Ocracoke Alive has postponed the events scheduled for Saturday and Sunday but Monday’s community discussion will go on at this point.
The Ocracoke Health Center and Pharmacy will be closed Monday and Tuesday. See info below.
Ferries to Ocracoke will be suspended on Saturday until the storm has passed.
“In order to ensure the safety of our passengers, crews, and vessels, these will be the last departures to and from Ocracoke Island until the winter storm has passed,” the Ferry Division said on Facebook. “Other ferry routes will also likely face schedule interruptions over the course of the weekend.”
The last departures from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island today (Jan. 30) will be at 4:30 p.m.
The last ferry from Ocracoke to Hatteras will be at midnight tonight and the last ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke will be at 4:30 a.m. Saturday (Jan. 31).
After the ferries stop, medical service will be limited to helicopters to fly patients off island, said Captain Joe Smith of the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department. “More than likely, this option will also stop when the winds pick up,” he said. “If you or someone you know is in need of medical services please seek that service now. It could be days before we can return to normal operations.
“Please be safe on the roads the next few days until DOT can clear them. If you don’t have to travel please stay home where it’s warm.”
The Ocracoke Convenience Site might be closed, depending on the weather.
Cape Hatteras National Seashore: Ahead of an impending winter storm, all National Park Service visitor facilities at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Wright Brothers National Memorial will be closed this weekend and will remain closed through at least the morning of Feb. 2. The Oregon Inlet and Ocracoke campgrounds closed at noon today.
Park-specific operational updates will be provided on the Outer Banks Group’s severe weather webpage and social media accounts.
Ocracoke is one of the most remote places in North Carolina. A view of Ocracoke’s harbor with Portsmouth Island in the distance beyond. Photo: C. Leinbach
Editor’s note: Due to the approaching winter storm, Ocracoke Alive has postponed the weekend activities to future dates TBD. This includes the soap workshop and baking class on Saturday and games at the library on Sunday. We will update if more events are canceled due to the storm.
Ocracoke Alive on Monday, Feb. 2, will host the first of eight discussion-based, creative workshops about the island’s long-term future.
David Tweedie and Hannah Aronson, a master of city planning student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will facilitate the sessions that will run from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Mondays, Feb. 2, 9, 16, 23, March 2, 9, 17 and 23, in the Deepwater Theater.
“This is not a technical planning meeting or commitment to any project, but a space to think boldly, share ideas and explore unlimited possibilities for Ocracoke’s future through collaborative community visioning,” Tweedie said.
As a child, Hannah used to visit Ocracoke with her parents Margaret Mackinnon and Bob Baldwin, who still visit every summer.
With experience in Massachusetts, Virginia, Hawai’i, Japan, New Zealand and Micronesia, Hannah is researching how coastal communities envision and plan for climate change. Hannah’s final thesis project will be the development of a community-driven framework for Ocracoke based on ideas shared during the series.
Her project is based on a two-step approach to planning: first, community envisioning of ideal futures (workshop series); then, grounding community visions in available resources and realities (planning framework). Each week explores a different theme or scenario about the island’s possible futures.
The first workshop will serve as a brainstorming session to identify potential topics and themes and the last workshop will reflect and close out the series.
Hannah hopes to visit in person for the last session and share back some ideas for a community planning framework. The workshop hopes to explore: Different themes and scenarios about Ocracoke’s possible futures
Discussion of creative concepts, emerging technologies and lessons from other coastal communities in the U.S. and abroad
A focus on local voices and ideas, not predetermined plans
Example questions the workshops will explore: How have other coastal communities adapted to climate change?
What would it mean—socially, culturally, emotionally—if the island ever faced difficult decisions about its future?
Hyde County officials have issued a state of emergency effective at 8 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 30.
Hyde County is currently under a Winter Storm Watch. This declaration comes as the National Weather Service (NWS) warns of a significant Nor’easter capable of producing dangerous blizzard conditions across the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula and Ocracoke Island.
For a storm to be classified as a blizzard, it must meet the following criteria for at least three consecutive hours:
Sustained winds or frequent gusts of 35 mphor greater.
Visibility of less than 1/4 mile due to falling or blowing snow.
Extreme snowfall rates: Snowfall of 1 to 2 inches per hour, leading to whiteout conditions and making travel impossible.
Forecasted impacts for Hyde County:
Snowfall: Anywhere from 10 to 16 inches of snow; totals will depend on where the heavy bands eventually land. Hyde County is currently in the zone for the heavy bands.
Wind: Gusts are forecasted at 55 to 65 mph for the Outer Banks and 40-50 mph for inland areas.
Coastal flooding: Ocracoke and coastal areas may see 2 to 4 feet of inundation above ground level, which will likely close portions of NC12.
Extreme cold: Wind chills will drop dangerously low Saturday night through Monday.
Long-lasting impacts: Impacts may last into the majority of next week.
Closures: Decisions regarding the closure of county offices and solid waste sites will be made as the storm approaches. Check your local TV news, our website, or social media outlets for updates.
