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By Peter Vankevich
The weekend storm that pummeled the Outer Banks with two days of sustained winds of 30-plus mph and gusts much higher wreaked havoc on NC 12 and caused the ferry system to suspend operations.
Monday morning the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries resumed their regular schedules. The Ocracoke/Hatteras run remained shut down and the NCDOT is assessing that route, according to a press release this morning.
NC 12 between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe was closed late Saturday afternoon and remained so this morning while crews worked to remove the sand. The last of the storm has moved on.
While the storm caused minor flooding in some areas of Ocracoke village during Sunday and this morning’s high tide and caused cancellation of school today, what the storm did again to NC 12 might have the biggest impact on when Ocracoke may reopen to visitors.
Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 6 badly damaged NC 12 on Ocracoke north of the pony pens in two locations, closing it down. Road crews have been working on getting the road completed with a target date of Nov. 22 as the tentative reopening of the island to visitors.
Ocracoke’s County Commissioner Tom Pahl inspected the damaged road Sunday afternoon around low tide with Keith Gaskins, an island NC DOT employee.
Pahl noted four sections of the dunes were knocked down spilling water and sand onto the road. Two of those were the same ones knocked down by Dorian and two were new sections of the dunes.
Pahl did not know the status of the newly laid macadam at two of the damage points.
“We had a phone conference with NCDOT and the Ferry Division,” he said. “They’re on their way now to look at it.”
Pahl said another phone conference will be held before tonight’s special Hyde County commissioners meeting at 6 p.m.
This meeting to discuss reopening the island will take place in Swan Quarter government center with videoconferencing at the Community Center.
On Oct. 3, NC 12 was reopened but restricted to 4-wheel drive vehicles to the South Dock to take a ferry to Hatteras.
The ferry route from Hatteras to Silver Lake has continued for all vehicles.
High tide Sunday morning, Nov. 17 caused some flooding in the village. Photo by Richard Taylor
Lawton (Bud) Howard Jr. and his late wife, Elaine. Photo courtesy of the Howard family
By Philip Howard
My brother, Lawton (Bud) Howard Jr., a recent resident of Ocracoke who had moved to Virginia after Hurricane Dorian, died unexpectedly Thursday morning, Nov. 7, in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Bud, 83, was born Nov. 25, 1935, in Pennsylvania to Lawton W. Howard, Sr., a native of Ocracoke Island, and Kunigunde (Connie) Guth, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants.
Immediately after completing an Industrial Arts program at Ridley Township High School in Pennsylvania he enlisted in the US Navy and served as a radarman on the USS Hazelwood, a WWII-era destroyer deployed to the Far East to enforce an uneasy armistice after the Korean War.
At the completion of his military service Bud began a long career as a telephone repairman and installer with the Bell Telephone Company and AT&T, from which he retired a number of years ago.
In 1961 Bud married Mary Elaine Magee. They had one son, Richard.
In the late 1960s they moved to a rural area of Chesapeake, Virginia, where Bud and his father built a new house. Over the course of several decades Bud and Elaine cared for Richard and a number of foster children, enjoyed their dogs, and raised sheep. They were members of Centerville Baptist Church.
After Elaine died in 2006, Bud began spending more time visiting Ocracoke. Some years later he began sharing his ancestral island home with his new companion, “a singular event I’ll never forget,” as one islander expressed it.
In 2015, Bud moved permanently to Ocracoke, living first with me, his younger brother, and then in his own trailer on my property.
Bud was an avid reader with a near-encyclopedic grasp of European and WWII history. When not reading, he typically spent his days pursuing a daily routine. Almost every morning he visited the Ocracoke Coffee Company for coffee and a blueberry muffin. He always had a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous grin as he shared stories, jokes and his views about national and world events.
By late morning, Bud arrived at Village Craftsmen with coffee for Amy Howard, Finley Austin and Desiree Ricker. He remained there for a couple of hours, perched on a stool behind the counter bantering with staff and customers.
He loved to point to the family cemetery across the lane and enchant visitors with the story of how, when he was 12 years old, he had helped exhume and rebury his Uncle Evans.
Nearly every evening Bud joined Philip, his extended Howard family, and friends for dinner and lively conversation.
Bud was charming and engaging even when ensnaring family and friends into his conversations about current events and obscure ideas, including the search for Bigfoot, the significance of Area 51, and the virtues of elected officials.
