I am sure many of you are wondering how Ocracoke fared with Hurricane Bill. Actually...pretty well. You wouldn't even have known that a hurricane was passing the Outer Banks a mere 450 miles offshore if you hadn't tried to get to or from the north end of the island. For most of the day Highway 12 was closed to traffic due to ocean overwash. The beaches themselves have been closed to off road vehicles since Friday night and won't reopen until conditions are safe. There is, and has been, a Red Flag warning asking that people stay out of the water due to high risk of rip currents.

At least one car was washed off the road north of the Pony Pens early in the day before the road was closed. It looks like the driver tried to go through the water and waves that had already flattened the dunes washed them right off the road. Driving through any flood water can be dangerous but when the water is still rising and waves are washing through it is especially dangerous. When your vehicle is wet with salt water it can present unexpected and dangerous situations. The salt water causes metal to rust quicker. Thus causing electronic problems, brake problems, any number of things can happen. Many people learned the hard way after Hurricane Alex in August 2004. One car parked underneath a rental house even caught on fire and burned the house down. 

Anyway...I won't go off on that subject at the moment. What I would like to do is share some pictures with you taken yesterday. Most were taken during high tide. There are pictures of the flooded highway, the ruined car and the beach. There are a couple of pictures of the "foam line", created by Bill's waves, that was pushed into the Sound by the surge from the storm. Then there are some pictures of the beach just around low tide yesterday afternoon. 

You will see that conditions did not stop people from enjoying the beach yesterday. It was actually quite a lovely day overall and other than the strong currents and big waves it was a beautiful beach day.  

Today it is cloudy and rainy but the roads are open and clear. There is still a high risk for rip currents and people are still advised to stay out of the water. The weather is supposed to clear up this week to typical "end of summer" conditions. Don't let Bill's passage stop your trip to Ocracoke Island.

Now for the oodles of photos...

Thanks to Byron Miller for these photos.


Airport Ramp






This is the parking lot just north of the Pony Pens






Foam line in the Sound from Bill


More of the foam line

Thanks to Jaren Mutro for the following pics:

























































































































The following pictures are the ones I took around low tide. The first set was taken at the beach across the airport ramp.





























This next set are some that I took at the parking lot just north of the Pony Pen.


The water was coming through the dunes just to the right of the sign. You can see
a picture of the water coming through here in a picture above.






Closer view...water came through here.


Same spot from the beach side toward the parking lot.
















Huge cloud that was part of the front that helped keep Bill away.