Critical safety & medical alerts:
EMS impacts: Residents are advised that EMS response times will be significantly impacted by hazardous travel conditions. If roads become impassable due to deep snow or soundside flooding, or white-out conditions restrict visibility, emergency vehicles may be unable to reach you immediately.
Medical preparedness: Anyone with medical issues or special needs should have enough supplies and medications on hand to last for up to one week.
Backup power: If you rely on medical equipment that requires electricity, you must have a backup power source ready, as isolated power outages are possible due to high winds.
Be prepared: Residents are urged to complete all necessary preparations by Friday evening.
Remember: Bridges freeze before roads do. Please stay off the roads once conditions deteriorate to allow crews to work. Check on your neighbors and ensure your pets are brought indoors.
Hyde County Emergency Management will continue to monitor the forecast and issue updates as required.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Watch for eastern North Carolina this weekend with the potential for significant accumulating snow.
Forecasters say that localized blizzard conditions are possible along the coast if the storm strengthens and the higher-end snowfall projections occur.
The storm will start on Saturday as rain and will shift to snow as the temperatures drop. The highest amount of snowfall is expected to be from Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Strong winds with gusts up to 60 mph are expected along the Outer Banks which will likely lead to moderate to locally significant coastal flooding impacts both oceanside and soundside. Dangerous marine conditions expected across the coastal waters and sounds.
Travelers should expect some suspensions of ferry services.
Local government officials are urging the public to avoid travel when possible and to be prepared for an extended period of travel issues due to the cold temperatures forecast to remain in place into next week. An emergency travel kit list is posted below and important for those who may become stranded on the road.
The weather service’s wind chill chart shows single-digit or teen wind chills possible at times across the region from Saturday through Tuesday, depending on location.
The NWS has issued a new tool—a video, below–to inform the public to help all prepare for the pending storm. To view, click Watch on YouTube.
As of Wednesday morning (Jan. 28), the National Weather Service continues to track a system that could develop into a winter storm affecting the Outer Banks this weekend.
While specific snow accumulations remain uncertain, forecast models show increasing agreement that this storm system will bring at least moderate and possibly major impacts to eastern North Carolina starting on Saturday. The exact track, intensity and resulting snow totals are still being determined.
Moderate impacts could include high winds, large waves, overwash and several inches of snow. This will bring difficult travel conditions and possible suspensions of the ferry service.
Major impacts could mean significant snow accumulations requiring extensive removal efforts, dangerous or impassable roads, and potential power outages.
The National Weather Service will provide updates as meteorologists gather more data and the forecast becomes clearer.
N.C. State University researchers have canceled their trip to Ocracoke this weekend (Jan. 30 to 31) because of the forecast for winter weather.
NC State University professor Dr. K.C. Busch and her team are seeking further dialogue with the Ocracoke community about NC Highway 12 and access issues and will reschedule her visit to sometime this spring.
They were here in September to discuss their findings from the study they did on north end access issues.
The National Weather Service out of Morehead City warns that the Outer Banks will see some impacts from this second weekend storm, though more details will be available toward the end of the week.
Ocracoke Alive winter activities begin. To see the full schedule, click here.
Aerial view of South Point at sunset. Photo by Matt Janson
Monday, Jan. 26 Ocracoke Alive: Spanish/English Coffee hour, 8:15 to 9:15 am. Ocracoke Library. Then every Monday through March 23
Tuesday, Jan. 27 Ocracoke School basketball at home vs. Columbia: Varsity girls at 4 pm; varsity boys at 5:30 pm.
Ocracoke Alive: Mediterranean Cooking with Helios: 6 pm. To RSVP, click here.
Wednesday, Jan. 28 Ocracoke Alive: Marlin Spike Seamanship: a few useful knots plus a Turk’s head bracelet with Captain Rob Temple. 1 to 3 pm. Deepwater Theater.
Ocracoke School basketball: Middle School girls and boys at Mattamuskeet.
Thursday, Jan. 29 Ocracoke Alive: 9:30 to 10:30am. Ukulele/Guitar with Lou Castro. Deepwater Theater.
Ocracoke School basketball: Varsity girls and boys travel to Beargrass. The girls game begins at 4:30; boys will play around 5:45. (Moved up from Friday due to possible bad weather.)
Ocracoke Alive Art with Kitty Mitchell: Learning to See Abstractly + proportional skills. 6 to 8 pm. Deepwater Theater.
Friday, Jan. 30 Researchers and professors K.C. Busch and Laura Moore will be guests on “What’s Happening on Ocracoke” to discuss the dialogue with the Ocracoke community about NC Highway 12 and access issues.11:30 am. 90.1 FM on the island and wovv.org
UNC-Chapel Hill researchers interview islanders on how different land management scenarios might affect the landscape of the island. 1 to 3 pm. To join, click here. Postponed to a date TBD.
Ocracoke Alive: A visit with homing pigeons with Steve and Jeanne Brook. 11 am to noon, Ocracoke Library outside.
Ocracoke Alive: Latino Dance class with Arturo. 6 to 7:15 pm. Ocracoke Community Center.
