They told us that Hurricane Irene would be the storm of a lifetime. And they were right ? at least in the sense that it seemed to last a lifetime.
Just last Friday, I was posting a blog on ?Why we stay in the face of a major hurricane.? Many of us did stay and the storm, which started with the outer bands of wind and rain on Friday afternoon, never ended until after midnight on Sunday morning.
Those two days of punishing hurricane force winds, heavy rain, and a storm surge from the Pamlico Sound seem now much longer than just six days ago.
Those of us who stayed have had to cope this week for days without power in the sweltering heat, no cell phones, no land lines for some, no cable, and no Internet.
Those who stayed in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo and some in Avon have been overwhelmed by the epic and crippling soundside storm surge that has brought destruction and damage to homes and belongings, vehicles, and the infrastructure.
And a major inlet and several smaller ones have been cut in northern Rodanthe and on Pea Island, cutting off Hatteras, which is now accessible only by ferry.
First, all were focused on repairing our damaged island.
But soon, the issue of re-entry was front and center.
I have lived in Frisco for 20 years, and after every hurricane evacuation, re-entry has been an issue ? with residents, non-resident property owners, or visitors. Sometimes it?s an issue with all three.
This time around, much of the re-entry angst and anger has come from residents who evacuated Hatteras Island before Irene. Most of them left last Thursday or Friday, and are still not back after a week. And they have several more days to wait as Dare County begins the process of letting residents back onto Hatteras. (Ocracoke began letting residents back just a few days after the storm.)
The staggered re-entry by village will probably take up to another week.
After residents are back, maybe at the end of next week, non-resident property owners will be allowed on the island.
And, last to be allowed to enter will be visitors.
Dare County announced today that Hatteras will remain closed to visitors until sometime after Sept. 17. Gov. Bev Perdue today announced plans for a temporary fix to Highway 12 on Pea Island, which has been severed by one large inlet and several smaller ones. She said the highway could open within a month. Some who have been briefed on the plans think it could be as short a time as two weeks before the island re-opens. That seems optimistic, but you never know.
Dare County?s Control Group decided early on to keep Hatteras closed to all but the residents who are now here, and for good reason.
However, people, including non-resident property owners, have flown or chartered planes to skirt that order by flying into the airfields on the islands or hiring boats to bring them back.
The county has now clamped down on anyone trying to get around the rules.
Airspace is closed over the airfields on Hatteras and Ocracoke. It?s closed, by the way, not by the Park Service, but by Dare County officials.
At Billy Mitchell Field in Frisco, a Highway Patrol officer is on site to stop anyone from disembarking from planes that do land. And, according to the county, the Coast Guard is stopping boats bringing folks back onto the island.
As Dare County officials deal with the clamor to return to Hatteras Island, another storm, Hurricane Katia, still cannot be ruled out as a problem for coastal North Carolina next weekend.
Residents who left have been the focus of much of the discussion this week by county officials.
Some have damaged houses and property to take care of. Some have spent hundreds of dollars to provide housing and meals for their families and have run out of money ? or are about to. Some just need to get back home. Their circumstances are even more wrenching when you consider that many of their homes are not damaged and just waiting for them.
Non-resident property owners also want to inspect their homes, some of which have also been damaged. One rental house in Rodanthe today fell into the ocean. They feel that as county taxpayers, they have a right to return.
And, lastly, you have the thousands of visitors who had trips planned to Hatteras and Ocracoke over Labor Day weekend and during the month of September. Some have reservations at houses that are undamaged and ready and waiting for them.
Most are understanding about the situation here. However, I?m sorry to see that some are being quite unpleasant about the fact that a major hurricane has ruined their vacations plans.
And believe me when I say that islanders who own businesses want them back. As a community, we are very, very worried about the economic consequences of this storm.
In 2003, Hurricane Isabel isolated only Hatteras village with the inlet it cut on the southern part of the island. This time all seven of Hatteras villages and Ocracoke will be affected. It?s a scary scenario for business people.
Each of these groups waiting to get here feels strongly about their situation. It?s easy to see both sides of the issue and to empathize with their anger and frustration.
In my view, county officials understand also and have done a good job under the most difficult of circumstances.
For example, Dare County Commissioner Allen Burrus of Hatteras, who is also vice-chairman of the board, has spent almost every waking hour in the past week talking on the phone and in person to people, meeting with community and public safety officials, and participating in the Control Group decisions.
He says he has ?gone over and over? in his head the scenarios for re-entry and is especially torn up by the islanders who are financially unable to continue to be away.
