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‘Looked like a hurricane:’ Storms cut off access to the Outer Banks’ Ocracoke Island

N.C. 12 on the northern end of Ocracoke Island damaged and flooded by ocean overwash the morning of March 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy Randal Mathews)
N.C. 12 on the northern end of Ocracoke Island damaged and flooded by ocean overwash the morning of March 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy Randal Mathews)
Staff headshot of Kari Pugh.
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The only highway on Ocracoke Island has been closed since March 22 due to ocean overwash flooding, and will remain shut down until at least Saturday, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said.

Back-to-back low pressure systems affecting the Outer Banks, coupled with higher than usual tides due to this week’s full moon, are wreaking havoc on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.

Earlier this week, the Atlantic Ocean once again breached the sandbag dunes on the northern end of Ocracoke, flooding N.C. 12 with ocean water and tons of sand.

“The tides are extremely high and the low that was offshore a few days ago looked like a hurricane,” said Hyde County’s Ocracoke Commissioner Randal Mathews. “We had large surf, high tides, and high winds working against us.”

The North Carolina Department of Transportation expects to have the road reopened by noon Saturday, but another offshore storm with wind and heavy rain is stalling work needed to make the island’s only main artery accessible.

N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island flooded with ocean overwash on March 26, 2024. (Photo courtesy North Carolina Department of Transportation)
N.C. 12 on Ocracoke Island flooded with ocean overwash on March 26, 2024. (Photo courtesy North Carolina Department of Transportation)

N.C. 12 is closed between the National Park Service pony pens and the South Dock ferry terminal. The stretch of road has experienced overwash since the arrival of the first storm system over the weekend, with deep water and hazardous driving conditions worsening as the week wore on, NCDOT said in a release.

Ferry service between Hatteras and Ocracoke will remain suspended until the highway reopens. Two ferries from the mainland to Ocracoke Island have been operating this week off and on, but getting mail, food, medications and people back and forth has been slow at best.

The Coast Guard and local fishermen have been assisting in delivering prescriptions, food and other supplies by boat.

“Living in the Outer Banks can be challenging enough to start, but even harder when the weather takes a turn,” Coast Guard Station Hatteras Inlet said in a Wednesday Facebook post. “Today the crew got the opportunity to assist the community of Ocracoke Island in a small way by delivering supplies to the local health care providers.”

The overwash on the northern end of Ocracoke has been a problem this winter and spring. In February, a 61-year-old man died and his wife was injured in a crash caused by the ocean flooding the same area.

The stretch of highway near the ferry terminal is protected by artificial dunes created with large sandbags along the road. After the fatal accident, NCDOT awarded a $489,000 emergency contract to replace and repair more than 800 sandbags along N.C.12 on the north end of the island. That project was started a few weeks ago, but not much could be done before this week’s storms, Mathews said.

While N.C. 12 is closed, those wishing to access or leave Ocracoke village can take the state ferry system’s Pamlico Sound routes, though most have been reported to be full into next week.

On Hatteras Island, road crews have managed to keep up with sand blown over N.C. 12 this week, but ocean overwash has damaged several oceanfront homes in Buxton, leaving debris littering the beach and exposed septic tanks, the Island Free Press reported.

An NCDOT camera image of N.C. 12 in Buxton on March 28, 2024. The road remained passable through the day thanks to the efforts of highway crews pushing sand off the road. (Image courtesy NCDOT )
An NCDOT camera image of N.C. 12 in Buxton on March 28, 2024. The road remained passable through the day thanks to the efforts of highway crews pushing sand off the road. (Image courtesy NCDOT )

The damage stretches from the northern Buxton Village borders to the closed Buxton Beach Access at the end of Old Lighthouse Road, the website said.

The stretch of beach by the former U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard facilities in Buxton — just north of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse’s original site — has been officially closed since September, when coastal erosion from storms including Tropical Storm Idalia and Hurricane Franklin exposed old military infrastructure and petroleum-contaminated sand. Storms this winter and spring have only made the problem worse, according to the National Park Service.

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