Bud is survived by his son Richard Howard of Chesterfield, Virginia, his brother Philip and niece Amy Howard, wife of David Tweedie, of Ocracoke, and nephew Stefen Howard of Weaverville, NC, as well as grand nephews and nieces, Lachlan, Zoe, Eakin, and Eliza.
Members of Bud’s Sunday School class at Centerville Baptist Church are planning a memorial, and family and friends at Ocracoke will gather informally to remember Bud and his unique, amiable and often contrarian opinions.
Proceeds of the OIR Christmas Cheer quilt raffle will benefit Ocracoke families and the Bread of Life Food Pantry. Photo courtesy of OIR
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Islanders, visitors and friends have two chances to obtain a handmade Ocracoke quilt this year.
Ocracoke Island Realty is having its first quilt raffle for its annual Christmas Cheer Fundraiser that benefits island families and the Bread of Life Food Pantry. The quilt was created with 64 current and vintage T-shirts donated by Ocracoke businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals, said Kari Styron, rental manager.
“Our intent is to keep doing this project each year and get it out earlier in the season so that our guests can participate in the fundraising,” she said. “The potential is there to raise a lot of money and help a lot of people.”
Tickets are $5 for one or $20 for five tickets and will be available through Thanksgiving weekend, after which the winner will be drawn.
OIR will match the raffle receipts 100 percent.
Tickets are available in the Ocracoke Island Realty rental office or by mail with checks made out to Ocracoke Island Realty with “Quilt Raffle” in the memo line. Mail checks to Ocracoke Island Realty, PO 238, Ocracoke, NC 27960. Include your name, mailing address, phone number and email address.
For questions or details, call OIR at 1-877-646-2822 or oirrentals@ocracokeislandrealty.com.
The Ocracoke Preservation Society is raffling a hand-made quilt made by the Needle and Thread Club of Ocracoke, which has made quilts for the last 23 years to support the OPS.
The drawing for the quilt will be held at the Wassail Party on Dec. 10, at 5 p.m., in the OPS museum.
Tickets are $5 each with discounts for multiple purchases. The OPS does not use the numbers on the ticket. They just use the ticket itself, so you do not need a copy of the ticket.
For tickets, stop in the OPS museum, 49 Water Plant Rd., or call 252-928-7375. Tickets are also available online at ocracokepreservation.org.
You can also help the OPS by becoming a member and/or by making a donation (also on the support page) towards OPS recovery efforts.
The Needle Thread Club of Ocracoke has made a quilt each year for the last 23 years to benefit the Ocracoke Preservation Society. Photo: C. Leinbach
La vida de iglesia ahorro de Ocracoke en camino del faro está disponible esta noche, 16 de noviembre, como un refugio temporal. Foto: C. Leinbach
De Hyde Condado de Servicios de Emergencia, 16 de noviembre de 2019. 17:53:
Debido a las condiciones de mucho viento previsto para esta noche, la Iglesia de ahorro de Ocracoke La vida en la carretera del faro estará abierta para proporcionar refugio temporal.
Si usted está en necesidad de refugio, por favor llame a la Iglesia para salvar vidas en 252-928-9001.
The Ocracoke Life Saving Church on Lighthouse Road is available tonight, Nov. 16, as a temporary shelter. Photo: C. Leinbach
From Hyde County Emergency Services, Nov. 16, 2019. 5:53 p.m.:
Due to the extremely windy conditions forecast for tonight, the Ocracoke Life Saving Church on Lighthouse Road will be open to provide temporary shelter.
If you are in need of shelter, please call the Life Saving Church at 252-928-9001.
A full moon rises behind the Hatteras-Ocracoke (Silver Lake) ferry route. Photo: C. Leinbach
For the current ferry schedules to Ocracoke, click here.
UpdateNov. 16, 2019. 4:30 p.m.
Due to heavy wind and rain, operations have been suspended on the ferry routes to and from Ocracoke Island, and the Currituck-Knotts Island, Southport-Fort Fisher and Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach ferries. Only the Aurora-Bayview ferry is continuing to run on its normal schedule.
The worst impacts of the storm will occur tonight and Sunday. Rain and sustained winds into the 30-plus mph range, with much higher gusts, are expected to last well into Sunday night.
DOT officials are monitoring conditions on the coast to determine when ferry operations can resume.
The N.C. Highway 12 from Oregon Inlet to Rodanthe will be closing at 5 p.m. (Nov. 16). The coastal storm has made travel along N.C. 12, the Outer Banks main thoroughfare, dangerous, NCDOT officials said Saturday afternoon. There is almost no visibility due to wind blown sand accumulating on the highway and it is becoming unsafe for NCDOT maintenance crews working to clear the road.
