The Ocracoke Health Center will have its annual flu shot clinic Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons this week. Photo: C. Leinbach
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The Ocracoke Health Center will hold its annual flu vaccination clinic on Wednesday and Thursday, from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. each day outside at the office at 305 Back Rd.
The clinic days will be extended this year to allow for greater social distancing. Masks are required and no appointment necessary.
If you have not seen our provider in the last six months please stop by to pick up a patient information packet to complete and return by noon on the day you plan to attend. Times for age groups are as follows: Wednesday 1:30-2:30 for patients 65 and over 2:30-4:30 All Patients Thursday: 1:30-2:30 patients 65 and over 2:30-4:30 All Patients Friday: 1:30-4:30 p.m. all patients
Ocracoke Health Center llevará a cabo su clínica anual contra la influenza el 30 de septiembre, el 1 de octubre y el 2 de octubre de 1:30 a 4:30 p.m. todos los días afuera en el Centro de salud en 305 Back Rd.
La clínica contra la gripe se ampliará este año para permitir un mayor distanciamiento social. Se requieren máscaras. No es necesaria cita previa.
Si no ha visto a nuestro proveedor en los últimos 6 meses, pase a recoger un paquete de Información para el paciente para completar y devolverlo antes del mediodía del día en que planea asistir.
After waiting for three days in the stacking lanes at the Hatteras Ferry docks, the ‘ferry friends’ get a surprise ride on Thursday to Ocracoke before the rest of the public. Photo by Clint Loban of Afton, Virginia.
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By Connie Leinbach
A few hours before the Hatteras ferries opened to the public Thursday afternoon, the N.C. Ferry Division rescued the 20-plus people who had been waiting in the ferry stacking lanes for three days and brought them to the island.
Rob Dickerson of Winston-Salem, who was among the 20-plus cars waiting from Monday to Wednesday to get to Ocracoke, texted the Observer Thursday morning to say the group was headed to the island. For several years, he has been a frequent on-air guest at WOVV, Ocracoke’s community radio station. Due to COVID-19 concerns, he could not share his playlist with the station’s listeners on this visit.
The Hatteras ferry supervisor had heard about the newlywed couple in the group and wanted to get them to the island, Dickerson said.
“We had to get some equipment to the island,” said Jed Dixon, Ferry Division deputy director, during a visit to Ocracoke on Friday, who authorized the special trip via the back side of the island. “We didn’t know for sure that the road would be open later that day.”
In several spots along NC 12, especially north of Rodanthe and the northern end of Ocracoke, the large swells from the passage of Hurricane Teddy on Sunday (Sept. 20) and Monday (Sept. 21) washed dunes away and flooded the road.
Ferries from Hatteras were canceled because of the breached dunes on Ocracoke and which NCDOT road crews worked for three days to clear of sand. Access to the north, above Rodanthe, was blocked by overwash.
The M/V Stanford White pulls into Silver Lake harbor, instead of the north end of Ocracoke, on a special mission to bring the ‘ferry friends’ to Ocracoke on Thursday. Photo: C. Leinbach
The special two-hour ride by the M/V Stanford White on Thursday is the same route used by the passenger ferry and which the Ferry Division used for about three months after Hurricane Dorian last year.
Because the dock infrastructure is different in Silver Lake than it is at the north end of Ocracoke, ferry workers were concerned that the small cars might have difficulty getting off because of the angle.
“The rest of us have promised we won’t leave them behind and will lift up their car if necessary,” Dickerson texted the Observer before the boat pulled into Silver Lake.
But all of the cars made it off the ferry and honked as they debarked amid some cheering by friends and family members waiting for them at the dock.
Ocracoke Island homeowner Robin Metcalf was among the group who spent three days in the Hatteras Ferry stacking lanes.
“It was a crazy experience,” she said on Saturday.
She said a number of them arrived at the Hatteras ferry hoping at 9 p.m., but at 10 p.m., ferry workers told them the roads weren’t passable and no more ferries would leave that night.
Rob Dickerson, front, takes a selfie of part of the group. At left is Robin Meltcalf and in the center are Peggy and Carter Tucker.
She and the others scrambled to find motels. Then they all came back the next morning and were told that crews were working hard to clear the roads.
