Should I worry about a hurricane?

 

No.

 

I am doing all the worrying for you.

 

You can call me if your going or there now.

 

THE PURPOSE of THIS PAGE IS TO GIVE A VISITOR

AN IDEA OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A HURRICANE

SCREWS UP THEIR VACATION PLANS

 

 

GROUP ONE:  AM I GOING TO GET EVACUATED????


My purpose here is to give you an idea what to expect should a hurricane be threatening your vacation. I am guessing that The Weather Channel is playing on all three TVs in the condo, right?


I am going to use Hurricane Dorian as an example. Hurricane Dorian was very well behaved. The forecasts were all in line and proved true.


The Dare County Control Group, in conjunction with the Hyde County Control Group for Ocracoke Island, meet to decide what to do. They will impose mandatory evacuations from the south to the north. First an evacuation for Ocracoke is declared. After about six hours or so Hatteras Island is declared. That delay gives the people of Ocracoke a chance to get out and keeps the traffic leaving strung out a bit. After Hatteras the rest of the Outer Banks is evacuated.


GROUP TWO:  ignore THE EVACUATION


Back to Dorian. You’re at the condo and when they declare on Monday, September 2, 2019 that a mandatory evacuation is ordered for noon, Tuesday, September 3, 2019. I watched the Avon Fishing Pier camera which is no longer in serviced.  This camera is a few door south of the condo [click here]. MANY people were on the beach enjoying their vacation until Thursday, September 5. Yeah. They left with light or no traffic just before the storm. So, yeah, you could have beat feet on September 2 or you could have stayed four more days.


Am I telling you to ignore the evacuation? NO! LEAVE IMMEDIATELY! HURRY! OBEY THE LAW!


You get stuck on the island and you could be facing WEEKS of no power, no food, no water and no help. So leave. Now. You might die.


GROUP THREE:  WHEN CAN I GET INTO THE CONDO AFTER A HURRICANE???


I have no idea. There are many of problems:


  • Electrical service will be out.

  • Roads will often be destroyed.  The photo to the right is a road on Ocracoke after Dorian.

  • Flooding will have to abate.

  • The people who run things have to have survived and taken care of their own families.

  • The desalinization plant has to be pumping fresh water.

  • Sewage problems can be an issue.

  • The condo has to be able to be rented.

  • And on and on and on.


THAT BEING SAID


Issue 1: North Carolina is wealthy due to stupid high taxes you are paying to stay here.  As of this writing I think you are paying 12.75%.  North Carolina is losing a huge amount of money for every day closed.


Issue 2: If more than half a week is under an evacuation order, your insurance will normally pay for the whole week. Your mileage may vary.  Read your plan.  The insurance companies are losing money.  You did buy insurance, right?

 

 CLICK HERE for insurance info


Issue 3: Politicians, for some reason, are motivated in some unknown way by the insurers mentioned above to get the Outer Banks opened so that they don’t have to pay.


Issue 4: The pressure of the state and the insurers to get the Outer Banks open WILL GET THE OUTER BANKS OPENED as soon as possible. Here is a photo of something like 25 major pieces of equipment working on one small chunk of road. This is what it looks like for the whole of the Outer Banks after a hurricane.


Issue 5: If you are the first renter after a storm you are going to find a condo that just went through a storm where sand and water was blasted at it at a hundred miles-per-hour for hour after hour after hour. You think normal OBX is a sandy place? Just wait!

 

WOrkers/Residents have a say ... in a right to work state???

 

While the almighty buck holds quite the say in the decision to reopen, things may change, at least on the island.  Although this is North Carolina, a right to work state with all that brings with it, there is a hint of a worker revolt.

 

After the Hurricane Dorian openings the employees who are residents lambasted the Control Group publicly.  Harsh criticism regarding the resident's need to attend to their own situations and their being forced back to work due to the premature, in their view, re-opening.

 

The businesses retorted that they need income.  They need the island opened.

 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  I'm bettin' the income from the businesses will trump residents need to care for themselves and their families.  They voted these people in.  Or did the businesses?

 

We shall see.

 

Here's an article about the problem.  A PDF of that is here.

 

If you want to see what it is like a month after a hurricane devastates your home, here is an article from a month later.  A PDF of that is here.

CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE DORIAN

DIRECT HIT ON THE CONDO

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019


 

Between September 1 and 3, category five Hurricane Dorian sat idle over the islands of the Bahamas destroying all that was in its path. It was clocking one minute sustained winds of 185 miles-per-hour … for three days!!! For the people living in the Bahamas it was a nightmare. 

