Thursday, March 30, 2023
By Rob Morris on October 12, 2018
A beached boat on Bay Drive. (Sean Patrick Darsee)
Nearly 2,000 remained without electricity Friday morning in Dare, Hyde and Currituck counties after the remnants of Hurricane Michael howled through the Outer Banks, bringing down trees and power lines and causing major soundside flooding from Hatteras to Currituck.
In Kill Devil Hills, a state of emergency was declared as officials assess and begin cleanup from flooding and outages overnight.
Colington was hit particularly hard, with flood waters reaching 4 feet before beginning to recede as Michael swept out into the Atlantic Ocean near the Virginia line.
Town officials advised residents and visitors to stay inside this morning as they assess damage and begin cleaning up.
”There is debris along roadways, propane tanks floating in stormwater, and snakes that have come up with the sound,” the town said.
Just south, the U.S. 64 Manteo-Nags Head causeway reopened to travel in both directions this morning after being closed due to flooding and downed power lines overnight.
Nags Head officials asked travelers to use “extreme caution” due to debris on the road.
“Watch out for standing water and debris on streets vulnerable to soundside flooding,” town officials said in a news release.
Nags Head offices opened on time today and there was no change to the sanitation schedule.
Town officials planned to send out equipment today to clear debris at Soundside Road, Lakeside Drive, Danube Street and Pond Island.
N.C. 12 through Duck was closed overnight, but reopened as of 7 a.m.
Town officials said debris and water remained, particularly near the Sanderling.
Schools in Dare and Currituck counties were closed Friday. The Dare County Clerk of Courts office planned to open at 11 a.m., and District Court scheduled for today was also set to begin at 11 a.m.
There will be no residential trash collection in Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon today due to water on roadways. Commercial pickup will occur as planned, contingent on water in the roadways.
The National Park Service visitor facilities at Cape Hatteras National Seashore are opening at noon today, but officials noted some off-road beach routes may be impassable, particularly at high tide.
The threat of rip currents remains high in the Atlantic Ocean and visitors are “strongly urged” to stay out of the water.
NCDOT ferries all plan to run on regular schedules today.
Sustained wind speeds overnight were more than 45 along the Outer Banks with gusts nearing 60 mph.
The storm made landfall around midday Wednesday at Mexico Beach, Fla. as a strong category 4 system, with sustained winds of 155 mph.
Michael had the third lowest barometric pressure, 919 millibars, for a storm making landfall in the United States in recorded history.
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Over it
Why doesn’t the fire departments have a warning system alarm when the sound is starting to come across Hwy. 12 so people can move their vehicles before they get flooded?
Nancy Gilmer
Ii arrived on the beach around 1am or so and drove down the beach road to my house on west Whitecap. As I passed the laughing gull I noticed the normal flooding of property along the side of the road. As I turned onto my street there was a sudden surge of water and loving rapidly east. Before I knew it I was truly frightened because the water was rising so rapidly. I backed up onto my drainage field I found out water was at my door because I foolishly thought I would be on higher ground! I opened my door to find water coming into the floor of the car.
I quickly but steadily made my way back out to the beach road which was so flooded with rapidly moving and rising water.
If it had not been in a high-riding SUV, I’m not sure what would have happened to me. Fortunately, I made it out to the bypass where I spoke with an officer (one of two) at the entrance NJ e ti the causeway who said one minute it was dry, and in a matter of a few minutes they had 2 to 4feet of water, then 5 to 6! Reminiscent of Irene, whose sound flooding carried my 8×10 foot toolshed down the street. Lucky to be here! Pretty scary, to say the least! Don’t have great access to my email, Rob so here’s my # if you want it 252 47 3 7271. Nancy
Kathleen
was more than the 2-4 ft forecast….not quite to the levels of Irene. (just over 6ft) There was a Surge Watch, but did it ever go to Warning status?
Steve
Over it, the fire department should not have to tell you there is a hurricane coming and that there are flood events associated with hurricanes. We all know what happens during these wind events and wind tides. Most of us know better than to be driving around in it..