“That’s why we were all there every day,” she said, and every night they had to rebook motel rooms.
Newlyweds Katie and Matt Oldhouser of Richmond were among the group waiting each day. They were married on Sept. 19 and left for their Ocracoke honeymoon the next day but got stuck waiting.
Finishing up their last two days on Ocracoke before they head back home today, Katie spoke Saturday afternoon from the beach and said their time on Ocracoke was still “as good as we hoped.”
She said quite a few people on the island honked at them, and they also ran into their new “ferry friends,” as the stranded group began calling itself.
“We came out of it with a story and we’re going out on a high note,” she said about her unusual honeymoon.
Despite the inadvertent adventure, Metcalf, echoing others, was glad to be on the island.
“I bought a wooden sign that says, ‘Ocracoke is my happy place,’” she said. “The wait was worth it.”
Newlyweds Katie and Matt Oldhouser of Richmond, Va., finally arrive on Ocracoke after spending three days of their weeklong honeymoon waiting in line at the Hatteras ferry terminal. Photo: C. Leinbach
Rob Dickerson and his wife Gretchen greet each other after four nights apart while Rob, who missed the last Ocracoke ferry at Hatteras, waited for three days in the ferry stacking lane before getting a ride on Thursday to the island. Their nephew, Pierce Showe, is at right. Photo: C. Leinbach
They Hyde County Health Department announced today (Sept. 28) that because of low registration numbers, the drive through testing event scheduled for Fairfield on Tuesday has been cancelled.
Testing will be by appointment only at the Fairfield United Methodist Church, 126 Church St. See the graphic below for details.
Mitch McConnell texted me the other day with an urgent message! If Democrats are elected, particularly Joe Biden, then America will be lost to socialism!
Ok, so Mitch actually texted every breathing Republican with the same message looking for money – not just me. But it was a stark warning to voters, playing on fears about some huge Democratic plot to undermine our economy and allow the government to control everything.
I confess Mitch’s warning reminded me of the famous line from the old movie starring Alan Arkin about a Soviet submarine stuck on a sandbar off the coast of a New England island. The locals, upon discovering the submariners’ presence, panic and their warning sweeps the local countryside: “The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!” It’s a really funny story. The GOP’s fearmongering about a socialist takeover isn’t.
A friend of mine was recently having an engaging “discussion” with a local farmer up in the mountains, who assured my friend she would be headed to eternal damnation if she didn’t vote for Trump. His big fear was that the United States would become a socialist country if Biden is elected. Asked exactly what “socialism” meant to him, his only response was that America would be the next Venezuela.
One of the recurring themes articulated by the GOP in this election plays on fears that if Democrats are elected, then our government will turn towards socialism. To make sure I knew exactly what they were talking about in raising this specter of socialism, I started checking around. It seems you can find lots of dry books on the subject, but not too much that simplifies the concept.
Finally, I stumbled across an article on the internet that seemed pretty even-handed in its discussion and actually had a definition that I remembered from my ninth graded economics and civics course way back in 1960. For those of you too young to remember, 1960 was the Kennedy – Nixon election and all of us in the class were paying close attention to what that Democrat “liberal” from Massachusetts was proposing.
The old slogan used by my teacher to describe socialism described it as “from each according to ability, to each according to need.” Pretty simple. What it doesn’t explain is that government makes the determination as to what each person provides and what each person gets. The government owns and controls the means of production. In a socialist economy, public officials control producers, consumers, savers, borrowers and investors by taking over and regulating trade, the flow of capital and other resources.
All of that sounds pretty draconian and scary. However, considering the public’s lack of confidence and faith in government, it’s hard to imagine our country moving toward a truly socialistic economic system.
Then I started thinking about these last few years of the Trump administration and its allies in government, and I had to ask whether the GOP is actually complicit in moving us down the path toward socialism?
Isn’t that what the Trump administration is doing by having an economic policy with the government pumping “borrowed” money into the economy by the billions, if not trillions, of dollars? Isn’t that a socialistic principle of government–regulating and controlling the flow of capital and other resources?
Don’t huge government-imposed tariffs restrict free trade? Don’t huge “targeted” tax breaks for selected big businesses fall within the socialist rubric?
