Hurricane Arthur: Ocracoke's Most Annoying Holiday Visitor
Arthur, a category two hurricane with sustained winds of 100 mph, passed through Ocracoke late last Thursday and on into Friday morning. The peak of the storm hit the island around 2 a.m.
The island sustained little damage relative to past comparable storms such as Hurricane Alex in 2004 where flooding destroyed hundreds of cars after tourists were not evacuated.
The county commissioners made the controversial decision not to have a mandatory tourist evacuation, instead calling a voluntary evacuation. Many locals disagreed with the decision, citing potential lack of resources.
“As locals, we knew the power wouldn’t be on and the generator would be on a rotation,” Samantha Vander Myde explained. “We knew it wouldn’t support the number of people on the island all at once.”
The island’s power went out at 12:30am Friday, and stayed out until 10pm Saturday. By Friday afternoon, Tideland was able to use generator power, which can't support the full load of the island's electric needs all at once. During power outages, the generator is used to service the island with homes and businesses sharing the power on a rotating basis. With all the extra people on the island, Tideland requested conservation efforts and asked that customers turn off water heaters and air conditioning so the generator could be used. As it was, they were able to provide power 2 hours on, 4 hours around the village. Tideland and contracted workers from Lee Construction repaired over 40 downed power poles, and restored full power to the island less than 48 hours after the outage.
Before the storm, there was a noticeable difference between the local and tourist attitude.
“The locals were very busy preparing,” Cathy Barthelmas, summer worker, said. “They knew what they were doing; they were securing things, they brought their boats in; they were ready.”
Leslie Lanier, owner of Books to be Red on Ocracoke, explained that locals were expecting three to five feet of water after the storm. She said the days before Arthur hit were spent trying to prepare for the storm without a mandatory evacuation
"The tourists seemed to romanticize the hurricane. They think it’s going to be a big party,” Leslie noted. “The next morning they expected restaurants and shops to be open; everything back to pre-hurricane status, which was not the case.”
Samantha agreed that many tourists did not take the impending storm seriously.
“People were having hurricane parties and thought that the hurricane would be fun and exciting without considering the danger,” Samantha said. “We’re very fortunate that something too serious didn’t happen.”
Friday after the storm, only the gas station and the Variety Store were open, both running on their own generators.
Trudy Austin, Variety Store employee explained that before the storm they kept busy stocking batteries, water, candles, ice, and lots of alcohol. The island stopped selling alcohol at 5 p.m. Thursday in anticipation of the storm. Additionally, a village-wide curfew of 8 p.m. Thursday to 8 a.m. Friday was enforced.
“Lots of alcohol sales before,” Rhonda Mason, Variety Store employee explained. “They just stocked up before we stopped selling."
Tourists and locals alike gathered supplies before and after from the store. -“we’re very fortunate that something serious didn’t happen.
“The Variety Store is the only one who made out on this deal,” Rhonda joked.
Trudy added that Friday was a busy day for the store, luckily the store was fully stocked in expectation of the holiday.
“It was busy, but a different kind of busy than a typical Fourth of July,” Trudy said. “But we never ran out of ice!”
The harm caused by Arthur was largely superficial and easily enough fixed, although several trees were blown down, power lines taken out, and some signs and boats damaged.
Many branches and debris covered the streets and yards around the village. Summer worker Dancey Howes said it was “amazing how quickly everyone cleaned.”
“The cleanup was remarkable,” Cathy agreed. “A huge team effort, the island did everything it could to alleviate the problem. I was truly amazed.”
In the end, Ocracoke faired well during Hurricane Arthur, and is back in business.
“Now we’re just happy that we didn’t have terrible damage,” Leslie said. “The island is open and we’re eager to have people back on the island.”