 

When it finally did move, it was at a snail’s pace. Heading toward Florida it was first thought to be crossing the Florida peninsula and head out into the Gulf of Mexico. This was the storm where Trump got confused and said it was going to hit Alabama and do a bunch of damage. The Hurricane Center had to put out an emergency statement saying, “No, it is not going to hit Alabama.” Then Trump used a Sharpie marker on an actual NOAA Hurricane map to make it look like it was going to hit Alabama. Not so much.  Not at all.

 

Dorian turned north and inched its way off shore wetting down Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.


Dorian did not make landfall. In order to make landfall the area of the lowest pressure must come on shore. The eye did come ashore. It breached Wilmington and then moseyed up the Outer Banks as a category one hurricane. It hit Avon on September 6 with the eye coming right over the condo.


The front of the storm didn’t do much. The backside wreaked havoc. Ocracoke Island was devastated by the worst flooding ever. Avon did fine on the approach with many people posting video and pictures, including the eye of the storm. The back side again devastated the village by doing major damage to the power lines. Flooding wiped out the sound side and even flooded all the way to the ocean side dunes. Just about every building has some damage but most of the damage was minor. Some shingles, a small portion of a roof, some siding. One front condo had the railing for the steps to the beach torn off.


Dorian was gone, rushing north out to sea.

 

 

 

Ray, who works for Hatteras Realty, took this picture while in the eye of the storm.  He was in Buxton.


Dorian was devastating and did a lot of damage, ruining many people. But it was a category one hurricane. With that understanding, here is how the island was reopened. Priority One gets in any time. They are the first responders. Priority Two are residents. Priority Three are people who own property but are not residents. In order to get in you have to have a permit and a driver’s license with the name of the permit holder.


  • September 6, 2019 the OBX is closed, no reentry

  • September 7, 2019 at 9:30 am 

    • Priority two north of Oregon Inlet

  • September 7, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    • Priority three access north of Oregon Inlet

    • Priority two south of Oregon Inlet

  • September 8, 2019 at noon

    • Priority three south of Oregon Inlet

  • September 8, 2019 at 4 pm

    • Unrestricted access north of Oregon inlet

    • Salvation Army begins serving food in Buxton and Frisco

    • NOTE: A HUGE LINE WAITING BEFORE 4 PM TIED UP TRAFFIC

  • September 9 at noon

    • Unrestricted access to the tri-villages of Waves, Salvo and Rodanthe

  • September 10 at 6 pm

    • Unrestricted access to Avon will begin on September 11, 2019 at noon

The weather channels SUCK

 THE BEST PLACE TO GO FOR HURRICANE INFO:  spaghettimodels.com!

You can also follow Mike on his Facebook page:  Wxrisk.com.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!  I am probably glued to this.


MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCES


I had reserved the week of Dorian for my own visit.  Lucky me.  As an owner I was able to come in early as a Priority Three.

 

On arriving at the condo the evening of September 8, 2019 I was stopped and my re-entry permit and driver’s license checked. The roads were sandy.  There was water in places. Some people were driving stupid. One flipped his car at the S-curves north of the tri-villages. I had to wait forty minutes for that. Then after that was cleared, between Salvo and Avon, a nutcase in a little Honda passed dozens of cars at a high rate of speed. There is always one.


At the condo I found everything is pretty much fine.


I had my own private beach on the deck. The furniture was probably set down by Hatteras Realty when they did a hurricane check.

 

 


There was some damage to the screen doors. Sand was driven into EVERYTHING outside. Inside there were damp rugs in front of the bedroom and living room sliding door. Drive rain into any door at a hundred miles per hour and you are going to get a leak now and again.

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

The owner next to me lost a railing.  There were a few shingles lost on both buildings.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know for certain sure why you leave the shingle siding on a home natural. You DO NOT paint!


 

 

 

The home they moved a few feet up the beach did not blow away.


 

 

 

Birds were resting on the beach.  I'm guessing, but I suspect more than a few suffered injuries in the storm and are trying to recuperate.

 

There were large numbers of pelicans.  More pelicans than I have seen patrolling the waters.  Must have been a lot of fish.  There were no fisherpeople to catch the fish!  By Wednesday the pelicans were gone and the fisherpeople arrived.

 

Other storms I have been involved in or had to come down for