Forecasters say they're still not sure whether Ophelia's eye will make landfall, but that it could torment the coast for as long as 48 hours.
By Associated Press
Published September 15, 2005
CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. - Hurricane Ophelia lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rains Wednesday, beginning an anticipated two-day assault that threatened serious flooding and an 11-foot storm surge.
"If you have not heeded the warning before, let me be clear right now: Ophelia is a dangerous storm," Gov. Mike Easley said, appealing especially to those in flood-prone areas to evacuate.
Ophelia was moving so slowly - just 7 mph - that authorities said they expected the storm's passage through North Carolina to take 48 hours.
The storm had sustained winds of 85 mph Wednesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings covered the North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
More than 12 inches of rain had fallen on Oak Island at the mouth of Cape Fear River, said meteorologist Jeff Orrock with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
More than 77,000 homes and business were without power in eastern North Carolina, electric utilities said.
On Ocean Isle Beach, south of Carolina Beach, a 50-foot section of beachfront road was washed out by heavy surf and the only bridge to the island was closed.
Video broadcast by Durham's WTVD-TV from Carteret County on the central coast showed a section from the end of a hotel's fishing pier breaking off and floating away.
Jetnella Gibbs and her family made their way to a shelter at a Craven County high school after the rain started Tuesday. "We noticed the street was starting to fill up, and I said, "It's time to go,"' she said. "I know if this little bit here has flooded the street, what will it do when it really pours?"
The storm's eye was expected to brush the coast between midnight and 2 a.m., but might not come ashore, said Bob Frederick, a weather service meteorologist at Newport, N.C.
At 9 p.m., Ophelia's large eye was centered about 35 miles southwest of Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks. Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extended 50 miles out from the center and forecasters said some strengthening was possible.
After the criticism of its response to Hurricane Katrina, FEMA had 250 workers on the ground - a larger-than-usual contingent given Ophelia's size. FEMA also put a military officer, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian Peterman, in place to command any federal response the storm might require.
Craven County expected a 6- to 8-foot storm surge in the Harlowe area near the Neuse River - an area that flooded during Isabel two years ago, said Stanley Kite, the county emergency management coordinator.
The Beaufort County town of Washington ordered an evacuation of a 20-block area that flooded during Hurricane Fran in 1996. A storm surge of up to 9 feet was forecast along the Pamlico River and water wasn't expected to recede until Thursday morning, county manager Paul Spruill said.
Officials on the Outer Banks warned Ophelia could bring 10 hours of hurricane-force wind to Hatteras Island. The southernmost villages of Hatteras, Frisco and Buxton were expected to get the worst winds and flooding.
