The top photo shows how Hurricane Sandy took out a section of Hwy 12 on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, making that section of the road now impassable for regular vehicles. There is a bypass around the collapsed highway, but it requires a 4×4 vehicle that can drive on the soft sand without getting stuck. So there is now a thriving business for locals with 4x4s and trailers, who are ferrying two wheel drive vehicles (sometimes with an entire family still inside) across the half-mile or so of sand where the highway is impassible for regular cars. A waitress at a local restaurant told a regular reader of Carpe Diem that the going rate for the “sand taxis†is about $25.