The fourth part of our report on The Island Free Press Survey: Hurricane Irene Response focuses on visitors to Hatteras and Ocracoke.
Some 623 of them took the time to fill out the survey and to send us their comments ? 39 pages of their comments can be read by clicking on the link at the end of this report.
The island villages in which our visitors stay or identify with are:
- Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo ? 21 percent
- Avon ? 28 percent
- Buxton ? 15 percent
- Frisco ? 12 percent
- Hatteras ? 16 percent
- Ocracoke ? 8 percent
Thirty-nine of the 623 visitors were on the island and had to evacuate. One visitor said he or she was on the island and did not evacuate.
The answers to evacuation questions more or less mirror those of residents and non-resident property owners who responded to the survey.
They support staged re-entry, by a large margin of 93 percent.
Ten percent think that re-entry should occur immediately by any means, but more supported allowing folks to come back, depending on ferries, supplies, and electric power. Thirty-one percent said there should be no re-entry until food supplies, water, gas, and main line full power are restored.
Like resident and non-resident property owners, they stayed informed mostly on the Internet.
Their reasons for evacuation are overwhelmingly fear of injury or loss of life, closely followed by moving children out of harm?s way.
Seventy-two percent said that Hurricane Irene had not changed their attitude about evacuating, but 27 percent said it had.
Interestingly, 88 percent said they would leave in a future mandatory evacuation, but 12 percent said they would not.
Twenty-eight percent of the visitors who responded had to cancel vacation plans because of the storm, and 54 percent had a vacation planned this fall. Our visitor respondents are obviously people with a stake in the re-entry process.
Fifty-eight percent said they had received enough information about whether or not they would be able to take their fall vacations, but 37 percent said that they did not.
Fifty-five percent of the visitors had rental insurance.
We have included their evaluations of the storm response by public agencies and utilities, and you can see those in the complete survey responses from visitors link at the end of the article.
However, so many visitors said they ?don?t know? because they were not here that the percentages are much less informative than they are with residents and non-resident property owners.
Instead, focus on the comments that our visitors to Hatteras and Ocracoke made about the recovery and re-entry.
Their utter frustration and sense of helplessness is reflected in comment after comment about the uncertainty of the vacations for which most of them had already paid and, in some cases, would not be reimbursed for by trip insurers.
And these comments focus on one of the most contentious and controversial decisions that Dare County officials made after the hurricane.
After having said for more than a week that visitor re-entry would not happen before Sept. 17, the county?s emergency managers and officials announced suddenly on Monday, Sept. 12, that re-entry to the southern villages would begin on Thursday, Sept. 15 ? by ferry from the mainland through Ocracoke.
These officials knew, we knew, and the visitors knew that there were not enough ferries to get all of the folks who had reservations in Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras to the island.
That?s exactly what happened, except that many of these visitors could not collect on their trip insurance, even though they could not get ferry reservations to get to Hatteras for their vacations. Some lost upwards of $2,000 in the process.
Here are just a few of the comments from visitors:
?My reason for the poor performance (for the commissioners) is mainly because of the latest decision to change the re-entry date. I also know many residents were not happy they were not allowed to return even in their own boats, etc. As for the re-entry, I was told to book up north, and I did. Now that they changed the re-entry date my insurance will not cover my vacation. Had re-entry been the 18th or after it would have. I don’t think anyone thought arriving via ferry would be viable, and it is not. Many will not be able to come or miss many days of their vacation. I am now without funds to spend while on vacation since I won’t be getting my $2,400 in insurance money and have already paid for a place up north. I know this was a tough decision, and I want to support local businesses but they should not have changed the game plan after people used that date of “after” the 17th to make their plans.?
?The decisions made by Dare County have upset many visitors to Hatteras Island. Even though we purchased the insurance, we may still lose our money. I do not think that this is the time the residents should have to worry about vacationers. There are a lot of upset people, and they may choose not to visit again. The rental companies have been excellent about providing information to us, though.?
?As a visitor from Vermont with our annual vacation to Avon in jeopardy, I don’t know much about the emergency management office. We are extremely frustrated not knowing whether we will have to cancel as we are supposed to start Sept. 24 for two weeks and aren’t sure if we can get on or off Hatteras. Some of our party have ferry reservations, others don’t. We are 800 miles away so can’t drop by and see whether we get on or not. It does seem that (coming and going) we would have to try and get at least three more days off work and pay for additional hotels nearby to make the ferry in any case. The closest ferry reservations we could get coming down were the 23rd or the 26th. Either a day early or two days late. And not a clue when we could get off. It also looks like we can’t cancel with any assurance that our trip insurance will refund the $2,000 we paid.
You will find many more of these stories in the visitors? comments at the end of this article.
Many visitors seem to understand the difficult decisions that county officials had to make after the hurricane cut off access via highway to Hatteras.
Only time will tell if the precipitous decision to throw open the southern villages to visitors was the right one or if it will affect the island?s economy in the future.
This is the last of four articles about the general hurricane response survey results, but we will be mining information for more stories down the road from what you told us.
Each hurricane is different and each presents its unique re-entry problems.
There isn?t a one-size-fits-all plan for re-entry and recovery, but we can all learn how to make the process go more smoothly for visitors, non-resident property owners, and residents.
Many folks have taken the time to make comments after their experiences. A few are ranting, but most are thoughtful.
We hope the officials in charge of making decisions and managing the re-entry and recovery will take the time to read them.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Complete Hurricane Irene survey results from visitors
Visitors? comment on Hurricane Irene aftermath
