The remnants of an unnamed storm that flooded parts of North Carolina’s Crystal Coast on Monday reached the Outer Banks Tuesday morning, delaying school, shutting down ferry service and closing N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island.
Late Monday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation closed Ocracoke Island’s only thoroughfare “out of an abundance of caution,” as high tides brought ocean overwash flooding, the agency said in a social media post.
By Tuesday morning, the ocean had breached the dune, flooding the road in “deep water,” NCDOT said. There was no timeframe for when N.C. 12 might reopen, and ferry service between Hatteras and Ocracoke is suspended until it does..
Schools on Hatteras Island and Ocraocke operated under two-hour delays Tuesday morning, with high surf advisories in effect through 11 a.m. and flood watches up through 2 p.m.
Virginia braces for potential flooding, up to 4 inches of rain from tropical cyclone remnants
NCDOT reported N.C. 12 on Hatteras Island was open and passable Tuesday morning, but secondary roads in Rodanthe were “inundated with ocean overwash.”
“Additionally, over the next several days, the seashore expects varying levels of ocean overwash in Hatteras, Buxton and Rodanthe, and possibly near the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge visitor center,” the National Park Service said in a news release.
In Rodanthe and Buxton, rough surf from the storm this week coupled with higher-than-usual tides due to the full moon, damaged several oceanfront homes already threatened by ongoing erosion.
The park service urged visitors to avoid the beach on the north end of Rodanthe due to debris from building materials and parts of septic systems on the beach and in the water. Authorities are also keeping an eye on several condemned oceanfront homes in Rodanthe and Buxton that appear to be in imminent danger of collapse.