It would appear that Trump’s policies favoring big businesses are just a different version of government intervention in the economy.
If Democratic proposals for adequate healthcare protecting all Americans, or protecting Social Security, or providing needed unemployment benefits to out-of-work people, constitutes an inexorable march toward a socialistic economic system, then Mitch needs to take an honest look at the policies and practices being advocated for and implemented by the Trump administration.
Maybe “the socialists are, in fact, coming.” They’re just coming in a big-business version pushed by the Trump administration.
Robert F. Orr is a retired North Carolina Supreme Court justice and N.C. chair of Republicans For A New President.
The dredge Merritt is working in the Big Foot Slough area of the Pamlico Sound just outside of Ocracoke. Photo: P. Vankevich
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By Connie Leinbach
Dredging in Big Foot Slough in the Pamlico Sound is expected to clear the way for the larger sound-class ferries in the next several days.
Kris Noble, Hyde County manager, said in an interview that the side caster dredge Merritt began dredging at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Cost of the project is thanks to a partnership between the NC Ferry Division and Carteret County, which supplied the $62,916.50 local match required, she said.
The total project will cost $251,666, Noble said, with the state contributing $188,749.50.
“Carteret County is being proactive and planning ahead so that we don’t get caught like this again,” she said about the aid from the neighboring county to the south.
In the Monday meeting of the Ocracoke Waterways Commission, Brent Johnson, the project manager for grants and waterways with Dare County, said the last time dredging was done in Big Foot Slough several years ago it had not been not done to project depth.
For this job, the money needed is almost double from the last time allowing dredging to go to 10 feet.
Back in July, the latest survey at that time by the Army Corps of Engineers showed water depths in Bigfoot Slough as low as eight feet.
That meant the ferry system’s two largest sound-class vessels, the M/V Swan Quarter and the M/V Sea Level, could not traverse the area safely.
Ferry service since then has been reduced to one boat a day leaving each port of departure during some of the busiest summer travel times on our coast.
“The Ferry Division is monitoring it every day,” Noble said about the dredging. “If the track is sufficient depth-wise, they’ll resume the three-boat schedule.”
Noble said Hyde County will also support Carteret County’s efforts in seeking reimbursement of the local match from the state legislature.
The Ferry Division is also looking into getting a Federal Lands Access Project grant, which is a pot of money designated for communities adjacent to national parks.
Catherine Peele of the NC Ferry division said during the waterways meeting that these grants can be sought to improve transport to federal lands such as Ocracoke.
This grant would seek money for surveying the inlets, permitting for all the inlets and possible relocation of the ferry waterway west of Big Foot Slough, which is a man-made channel, Noble said, to a natural channel called Nine Foot, which is a bit westward.
If Nine Foot could be the authorized channel, it could be maintained better since it is natural, she said, and would shave a few minutes off the long-route trips.
Shaving time off the Hatteras-Ocracoke route also is something the commission would like to see happen, said Justin LeBlanc, chair of the commission.
If the transit time on this most popular route in the entire ferry system could be 50 minutes or less, the Ferry Division could run the peak number of ferries during the high tourism season, LeBlanc said during the Monday Facebook live meeting.
This would involve realignment of the Rollinson Channel among other complications not easily solved.
In other waterways commission action, LeBlanc said the Coast Guard is scheduled to reposition the aids to navigation in the Ocracoke Inlet in the next couple of weeks.
Water and sand remain on roadway; motorists should drive with caution
RODANTHE – The N.C. Department of Transportation reopened two sections of N.C. 12 on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands at noon today (Sept. 24).
The sections, from the Marc Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe on Hatteras and from the National Park Service Pony Pens to the north end Ferry Terminal on Ocracoke, were closed Sunday night due to ocean overwash caused by a combination of seasonal high tides, strong northeast winds, and long-form ocean waves from Hurricane Teddy.
N.C. 12 motorists are advised to drive with extreme caution on both Hatteras and Ocracoke as sand and salt water remain on the road in several locations. NCDOT crews will also be on the highway to continue clearing the road and shoring up dune lines. Lane closures may be in effect in some sections.
Ferry service between Hatteras and Ocracoke resumed today with departures from Hatteras at noon, 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight, and departures from Ocracoke at 1:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.