NCDOT crews will be back out early tomorrow to assess N.C. 12 and determine when the closure can be lifted. However, continued hazardous conditions can also be expected to continue for Sunday with ocean overwash onto N.C. 12 likely during high tide cycles later tonight and tomorrow.
On Ocracoke the next high tides are at 10:07 p.m. and 10:45 a.m. on Sunday which may bring flooding into the village.
No information was available on whether the repairs on N.C. 12 on Ocracoke have been set back. The Ocracoke Observer will post information as soon as it is known.
Rodanthe, Saturday afternoon, Nov. 16, 2019. Photo by Tim Fitch
Nov. 15 5:49 p.m. RALEIGH – The N.C. Department of Transportation has suspended operations on one of its ferry routes and could suspend others depending on impacts from a strong storm lashing the North Carolina coast.
On Friday afternoon, the state Ferry Division suspended operations on its Hatteras to Ocracoke-Silver Lake ferry route due to the strong storm. Ferry personnel are monitoring the storm and will announce any other changes to the seven ferry routes, including when the Hatteras-Ocracoke Silver Lake route will resume operations.
A large storm packing strong winds and heavy rain is expected to deliver its greatest impacts to coastal North Carolina between Friday night and Monday morning.
Since Ocracoke is still under mandatory evacuation from Hurricane Dorian, the ferry schedules are running on a temporary schedule and only residents, vendors and recovery workers/volunteers may come to the island.
For updates, follow the Ferry Division on Twitter at @NCDOT_Ferry.
Kelley Shinn returned victorious on Thursday to Ocracoke Island after she and a handful of others lobbied the N.C. General assembly to approve disaster relief aid to Ocracoke, but it’s up to Gov. Roy Cooper to sign the bill despite his objection to a controversial part of it.
The N.C. House and Senate almost unanimously (100-1 in the House and 45-0 in the Senate) passed House Bill 200, which appropriates $1.7 million for repairs to the Ocracoke School and $5 million specifically for Hurricane Dorian recovery grants to local governments, with an additional $10 million grant program intended to aid in recovery from named storms since 2016’s Matthew.
Cooper, who visited Ocracoke twice since Dorian inundated the island on Sept. 6, objects to Section 5.7 of the bill–an added clause that states that any donation or gift received by North Carolina’s government will be appropriated by the legislature. This would put programs for education and the environment at risk, including Volkswagen diesel settlement funds, opioid settlements, and even private gifts to universities and community colleges, Cooper’s office said in a press release Thursday.
Cooper and Republican leaders of the General Assembly have been engaged in a lengthy battle over who should control the $92 million North Carolina received as part of a national settlement with Volkswagen over the company’s cheating on vehicle-emissions tests.
“Republicans should be ashamed for using storm survivors as political pawns in their latest power grab. These families deserve help, and Governor Cooper realizes the critical importance of the disaster funding portion of this bill,” said Cooper’s spokesperson Megan Thorpe in the press release.
With all of this going on, Shinn, part-time islanders Candice Cobb, Martha McMillan and Allison Serafin, former islander Sarah Johnson and several other island friends spent Wednesday traversing the legislative halls in Raleigh promoting Ocracoke Island’s plight on the day before a legislative session break that is planned to last until January.
“We need to do this now before they break because winter is coming,” Shinn said prior to her departure for the capital.
Joining Kelley Shinn, left, in lobbying N.C. legislators in Raleigh are Candice Cobb, center, and former islander Sarah Johnson. Photo by Martha McMillan
Shinn decided to go to Raleigh on Tuesday where she and her daughter Cecilia Carter, made posters quoting letters from island school children pleading for help. They stood outside the capital building in the cold before someone told them they were indeed allowed to go inside and visit their elected officials in their offices.
“It was like Harry Potter and the Ministry of Magic,” she exulted after she debarked the Swan Quarter ferry Thursday afternoon to a small gathering in the ferry parking lot.
Shinn rattled off her initiation into bearding legislators.
“I passed out 220 letters, and then all of a sudden, like, a lobbyist from the North Carolina Coastal Federation found me on the sixth floor of one building. He’s like, ‘Here let me tell you what I know.’ And then it was like Dobby appeared around the corner and Sirius Black appeared in the fireplace and if you go to this room… ‘They weren’t even supposed to discuss this bill today, but they found out you were here they’re having a secret sub-caucus meeting. Find this person; do this.’ I mean, I was like it was like a nut-shell game.”
