HATTERAS ISLAND, N.C. — Visitors on Hatteras Island, N.C., are under orders to leave after Dare County declared a state of emergency ahead of a nor’easter expected to flood the coast and cut off N.C. 12.
The mandatory order took effect at 8 p.m. Friday for guests in every one of the island’s seven villages, from Rodanthe south through Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton and Frisco to Hatteras village itself. Year-round residents are not being ordered out, and nothing has been ordered north of Oregon Inlet.
Forecasters at the weather service office in Newport/Morehead City expect trouble to start Saturday and linger into early next week. They warned of 2 to 4 feet of coastal flooding, gusts as strong as 45 to 55 mph and breakers of 8 to 12 feet on island beaches. The first worrisome high tide is due around 1 p.m. Saturday.
County emergency managers expect repeated overwash to make the highway impassable, possibly for an extended period. How long depends on the length of the storm, the damage and how fast state road crews can reopen it.
That matters because N.C. 12 is the only road onto Hatteras Island, and storm closures regularly strand island communities and stall business there.
The order lands less than three weeks after a September nor’easter broke the highway near the Pea Island Visitor Center. Two lanes reopened without limits on Oct. 3 after an emergency ferry between Rodanthe and Stumpy Point and a temporary detour carried traffic. This time the county acted before the storm instead of after the road failed.
Anyone holding a reservation should call the rental company or hotel to change plans. The county plans its next storm bulletin by noon Saturday.
Filed under: Outer Banks NC Weather News