Newlyweds Katie and Matt Oldhouser, married on Saturday, journeyed to Ocracoke on Sunday and have spent the last three days waiting at the Hatteras ferry to get to Ocracoke. Photo by Rob Dickerson
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By Connie Leinbach
Katie and Matt Oldhouser didn’t expect to spend most of their honeymoon this week in the Hatteras Ferry Terminal parking lot.
They are among those in about two dozen vehicles that have been waiting in the stacking lanes since Sunday afternoon hoping for passage to Ocracoke Island but were thwarted again on Wednesday.
A large wave swell from the passing of Hurricane Teddy well offshore has battered the Outer Banks. Since Sunday, the ocean has over washed the hot points at high tides at the north end of Ocracoke and the northern part of Pea Island between the Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe.
“While we’d hoped to be able to open NC 12 today, the ocean had other plans,” the NCDOT posted Wednesday on its Facebook page. “The road will remain closed between the Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe as well as on Ocracoke between the Pony Pens and the Ferry Terminal until at least noontime Thursday.”
Since access from Hatteras has been blocked, visitors leaving Ocracoke have had to leave the island via the Swan Quarter and Cedar Island ferries, which runs have also been reduced due to shoaling in the Big Foot Slough.
The Oldhousers, of Richmond, Virginia, married on Saturday and set out for Ocracoke on Sunday, Katie said.
They got through the Pea Island area and as they got to the Hatteras ferry learned those runs were canceled due to ocean overwash on Ocracoke.
“So, we got on the Internet and booked a motel room in Buxton,” she said. “Then we got up the next morning and got in the ferry line.”
And the couple has been doing that ever since: hanging out, talking to others in line, checking out the beach, visiting the Hatteras Landing shops.
“We’re all sharing where we’ll be staying on Ocracoke,” she said.
Fortunately, the Oldhousers have trip insurance that covers road closures, which will help cover the costs of paying double for the week.
“That takes care of some of the stress,” she said. “We know they’re working hard,” she said about the DOT crews moving the sand.
Rob Dickerson has waited with the Oldhousers and others for the last three days, decamping each night to find a motel then coming back in the morning to wait again.
“I’d rather be stuck here than an airport,” Dickerson said. “We have a nice bathroom inside the ferry office. I understand (the problem), but the back-and-forth is driving us nuts.”
Complicating things is that Dickerson’s wife, Gretchen, is on Ocracoke, having gotten on the last ferry on Sunday.
At least, since the wind has died down and it’s sunny, he can ride his bike around and take his dog for a walk on the beach across the road.
On Wednesday, the group had engendered enough camaraderie so that Dickerson volunteered to go get some food.
“I just did a fried seafood run up to Pops in Buxton,” Dickerson said as he drove back with a raft of food for an impromptu tailgate.
“Ocracoke is worth it,” chimed in Peggy Tucker of Richmond. “We spent our vacation in a parking lot.”
Dickerson and the others prepared to leave the ferry lines after learning around 4:30 that there would be no runs today.
Remaining upbeat while being inconvenienced, Dickerson said the situation is reminiscent of the old days.
“I used to go to Grateful Dead concerts and hang out in the parking lot,” he said.
Visitors awaiting passage to Ocracoke for the last three days enjoy a seafood tailgater. Photo by Rob Dickerson
Says Rob Dickerson: ‘After three or four days in the Hatteras Ferry parking lot, it can test your resilience for the best beach on the East Coast! But we’re willing to wait!’ Photo courtesy of Rob Dickerson, who is at rear showing the peace sign.
NCDOT crews work on Wednesday to clear NC 12 on Ocracoke. Photo courtesy of NCDOT
The ocean was still up to the dunes at the pony pen beach. Photo by Marie Conner
A Project to Understand Resilience and Recovery in Eastern North Carolina
We are looking to contract 4 to 6 individuals to collect survey data from a sample of households in Ocracoke Village and surrounding communities. Survey Interviewers will be paid per completed interview section (approximately $20 per hour).
Responsibilities: Visit selected households and coordinate a time to conduct in-person or phone interviews with household members using a survey developed by the DEEPP team. The survey is designed to collect information on how families in eastern North Carolina prepare for, are affected by, and recover from storms and hurricanes. The survey data are collected using a laptop to make it easy and efficient.