She went to Sen. Bob Steinburg’s office. Although Steinburg wasn’t there, his aide was and told Shinn that the island has been through a lot and then gave her a bag of peanuts.
Shinn said, “I told him, ‘Quite frankly, sir, with all due respect, we need a helluva lot more than peanuts.’”
A contingent of Democrat women legislators were happy to see her and took dozens of her letter detailing how the island has suffered and will further suffer without the aid in HB 200.
Kelley Shinn, center, with Martha McMillan, left, Allison Serafin, second from left, Gary Mitchell, beside Shinn, and Sarah Johnson, right, outside the N.C. State Legislature building in Raleigh. The other two women are unidentified. Photo by Candice Cobb
“…It seems for every home that has already been raised since Hurricane Dorian devastated us on Sept. 6, another two have been razed,” Shinn wrote in her letter.
She sees “telltale signs of PTSD: the fear, the inability to focus, the anger, the dark irreverent humor, the disbelief.”
Shinn was surprised at the political action spurred by her physical presence in Raleigh.
“It blew my mind,” she said. “We could have so much power if we just come together.”
Shinn’s letter included excerpts from letters written by 60 of the 173 school children, grades pre-K to 12.
RALEIGH — The state House and Senate approved Thursday $180 million in disaster recovery funding along with an array of policy changes as the General Assembly wrapped up work for the year.
Thestorm recovery billwas hammered out by House and Senate negotiators who dialed back some of what the House approved but left in place a significant boost to the state’s Dorian recovery efforts.
The two chambers initially agreed for the need for about $122 million in state funds needed to match federal disaster aid for Hurricanes Matthew, Florence, and Dorian and Tropical Storm Michael. Without the additional funds, accounts providing the 25% state share for debris removal, infrastructure repair and other work were expected to run dry by the end of the month.
Everything beyond that was part of an ongoing negotiation until a deal was locked down on Wednesday.
The final version of the bill, which passed both House and Senate with only one dissenting vote, includes $1.7 million for Ocracoke School repairs, money for flood control around Lake Mattamuskeet and additional state help for local governments to speed up Dorian recovery.
Rep. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, said the bill marks an important step in the journey back from disaster.
“Ocracoke has a long road to recovery, and this will be instrumental in that recovery,” he said.
The bill’s passage came as a relief to Ocracoke residents as they prepare for yet another weekend of high winds and heavy swells.
Peter Vankevich, co-publisher of the Ocracoke Observer, said there’s relief the bill has passed but also an immediate worry that some of the progress on the island’s roads could be set back if the storm forecast for this weekend is bad enough. It could slow the final bit of progress needed to reopen N.C. 12.
“You get two days of 30-knot winds and a lot can happen here, he said.
Vankevich was one of several who greeted Ocracoke resident Kelley Shinn when she returned home Thursday after visiting Raleigh to take the island’s case directly to legislators. Shinn met with Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, and joined a group of other Ocracoke supporters outside the Legislative Building Wednesday to raise awareness about the island’s needs.
Ocracoke resident Kelley Shinn, center, and a group of the island’s supporters spent a chilly morning in front of the legislature on Wednesday calling for passage of new recovery legislation. Photo: Kirk Ross
Shinn said she was glad to see the funding in the bill was similar to the higher House levels, compared to the Senate version, and included the key items for Ocracoke and Hyde County. Residents will want to dig into the details on the funding and what programs and services it will go for, she said.
“I think we are ever hopeful, but still cautious,” Shinn said. Transparency, she said, will be important at all levels.
Ninth-generation Ocracoke resident Trudy Austin agreed and said she was confident Gov. Roy Cooper, who visited the island shortly after the disaster, will sign the bill.
Austin said Shinn’s trip provided inspiration in that people are listening.
“The island’s pretty excited about what she did, going there and standing up for us,” Austin said.
Recovery on the island will continue to depend on a mix of state and federal aid. Last month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency rejected the governor’s request for federal Individual Assistance, saying the disaster had not reached necessary damage thresholds. A program to provide state individual assistance grants to fill that gap is expected to begin soon, said Keith Acree, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety. Acree said individuals who did not qualify for help through a Small Business Administration grant program would be able to apply for the individual assistance grants.
The state is also in the process of finalizing a $600,000 grant to Hyde County. Half of the funds will go to rental assistance and for the purchase of 35 travel trailers for temporary housing. The other half will go for project management assistance for countywide recovery programs.
