KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. - The beach is taking a pounding as the impacts of Ian are being felt in the Outer Banks.
The wind is intense and the waves are hitting the shore hard.
News 3 spoke to local residents at the Avalon Fishing Pier.
The Pier has been there for about 60 years and got damaged back in 2019 during Hurricane Dorian.
Friday the wind was bad on the beach, but much less impactful on the side streets.
There is some water build-up on the sides of the roads but many areas were just dealing with intense rain.
According to NOAA, there have been 56 weather and climate disasters in the U.S. in the past three years with losses exceeding $1 billion.
Local artist and photographer Steven Fowler said Florida dealing with a lot of problems much worse than the Outer Banks today.
“I’m really thinking about the folks in Florida. I hope they’re okay. They really took the brunt of it. We’ve gotten it so many times. When I see people suffering from flooding it hits me. I feel it. I’ve had my place flooded before and I lost my place,” said Fowler.
He said he feels for anyone dealing with loss due to storms.
According to NOAA, 2020 set a new record for events, with 22 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters--shattering the previous annual record of 16 events in 2011 and 2017.
News 3 has been speaking with people all day as many came out to the Pier to get a look at the storm including a local 17-year-old senior McKinley Watson who had off from school due to the storm.
He said he was playing video games and his grandmother wanted to see the Pier so he went with her.
“Hurricanes have always been very interesting to me and I like when it rains. It’s really cool to be out here and see how the weather is going to affect the coastline like this and what all the waves do,” said Watson.
The beach was just worked on to protect it from erosion.
Towns up and down Dare County have been getting work done all year to help protect beaches from erosion.
The section in Kill Devil Hills is about 2.5 miles that cost over $6 million for the beach nourishment, according to the Dare County website.
