuperate their losses.

This damage I estimated ran into millions of dollars-with a slim chance of collection on our insurance policies, as the insurance companies were putting it up to the owners to prove that wind did the damage and their sole alibi was wave wash. This was the $64 question-who was wrong? But the insurance companies won in the long run.

A large number of beach property owners were heavily mortgaged, but nevertheless they took their medicine and began rebuilding, and our beaches began to taken on a new look.

On August 11 and 16, 1955, we were again visited by Hurricanes Connie and Diane which tore our beach strands to pieces, taking all our sand dunes that had been pushed back after Hurircane Hazel, and on which our county, State, and Federal Government spent thousands of dollars for the work.

On August 11, Hurricane Connie hit, and practically all our sand dunes that remained went out again. Our property owners were losing interest, but a call went out for relief to our county, State, and the United States engineers, and other Government officials for help. The United States engineers from Fort Bragg immeditely sent a fleet of bulldozers and other equipment in and rebuilt our sand dunes. No sooner than they were completed, when Hurricane Diane struck on August 16, which practically destroyed all the dunes again. We are now at our wits' end, as to what to do, and where to go except to our Federal Government for relief of a more permanent method against these storms-by building jetties or sea walls.

In conclusion, I wish to state that if we have to wait on the Hoover Commission, or subcommission, we are doomed-as we cannot wait on their action for 6 months or more. We need aid now-or fold up.

70818-56-pt. 2-9

I might state that I have quite extensive holdings in Kure Beach. Also, Mr. Glenn Tucker and myself are owners and developers of Wilmington Beachwhere, in Hurricane Hazel we lost an 860-foot fishing pier and a 60-room hotel, which were a total loss. In addition to this, about half of our ocean-front lots were lost. This condition prevails in Carolina Beach, Hanby Beach, Kure Beach, and Fort Fisher. I don't believe that anyone can estimate the loss in dollars and cents that the beaches have lost in tourist trade.

I would like to add a few words on our fishing industry. This industry supports many thousands of persons. These fishermen have no other trade, having been fishermen for generations, and unless they are helped by keeping our rivers, harbors, inland waterways, and inlets open, they stand to perish. Mr. TUCKER. And now I would like to read my statement. Mr. JONES. You may proceed.

Mr. TUCKER. Today we Americans are deeply honored to live with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We of North Carolina are more than unusually honored by the presence of high officials of this Government who are willing to serve us by coming to our great State, North Carolina, and by visiting with us. on a grassroots level for the purpose of allowing us, the people, to participate in the making of opinions and decisions that are destined to regulate our lives for years, if not centuries to come.

Carolina Beach and Wilmington Beach, as well as other beaches along the North Carolina coast, were severely hit by Hurricanes Carol and Hazel in 1954; again by Connie, Diane, and Ione in 1955. Carolina Beach probably suffered the heaviest damages, being the State's largest beach resort city. Our people are trying with all of their might and determination to dig out from under the sand and debris. Except for the help of the various agencies of the Federal Government, that already received, and that yet to come, particularly from Public Law 875, it is doubtful that many of the businesses and homes of the town could have hoped to do so. We really are grateful.

Carolina Beach has always been a poor man's beach. Farmers and mill or industrial employees make up a large percentage of our thousands who have annually visited and spent their vacations at Carolina, Wilmington, and Kure Beaches; these all being within a 5- or 6-mile stretch. Yet this trade has become a huge business since their number have constituted a large volume. Yet the physical and psychological results of so many hurricanes within so short a time has been quite devastating, and the several millions of dollars lost in direct damages and loss of revenue pose a grave problem to the some 3,000 inhabitants of the island on which these towns are located, even a threat to the well-being of the people of the State as a whole, for it is a well recognized fact that workers require rest and vacations, and many are required to go to the beach by their physicians. Carolina Beach and environs afford this opportunity at a rate commensurate with the average man's finances.

If hurricanes are to continue, and who knows otherwise, the question is what can be done to prevent so much loss each time.

We acknowledge that the individual who builds can do much by planning a building that is designed to withstand high winds and high seas. Also, they can do much by not giving up, by genuine perseverance. But nothing of this type is sufficient when the winds and waves are too strong and high. And this will not restore confidence sufficient in the minds of the touring public.