Power Outage Update

Only individuals who are Ocracoke residents, seasonal residents, non-resident property owners, vendors, and emergency personnel who display a valid re-entry pass, or who possess some form of documentation proving residency and/or employment, will be allowed access to the island. We would also like to remind everyone the Dare County officials have requested that anyone evacuation from Ocracoke to Hatteras please wait until you get north of Oregon Inlet until you attempt to get gas or lodging as they are facing shortages themselves.

As the order for evacuation is mandatory, all visitors on the island are ordered to leave immediately. The Hyde County Board of Commissioners and State of North Carolina have both declared states of emergency, and any individual who fails to leave an evacuated area shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor, in accordance with N.C.G.S. 14-288.20A. All renters should be aware that, pursuant to Article 6 of Chapter 42A-36 of the North Carolina General Statues, travel insurance claims may be made when a claimant is complying with a mandatory evacuation. Please contact your travel insurance policy provider after evacuating from the island.

Tideland EMC has one portable generator on the island that was made operational at around 3:30 am this morning. This generator only powers a small area near the lighthouse. This generator is only providing energy for fans and refrigeration, so HVAC and other resource- intensive systems are prohibited from being turned on at this time. Two other two generators should be on the 1:00 pm ferry to Ocracoke from Swan Quarter, with Tideland EMC estimating a timeframe of 6-8 hours after the generators arrive on the island before they are operational. The use restrictions currently in place for the small generator on the island shall also apply when the other generators are brought online.

Engineers are on-site at the damaged portion of the transmission line, and are currently assessing the extent of the damage to the system. We hope to provide further information as to the damage and get a better idea of a repair time frame later this afternoon.

As of 11:30 am, the NC DOT Ferry Division reported that they had evacuated 1,849 people and 683 vehicles from the island. The traffic at the ferry terminals is starting to increase, but current wait times are still under one-hour. If you have any questions about ferry reservations, cancellations, or refunds, please contact the NC DOT Ferry Division at 252-928-5311.

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