Hurricane Bill passed by Hatteras and Ocracoke islands more than 400 miles offshore on Saturday.
The heavy surf was, as always, impressive, and a major attraction all day for both islanders and visitors.
Despite the pounding waves, the islands fared well. However, the turtle nests took a bit more of a beating.
Here are the headlines:
–Highway 12 on Hatteras was never closed to traffic, although it was wet, sandy, and sloppy and down to one lane at times in northern Rodanthe.
–Highway 12 on Ocracoke was closed for much of Saturday north of the pony pens. The road was impassable because of sand and overwash. Ferries went from departures every half hour to departures on the hour.
?We suspended the half hour runs but continued to do hourly runs mainly to provide return service in case of an emergency and to get people off the island,? explained Lucy Wallace of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division. ?Our people stayed in constant contact with DOT Division 1 all day. We discouraged passengers from going over to Ocracoke, but if they wanted to ride over and then ride back (just take a ferry ride) we continued to do that. We wanted to make sure we had ferries running to get people off the island quickly. At 5:30 p.m. we no longer took passengers to enjoy a ferry ride but instead made hourly runs to take people off the island only.?
–Surfers were happy. The place to be was Rodanthe and vehicles lined the shoulders of the highway all day Saturday and Sunday.
Daniel Pullen, surfing writer and photographer for The Island Free Press, said that the surf was ?big and out of control? on Saturday, though some intrepid folks tried it. At one point, surfers were being towed to the outer bar by personal watercraft.
However, he adds, ?People were expecting it to be bigger than it was.?
On Sunday, however, the waves improved for surfers, and by the evening, the surfing was really good off Rodanthe.
?The waves were smaller and more manageable,? Pullen said.
Pullen spent several hours in a helicopter on Saturday photographing the surf and the surfers from the air, and he returned Sunday evening for some photos from the ground. His photos will be posted in a slide show soon.
–Beaches were closed to ORVs during the storm tides, but most have now re-opened.
Most beaches closed to ORVs re-opened on Sunday afternoon, but a few are still closed.
According to a press release this afternoon:
?As of Monday morning, August 24, all ramps have been re-opened, except for Ramp 4 located near Oregon Inlet, Ramp 45 located near the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, and the Pole Road located near Hatteras Inlet. All three areas experienced ocean overwash and/or heavy rains leaving flooded conditions too deep for vehicles to safely pass. National Park Service maintenance crews are working to reopen all three areas, which are expected to reopen within the next 24-hours or when conditions allow the safe passage of vehicles.?
–The Hatteras Island Rescue Squad was busy.
The rescue squad spent much of Friday, riding up and down the beach on southern Hatteras Island, with a red flag in a pole holder on its truck and a loudspeaker warning swimmers about rip tides.
Despite the warnings on Friday, the rescue squad assisted a person on a boogie board who could not reach shore near Ramp 55 and five people who couldn?t get back to the beach at Ramp 43.
The rescue personnel also responded to a call on Saturday for a missing surfer, who showed up on the beach eventually.
Bob Helle of the rescue squad said that many people were in the water on Friday and Sunday, despite the ocean conditions, the publicity about the high threat of rip tides, and the warnings from rescue personnel patrolling the beach. (Saturday was apparently too rough for most to venture into the water.)
Helle expressed the squad?s frustration at people who will not heed warnings about rip currents.
?We?re putting our lives in danger because they are on vacation and want to go in the water,? he said.
–Frisco Pier lost five pilings, but is not in danger of falling into the ocean, say its owners Tod and Angie Gaskill of Top Dollar Construction.
Angie Gaskill said the five pilings that were lost were not load-bearing pilings supporting the pier. They were pilings that the Gaskills knew had outlived their useful lives, so Tod Gaskill installed newer pilings to strengthen the pier and replace the five.
The Frisco Pier, which was built in 1962 and is now in bad shape, has been closed this year while the Gaskills try to figure out how to pay for repairing it.
They bought the pier after Hurricane Isabel in 2005 and have invested heavily in fixing it up. However, they are struggling with paying for much needed repairs after what they say are years of neglect by former owners.
?Tod and I love the pier,? Angie said. ?His blood, sweat, and tears are in it.?
Angie says Tod has done enough work on the pier to keep it stable in all but the most catastrophic of storms.
For more information on the Frisco Pier situation, see the article about its future on Local News Page.
–Serendipity got beat up again.
The outside stairs washed away from the house in Mirlo Beach that became famous as the Inn at Rodanthe in the movie, ?Nights in Rodanthe.? The newest septic tank also was destroyed.
Serendipity was surrounded by swirling ocean tides for most of Saturday and Sunday as the curious watched and waited for something to happen. However, once again, the cottage did not fall into the sea.
–Sea Turtles nests did not fare as well as the island?s infrastructure.
?It wasn?t a big storm for the islands, but it was for the turtles,? said Michelle Bogardus, lead sea turtle biologist for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
The Park Service worked on Friday to excavate nests that were close to the hatching date and to rescue hatchlings. A story about that effort is on the Beach Access and Park Issues Page.
Bogardus said today that more than 500 hatchlings had been rescued alive from nests on the seashore.
More than 400 of these baby turtles were released into the ocean near their nest sites ? they return to the beaches where they are hatched ? on Friday night and Sunday night. Another 100 will be released tonight.
All of these hatchlings are from loggerhead sea turtle nests.
A leatherback sea turtle nest on the beach in Frisco was moved on Friday after consultation with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Department, Bogardus said.
Two green turtle nests on the seashore survived the high tides.
Two loggerhead nests were lost for sure ? one on Ocracoke and one north of Buxton.
Today, Bogardus said seashore staff members were assessing all of the nests and replacing closure signs that were lost in the tide.
?It?s the nests that are close to hatching that we are most worried about,? she said, because those eggs are the most vulnerable to being covered by sea water.
A few have been covered with ocean overwash for several high tides.
The newer nests not as close to hatching, she said, should fare better.
?We?ll just have to wait and see how they do,? she added.
Wow, great article! Clear , on point report of how it was down on the Outer Banks. Information like this is so hard to get up here in the north. Thank you?? and the surf was just fine in south Jersey also..
Great article and QUICK with the facts on post-Bill. Reminds me of the posts from Midgett Realty after Isabel. They were about the only real-time, in-depth reporting on the island. Really helped with finding out what was open and when access would be opened ect. I really think you have a great idea here to blog a post storm report where people can quickly post what is going on in diffrent areas of the island.