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Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018:
As Hurricane Michael made landfall near Panama City, Florida, at 1:30 this afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, the N.C. Ferry Division has made modifications to its Thursday schedule.
The Ocracoke to Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries will make one round trip Thursday morning before temporarily shutting down operations to prepare for the arrival of remnants from Hurricane Michael.
The ferries between Ocracoke, Cedar Island and Swan Quarter will run on the following schedules Thursday morning:
Cedar Island-to-Ocracoke Ferry will make runs at 7:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Ocracoke-to-Cedar Island Ferry will make runs at 7:30 and 10:30 a.m.
Ocracoke-to-Swan Quarter Ferry will make a run at 7 a.m. and then return to Ocracoke at 10 a.m.
After completing their runs, the ferries will be secured at their respective terminals until the storm passes. Officials with the North Carolina Ferry Division will announce when the ferries will resume operations.
The Ocracoke/Hatteras ferry will run on schedule, but will be suspended if conditions become unsafe.
For the safety of passengers and ferry crews, the state’s ferries do not run during potentially unsafe weather conditions.
Passengers can check on the status of the ferry route they want to use by contacting one of the ferry stations for that route on the NCDOT Ferry website.
Tropical storm watches have been upgraded to tropical storm warnings and remain for all of Eastern North Carolina.
Remnants of the storm are expected to bring heavy rainfall and damaging winds (30 to 40 mph) to central and eastern North Carolina all day Thursday starting around 12:45 a.m. with a storm surge watch for soundside portions of Dare and Hyde counties.
A high threat of rip currents at all North Carolina beaches makes swimming hazardous.
Track and intensity information for Michael can be found by visiting the National Hurricane Center at www.nhc.noaa.gov and local forecast information is available at www.weather.gov/mhx or at our local tropical page: https://www.weather.gov/mhx/tropical.