Resiliency planning
The bill contains some of the House version’s resiliency initiatives along with policy revisions clarifying the role and authority for the recently created state Office of Recovery and Resiliency.
It leaves out proposed funding aimed specifically at resiliency planning for the state’s 20 coastal counties. Also on hold is a $32 million update to the state’s floodplain mapping program and a $5 million appropriation for buyouts of hog farms in the 100-year floodplain.
Bill co-sponsor McGrady said he was surprised that Senate negotiators agreed to as much as they did, considering the Senate version focused almost solely on the needed matching funds. McGrady said he had been promised that the buyout funds and resiliency initiatives would be up for further discussion when the legislature returns in January to work on additional recovery legislation.
Other policy provisions in the bill include additional flexibility for local governments to allow them to combine costs and projects and reallocate funds from individual storms.
The bill also implements a legislative review panel’s recommendation for new state systems, responsibilities and oversight for disaster recovery under the Office of Recovery and Resiliency.
A provision in the bill giving the legislature explicit authority to determine the distribution of money from legal settlements drew a sharply worded statement from the governor’s office just before the vote on the bill that said the provision was an attempt to get around a court case regarding funds from the Volkswagen emissions testing fraud settlement.
The bill “uses disaster victims as political pawns,” Governor’s Office spokesperson Megan Thorpe said in the statement.
Sen. Bill Rabon, R-New Brunswick, responded in a statement that the governor had his facts wrong and the provision “simply re-affirms existing state law.”
The statement from the governor’s office did not contain an explicit veto threat and McGrady told House members that he understood that although the governor objected to the specific provision, he supported the recovery bill.
Also on Thursday, both chambers passed separate Department of Transportation funding and oversight bills covering recent outlays for disaster spending and funding some resiliency work and planning studies.
The spending includes $2 million for work expanding living shorelines around critical transportation infrastructure.
Funding highlights for House Bill 200 include the following:
$70,812,336 to the Hurricane Florence Disaster Recovery Fund to provide state match for Florence federal disaster assistance programs.
$11,197,013 for state match for Hurricane Matthew related federal disaster assistance programs.
$4,176,245 for state match for Hurricane Matthew related federal disaster assistance programs.
$17,800,000 for state match for Hurricane Dorian-related federal disaster assistance programs and similar state assistance that may supplement federal assistance or cover housing repairs and rehabilitation for those who do not qualify for federal assistance.
$17,600,000 for the state match for additional federal funds for the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
$5 million to replenish the state’s Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund for future storms.
$5 million for expansion of flood-mitigation studies
$4.8 million for water and breach level monitoring systems for 1,510 high- and intermediate-risk dams.
$15 million to the state Office of Recovery and Resiliency, including $10 million for a bridge loan program for local governments affected by Matthew, Michael, Florence or Dorian to kickstart FEMA and Hazard Mitigation Grant projects and $5 million in grants to local governments for Dorian disaster recovery.
$15 million for Golden LEAF grants for infrastructure repair.
$5 million for stream debris removal.
$5.2 million for repairs to storm damage at Elizabeth City State University.
$1.7 million for repairs at the Ocracoke School.
$1.8 million to Hyde County for a pump station at Lake Mattamuskeet.
$50,000 for restoration work at Coastal Reserve sites damaged during Dorian.
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There have been several benefit concerts to help Ocracoke since Hurricane Dorian struck the island on Sept. 6. This one will include Ocracoke recording artists.
Proceeds from Music Across the Sound, a concert at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Turnage Theatre on Main Street in Washington, Beaufort County, will benefit Ocracoke Island artists.
Presented by Arts on the Pamlico, funds raised will be channeled through the non-profit Ocracoke Alive to sponsor programming in the Ocracoke community by Ocracoke artists.
Several regional artists will perform, with a finale by Ocracoke musicians Coyote and Molasses Creek.
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The National Weather Service out of Morehead City is warning that a slow-moving coastal low is expected to impact the Outer Banks beginning Friday afternoon. Strong winds and heavy rainfall are likely bringing with it dangerous surf, sound side flooding and ocean overwash.
Temperatures during this time will be primarily the mid-50s to mid-60s. Up to three to four inches of rain is possible.
Sustained north-northeast winds in the upper 30 miles per hour, with gusts on Ocracoke up to 60 mph Saturday into Sunday, may cause ferry service suspensions, possible power outages, and may cause serious overwash problems on portions of NC 12.
Ocean side flooding, beach erosion and a possible storm surge of up to four feet is more likely north of Cape Hatteras.