Just give it a day or two and all will be fine.
Babbs
16 hours without power in Kitty Hawk.
Bull17
Over it; really? If you are a local than you know when a storm is here,hurricane or nor’easters than there is the probability of sound side flooding. If you are not than you may want to reconsider visiting a sand bar and cya back to where you came from!
Lucy
Correction. You weren’t on the beach road, you were
soundside.
Debi
The fire departments aren’t in charge of warning about floods. They ARE however in charge of rescuing people who get caught in this mess, regardless of whether it’s because that’s where they were at the time or whether they chose to go out into harm’s way. That’s what firefighters on Hatteras Island do. (By the way… those firefighters on the island are all volunteers… so they’re doing this because they feel compelled to help people in need. A “thank you” for their services is always appreciated.)
Hurricanes are hurricanes… they’re going to do what they want to. Was this more flooding than anticipated? Yes. And did it come up faster than we’ve ever seen it, before? Yes. People need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. My home is low to the ground (not up on pilings) so I spent the night (into the morning hours) putting things up on top of other things… getting everything possible up higher than 2 feet in my house… because it’s been flooded before. It was about 6 inches from coming inside this time around.
I got as prepared as possible… while my husband… one of those firefighters you want to warn you when flooding starts… was out in this crap from about 9 pm until after 4:30 this morning, rescuing people who were trapped by the floodwaters.
This time, the severity caught us all by surprise. But we were all warned that there could be soundside flooding. That’s a warning to pay attention and ask what you should do to be prepared… before it happens.
Islandglasssndshutter.com
How does a hurricane maintain its strength through 4 states over land 2 days after landfall in Florida? Just saying, it’s a first for me and I am in the business and have been riding out storms since 1984.
jackie harris
What Steve said!
manteobxr
Folks- I am a native of Roanoke Island, and have nearly 60 years of coastal nc weather. The best plan of all, is plan to be prepared. If nothing happens, you WERE prepared, if things do go badly, you ARE prepared. Few key items to keep in mind;
Storms in the sound, and west of us= not good
Storms to the north and west= not good
NW,west,southwest winds above 40 sustained =not good
Add some heavy rain=really not good
Remember the 40+ mph sustained. Gust speeds are not as significant to moving the water around. I have never been surprised by flooding here, but have been surprised when it didn’t. Yes my yard does flood.
Washeduphere
Are they doing road side debris pickup in Collington?
Luminous
OBXVoice: You missed flooding in downtown Manteo this time. We went from Bodie Island (where Michael mostly missed) to shop there today and were very surprised to find them in recovery mode because there was nothing here about flooding there in the Voice.
Said a downtown Manteo *long-time* store owner to us today: We anticipated a problem with Hurricane Florence and picked up everything from the floor, and of course, nothing materialized when the storm stayed south. This time we figured, forecast of 45 mph winds and most of the rain to our west, no worries, but then had our store and floor-level merchandise damaged by flooding.
Lots of stores in downtown Manteo were in flood clean-up mode yesterday and today.
Where were the warnings?
Florence. Evacuated. Nothing. Warnings on my cell phone every few minutes.
Michael. Not one warning. No email, no beeping emergency message. Lost car and everything in garage. I am beyond upset. Yes. I’m with Over it. We should have received a warning or something. If you can block the road, you can warn people. Apparently, if you didn’t lose anything, you don’t care. I’ve moved my cars with every single storm prior to this one. Makes me sick.
Ribin Eure
We weren’t warned and it’s been great devastating. We prepared for Florence to the hilt! We lost two boats partially dock and backyard was demolished. We weren’t warned and hardly mentioned of it on media at all!!!!!!!
Sam Walker
It should be noted, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center predictions of 2 to 4 feet of soundside storm surge above ground for areas from Avon north was in our stories both here on the Voice and on radio repeatedly.
TV did seem to be distracted by the events of Florida and elsewhere, but we tried our best to share the information as we could here.