He also says he pushed as hard as he could for re-entry for residents beginning on Friday or Saturday, but it just wasn?t possible.
?We just couldn?t let them all in like when you open a road,? Burrus says.
And there are good reasons why the island has had to remain closed down.
First and foremost is the power situation.
Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative and Tideland EMC on Ocracoke were without any power coming in from the north, since poles and wires were down, especially in the inlets.
Existing generators had to do a ?black start,? which they are not meant to do and took help on Hatteras with engineers who were flown in.
Two more generators arrived to help with power in the tri-villages.
Ocracoke, which gets its power from the north down Hatteras and via underwater cable under Hatteras Inlet, has been running on an emergency generator most of the week. Residents have ?rolling? power, hours they are off and on the grid, in order to supply everyone.
As of yesterday, CHEC said all of the island?s seven villages were on emergency generators.
However, the cooperative is still working to stabilize that power. Today, one of the two generators in the tri-villages failed, so all four circuits are on one generator until it is repaired or replaced.
Residents who evacuated could not come back until power was stabilized ? or we would risk losing it all again. The emergency generators have limitations.
The good news is that CHEC hopes by the end of the weekend to have repaired damaged power poles and the 115kV line through Pea Island, putting the island on a ?temporary? permanent solution until Highway 12 is repaired.
So, power is getting under control, but now you have the problem that access to the island is by ferry only. And the ferries can transport only so many vehicles.
The emergency ferries from Stumpy Point to Hatteras and Stumpy Point to Rodanthe have spent this week transporting fuel trucks, trucks carrying food and other supplies, the mail truck, UPS, vendors doing emergency repairs and carrying building supplies, generators, emergency personnel, and many more.
Also, according to Allen Burrus, the county’s educated guess is that there are about 2,000 vehicles belonging to residents who evacuated that want to return.
According to the NCDOT Ferry Division, there have been seven ferries serving the two routes with eight trips a day to and from Stumpy Point and three to and from Hatteras.
The larger ferries are going into Rodanthe and carry about 25 vehicles. The trip takes two hours. Smallerr ferries are mostly going to Hatteras, some most with supplies. That trip is three hours.
You can do the math about getting 2,000 vehicles over here on ferries that carry 25 cars, while still getting essential supplies in.
The plan that Dare officials have devised for a staged resident re-entry is, I think, quite creative and the very best we can expect.
First, the Ferry Division will dredge the channel on the run to Rodanthe to make it somewhat deeper and will erect channel markers and lights, so the ferry can run 24 hours a day.
Vendors are being encouraged to use the overnight crossings ? and some trucks will take the ferry to Hatteras village.
Meanwhile, daytime routes Sunday through Tuesday are reserved for returning residents from 6 a.m. through the 10 p.m. run. A different village is up each day with residents staggered throughout the day alphabetically by the first letter of their last name.
Only Buxton, Hatteras, and Frisco are scheduled now. Burrus said community members in Avon and the tri-villages asked for more time to repair damage and deal with power problems before they are added to the re-entry schedule.
It seems likely that residents of those villages might expect to return after Tuesday if all goes well.
After that, the county will make arrangements for non-resident property owners to have access to the island.
Perhaps this is not a perfect plan, and, as with all re-entries, some folks end up unhappy. But I hope that we will all try to understand that no one wants to get anyone back faster than county officials whose phones are ringing off the hook.
As Burrus said, announcing that residents could all start returning on Sunday with no priorities would have resulted in ferry lines that ?would have been backed up to the Dismal Swamp.?
It is a hardship for residents to have to trickle back, but this schedule is better than two or three days of waiting in line.
And there?s one more thing.
County officials have been concerned about Hurricane Katia, which is making its way across the Atlantic. Forecasters who at first seemed confident that it would turn out to sea are now hedging their bets.
As the models move the storm?s tracks to the west, it is obvious that we don?t have an all clear here. This storm, which is forecast to become a major hurricane, could pass uncomfortably close to us. And any kind of a close pass would be unfortunate with the damage we already have.
The county has made no official comment on Katia, but it?s on the minds of all in decision-making positions.
However, I say that if you are a resident who evacuated and is planning to return, think carefully about that decision as you watch Katia?s path over the weekend. Are you willing to stay here in a major hurricane?
Of course, it?s unfortunate that the re-entry woes will mean that many more people will not leave next time, which could be the time they really need to leave.
However, the reality is that if all residents who evacuated return, there will be no way all of us can us can be evacuated by ferry before Katia?s approach to us, which might be next weekend.
We?re hoping for a safe return of all of our neighbors and that Katia takes a hike.
