Historic Flooding on Ocracoke

Water, water, everywhere. 

Important info from Hyde County: For anyone that needs to leave Ocracoke, Hyde County is planning to evacuate by air to a shelter in Washington County. The shelter will have food, power and medical needs available there.  Pets will not be able to evacuate by air.  If you wish to leave start preparing now.  We will release times to go to the airport when we have it. Please call the Emergency Operations Center at 252-926-3715 to arrange for this transportation.

Back Road facing the intersection at British Cemetery Road -- you can see the stop sign.

Full disclosure: I'm off the island. I was planning a trip off (starting today) so we left two days early. This is second- and third-hand information, gleaned from phone calls, texts, and social media. 

Ocracoke is experiencing historic flood levels that no one has seen before in living memory. (One of the people we've heard from on Facebook, Femie Ennis, is 92, so that's a lot of memory. She grew up on the island and has never seen this kind of high tide.)

Corner of Back Road and Sunset Drive -- right in front of Ocracoke Coffee Co.

Here's what I know (and don't know): 

• Reports of tide levels range from 4-6 feet, up to 8 feet. 
• Homes that have never had water in them before got water this time. My own house, c. 1909, got about 1.5 feet. 
• The Variety Store, Tradewinds Tackle, Ocracoke School, the Methodist Parsonage... all flooded. 
• Some residents in single-floor homes took to their attics, and were rescued by friends and neighbors in skiffs.
• We haven't heard of any injuries and are thankful for that. 
• Power is still out on the island.
• We haven't heard about the condition of Hwy. 12 yet. 
• WOVV is broadcasting with live updates. You can listen online at wovv.org

Thanks for all the caring comments and messages. We all appreciate it. I will update this when I get more information.