8:45 pm – We are still safe on Hatteras. However, this storm just won’t end. It’s still raining heavily, and the winds are blowing at tropical storm force. My house is creaking and shaking.

The tide has come up on all of Hatteras Island. There are reports of up to 4 feet of tide in the northern villages and Avon. The tide is also up in Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras but not as high.

Before it got dark, all I could see out of my windows was water. The water is everywhere, but it’s not deep yet.

As far as anyone can tell, there is sand on Highway 12 and sound tide in some places but the road apparently is not damaged.

Keep thinking of us. We are hanging in there. Wish the storm would go away. We will be back in the in the morning.

1:00 pm – We are still waiting for the wind shift that will bring us sound tide. However, it may not be as much of a storm surge as forecast.

After a relatively quite period with little rain and less wind, the wind and rain are picking up again. The winds are blowing steadily about 50 mph and gusting still at hurricane strength, which is 74 mph. However, the wind is now from the south instead of the southeast and many think it is going to southwest instead northwest. In that case, we may not get much if any sound tide.

We are still watching and waiting to see what the wind shift will bring.

Again, there is no major damage on Hatteras island. Dunes have been breached in some places and there is sand on the highway. However, right know it appears there is no major damage to the highway and certainly no new inlets have formed.

We will be checking-in in a few hours.

10:42 am – Power has been out since about 8:00 am.  Winds have been steady at 60 or 70 mph, gusting over 90 mph.  They are still from the east, and the water is blowing out of the Pamlico Sound.  The creek in front of my house is just a ribbon of water.  And in the harbors, some of the boats are high and dry.

The eye of Hurricane Irene came ashore near Cape Lookout about 7:30 am, and the storm is moving slowly up the Pamlico Sound.

It’s pretty ugly here.  My house is shaking.  Now we are just waiting for the wind to shift to the northwest to see what kind of storm surge we are going to get from the sound.

There doesn’t seem to be much damage on the island.  Everyone is okay.  We’ll be back with an update when the wind shifts.