Survey interviewers will be provided with computers and all other necessary equipment (e.g. notebooks, pens, masks, hand sanitizer, etc.). Interviewers must complete a 5- to 6-day training course (pay is $100/day during training). The course will begin Oct. 19 in Ocracoke Village. Upon completion of the training, survey interviewers will work at their own pace and schedule their own hours over the next six weeks.
Must be at least 18 years old
No minimum education/experience requirement
Paid Training
Flexible hours
Background check required
If interested, please email a resumé with references to DEEPP@unc.edu Hablamos Español.
Dr. Howard Johnson, DVM, right, spays a female ‘community’ cat during Ocracats’ 2018 spay-neuter clinic. Assisting him are Joanna Burkett, left, and Kara Johnson. Photo: C. Leinbach
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Ocracats Inc. will hold a spay-neuter clinic for island feral cats and pet cats Sept. 29 to Oct. 1 in the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department.
Ocracats trappers will trap feral cats all over the island the evenings of Sept. 28, 29 and 30, and Ocracats asks islanders to keep their cats in on these nights.
The Oct. 1 date will be for appointments for pet cats needing to be spayed-neutered or requiring rabies vaccinations. Ear notches are optional for pets.
A sign-up sheet for surgeries and volunteer help and with clinic details is posted in the post office.
Ocracats wants to locate areas where there are feral cats that need to be spayed/neutered. If you have noticed feral cats near your home, please note this on the sign-up sheet or email Ocracats ocracats@gmail.com.
You do not have to be involved with the clinic by putting your name on the list, but Ocracats does need your permission to place a trap on your property.
Dr. Howard Johnson, DVM, of Boone, his team and numerous volunteers will conduct the clinic.
Ocracats need volunteer help for all phases of the clinic, specifically with trapping/releasing the feral cats, clinic help to record information for rabies certificates, documentation for keeping track of the surgeries and clean-up. Face coverings will be required for all.
Please check the bulletin board at the post office for clinic details and to sign up your pet cats for surgeries, or email ocracats@gmail.com with your information and questions.
These Ocracat clinics are held with support from the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Dept., and visitors who volunteer with the clinics, make cash donations or feed the colonies.
Helen Brittina (Tink) Helpenstill in an undated photo courtesy of the family.
Helen Brittina (Tink) Helpenstill, 86, died peacefully on Aug. 18 at her home in Eagle, Alaska, with her daughter and son-in-law by her side.
She was the wife of the late Albert Helpenstill Sr.
Born on Ocracoke July 16, 1934, she was a daughter of the late Uriah and Maude T. Garrish.
Helen spent her teenage years with her uncle and aunt in Staten Island, New York. She returned home to graduate with her class at Ocracoke High School.
After graduation, Helen joined the United States Air Force and was stationed in San Antonio, Texas, where she met her husband.
After her marriage she left the service to be a fulltime mom and raise her two children, Jan and Albert.
After many years of military duty with her husband, they settled in Alaska where she went back to school at the age of 40, becoming a license practical nurse and worked at the Wesleyan Nursing Home until retirement.
She was an avid reader, enjoyed historical novels and enjoyed traveling throughout the United States and Europe.
After her husband’s death she moved to Eagle, Alaska, and traveled between East Texas and Ocracoke to visit family during the winter months.
In 2012 Helen received a kidney transplant which was successful, but later developed complications that ended her ability to travel.
She often commented on the fact that she was raised with no running water on Ocracoke and ended her life in a remote village in Alaska that is still without running water.
She is survived by a daughter, Jan Woodruff and husband Don of Eagle, Alaska, and son, Albert Helpenstill Jr of Redland, Texas, and Alaska;
Three sisters Maude Ballance, Grace Gaskill and Chole O’Neal; and one brother Robert Charles Garrish (Bobby), all of Ocracoke;
Grandchildren Uriah Parish of Seward, Alaska, Lee Ann Bailey and husband Brandon of Redland, Texas, Jeff Helpenstill and wife Stephanie of Kalaspell, Montana; five great-grandchildren; and many cousins and friends.
