Unbridled hurricane Dorian swipes Outer Banks of North Carolina
KITTY HAWK, North Carolina (Reuters) - Hurricane Dorian briefly made landfall on the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Friday, striking the beach-fringed barrier islands with powerful winds and battering waves days after reducing parts of the Bahamas to rubble.
The storm made landfall at Cape Hatteras at about 9am (1300 GMT) with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (150 km per hour), according to the National Hurricane Center. That was far weaker than its slow, deadly tour through the Bahamas earlier in the week that caused at least 30 deaths and likely many more.
Before the morning was over, Dorian was headed back out to open sea, and some residents and officials expressed relief at relatively minimal damage.
The winds swept floodwaters into coastal areas, hitting the Outer Banks’ Ocracoke Island particularly hard with a 7-foot (2-meter) storm surge, though there were no serious injuries reported, said Donnie Shumate, a spokesman for Hyde County.
County officials were offering to fly residents by helicopter to a shelter on the mainland, but only one resident had expressed interest so far, Shumate said. “Not everyone’s as panicked as they were,” he said.
Floodwaters came halfway up to kitchen countertops and battered fences and boardwalks, according to images on social media. One island resident uploaded a video on social media showing people driving a speedboat down a flooded street. The Outer Banks are a picturesque series of narrow islands known for their beaches, lighthouses and natural beauty.
The Kitty Hawk area, on the northern end of the Outer Banks, emerged from the storm with little damage. Many houses near the ocean lost power on Friday, but houses on higher ground continued to have power and cable television.