Earl Brings Minor Damage, Outages To Coast

Hurricane Earl knocked out power to hundreds of residents along the Outer Banks and flooded homes on barrier islands, but officials said Friday the storm brought relatively minor damage to the state.

"We dodged a bullet. Purely and simply, North Carolina dodged a bullet," Gov. Beverly Perdue said during a morning news conference.

State and local officials said no injuries were reported as the hurricane brushed over the Outer Banks, bringing driving rains and sustained winds of up to 59 mph to the shoreline overnight. Gusts were reported to hit 82 mph at the Oregon Inlet Marina.

Earl had steadily weakened by the time its eye passed about 85 miles east of Cape Hatteras at about 2 a.m. Friday. By daybreak, some small towns were again readying for weekend Labor Day festivities.

• SLIDESHOW: Powerful Hurricane Earl Spinning Toward Coast

• VIDEO: Earl Brings Minor Damage, Outages To Coast

• VIDEO: Meteorologist John Ahrens Live As Earl Arrives In Kill Devil Hills

• VIDEO: Earl Blows Through As Holiday Weekend Begins

Steady rains continued to make driving difficult Friday morning in Nags Head. The main artery through the area -- Highway 12 -- was closed just south of the Bonner Bridge because of tidal flooding coupled with the storm.

The highway is critical should residents and tourists who obeyed evacuation orders plan to return soon. Several counties had asked people to leave risky areas, including Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Hurricane Earl blows through Outer Banks before daybreak Friday

• No immediate reports of injuries, serious damage

• Flooding, power loss reported in several areas

• At storm’s closest approach, its center passed about 85 miles east of Cape Hatteras

• Winds dropped to 105 mph

• Earl is about 130 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras, moving north at 18 mph

On Ocracoke, Highway 12 was open to four-wheel-drive-traffic early Friday, Hyde County spokeswoman Jamie Tunnell said. Officials hoped to clear the road for all vehicles by the end of the day.

On Hatteras, many roads remained flooded and some homes were surrounded by water, but residents in four-wheel-drive trucks were out surveying the scene of scattered plywood and boards Friday morning. A section of the dilapidated and already closed Frisco Pier collapsed in the pounding surf.

In the island's village of Avon, Andrea Brothers said her home was surrounded by 3 feet of water, which reached to the first floor. She was taking shelter next door in a sturdier house.

"I'm not scared, but I just hate to think of the damage people are about to face," said Brothers, 43.

Nancy Scarborough, of Hatteras, said she had about a foot of water underneath her home, which is on stilts. Winds continued to howl and water appeared to be surging onto land from Pamlico Sound. Scarborough said she hoped it wouldn't be long before the storm receded.

"Once it goes down, it shouldn't take long to get things back together," she said.

About 5,000 customers were without service in Hyde County, which includes Ocracoke, said state emergency operations center spokesman Mark Van Sciver. Utilities reported more than 1,600 customers were without service in Dare County and farther south around New Bern, Morehead City, Jacksonville and Kinston.

Survey teams were checking whether erosion from the waves churned up by the storm caused any property damage between the Oregon Inlet and the Virginia state line, Perdue said. In northern Currituck County, officials announced that visitors who had been asked to leave a day earlier could start returning at 11 a.m.

In historic downtown Beaufort, residents jogged and walked their dogs along the wooden boardwalk on the waterfront. Besides a few puddles near the curb, there was no sign a major hurricane had passed near the coast.

R.V. Hodge was busy removing sandbags from in front of the doors and tape from the windows of a store that sells marine supplies.

He laughed that Earl "was sort of like getting shot with a blank from a gun with a silencer."

"I have a lot of confidence in the NOAA people predicting it was going to be a brush by," he said. "I have a lot of confidence in them but you never know, so we prepared."

Some residents said they had boarded up; others had not worried about the storm. All seemed relieved there was no damage.

Carteret County ended its state of emergency, evacuation order and curfew and reopened the two high-rise bridges allowing vacationers back onto its major barrier island, Bogue Banks. The town of Atlantic Beach sustained nearly no damage and municipal officials rescheduled Labor Day festivities starting with outdoor concerts and movies on Friday night.

At Stack 'Em High in Kill Devil Hills, a small group of residents and vacationers gathered for coffee and pancakes and reflected on Earl's near-miss.

"We've been coming down here for 20 years," said Bruce Nolte of Richmond, Va., "and this for sure was not the worst."

Nolte and wife, Joanne, were waiting to see if they could return to their beach house in Nags Head. "Any storm that misses us is a good one," Joanne Nolte said.

Joe and Betty Vaughn of Franklin, Va., passed the night in a rented mobile home. Apart from some minor leaks and noisy wind, they said everything was fine.

"I kind of catnapped through the whole thing," Betty Vaughn said. "I wish it would stop raining so I could hurry up and go down to the beach."