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While some washover can be beneficial, nests inundated after hatching can drown the baby turtles.

Volunteers and organizations are working to protect and rescue surviving hatchlings.

Sea turtles face numerous human-induced challenges, making them vulnerable even without natural disasters like hurricanes.

As the approaching Hurricane Erin brought heavy surf and dune-chewing waves crashing ashore all along the N.C. coast, emergency officials warned beachgoers to stay out of the water and, preferably, off the beach all together.

But what if you can’t get off the beach?

That’s the situation facing hundreds of sea turtle nests along N.C. beaches, and now officials fear many of those could have been lost to Hurricane Erin that battered the state's coastline from end to

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