Saturday, Jan. 31 UNC-Chapel Hill researchers interview islanders on how different land management scenarios might affect the landscape of the island. 10 am to noon. To join, click here. Postponed to a date TBD.
Ocracoke Alive: Melt and pour soap workshop with Mary Ruef. 1 to 3 pm. Deepwater Theater. Postponed to a date TBD.
Ocracoke Alive: Cooking/baking: Swedish saffron almond buns with Matt Janson. 3 to 5 pm. Ocracoke United Methodist Church rec hall. Postponed to a date TBD.
Sunday, Feb. 1 Church services: Ocracoke United Methodist Church, 11 am
Ocracoke Life Saving Church, 11 am
Stella Maris Chapel: Sunday Mass time at 4:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Go to Masstimes.org and type in the zip code 27960 but refresh your browser for it to work properly.
Ocracoke Alive: Games/Puzzles for adults and young adults, 3 to 5 pm. Ocracoke Library. Postponed to a date TBD.
Bobby Garrish and Lydia Freda Spencer reminisce about their childhood days on Ocracoke.
Editor’s note: This story was first published in the October print issue of the Observer.
Text and photos by Connie Leinbach
After about 30 years, Ocracoke cousins Lydia Freda Spencer and Bobby Garrish returned to the house in which they spent many youthful days.
Lydia, 92, (pronounced “Lida”) and Bobby, 87, were both born in their first cousin Alton Ballance’s house across from the old post office, which is now Captain’s Cargo.
Among the oldest island residents, Lydia, nee Williams, was born in 1933 and Bobby in 1939.
“We were born in the same room and the same bed,” Bobby said.
That was back when maternity care was done by island midwives.
Back in the early fall, the two reminisced on Alton’s porch, along with Lydia’s daughter, Elaine Spencer, and Alton’s brother, Kenny, about their days as youngsters on Ocracoke.
This was their grandmother Brittina Williams’s house; and her daughters, Vera (Alton’s mother), Nina Claude (Lydia’s mother) and Maude Thomas (Bobby’s mother) moved into Brittina’s house.
Alton Ballance displays the antique syrup bottle he found in one of his walls.
Along with Alton’s father, Lawrence and other island men who had gone up north to work in shipyards and on dredges, Lydia’s father, Milon Daniel Williams, went to Philadelphia to work.
Alton said that from the northeast, they would drive back to Ocracoke, spend a day or two at home, then drive back.
Bobby’s father, Uriah, was an island mullet fisherman.
“They was hardly ever home,” Lydia, in her island brogue, said about the menfolk. “So, my momma and his momma, we all lived here in Ma Brittie’s house.”
The four women and their six children lived in six rooms, including three bedrooms.
Bobby said four kids slept on the bed and two on the floor.
“The bathroom was outside,” Bobby said, and by that he meant the outhouse.
An old wooden cistern built by Uncle Maurice Ballance collected rainwater for drinking, “and we had a pump that pumped it into the house,” said Alton.
Ma Brittie.
The house was a village hub.
“Everybody gathered on this porch when we were growing up,” added Kenny.
“This was Times Square,” Alton said.
The mail boat would arrive in the afternoon on the dock, he said, “and everyone would gather here and wait for the mail to call over.”
“She was the ‘Ruler of the Ridge,’” Alton said about his grandmother. “She loved sitting here on the porch. None of the buildings across the street now were there. “You could sit on this porch and it was all open beach.”
Although Irvin Garrish Highway is only a few yards from the house tucked behind some shrubbery, when Lydia and Bobby were kids, the road was a sandy path.
There were very few cars and there was no harbor then. Only a “gut,” as it was called, and a beach.
The ocean wasn’t as far away from the center of town as it is now.
There were very few outside lights and it was very dark at night.
“Sometimes you might run into a horse when you were out walking,” said Lydia with a laugh.
The house right beside Alton, now owned by Tom and Carol Pahl, was built by Leonard Bryant for Bobby’s parents, Uriah and Maude Thomas Garrish.
While building it, the children (with the adults) slept in there, and because there were yet no doors or windows, Bryant would place a piece of plywood in the doorway.
“He’d board us all up inside there at night and then let us out in the morning,” Lydia said with a smile.
Alton showed his cousins some artifacts he found inside the walls of his house while he was renovating it after Hurricane Dorian flooded it in September 2019.
One small, greenish bottle was embossed with “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup.”
“This was a potion they gave babies 100 years ago to calm them when they were teething or crying,” Alton said.
The baby shoe Alton found inside his wall.
It was called a “baby killer” because it contained morphine, which was unregulated. Giving more of the syrup to babies who didn’t settle was sometimes fatal.
Alton also found a single baby shoe and a piece of a letter from his grandfather to Brittina, in about 1919, asking about the kids.
“In May of 2020 I was working on these walls and found them,” he said.
Alton’s mother, Vera, had issues, he said, “with all these kids running around stealing her perfume and jewelry.
“At one time, she was going with a Navy guy,” Lydia said. “He gave her a pack of chewing gum and she had it on her bureau. And between me and Maude Ellen and Chloe, we got into it and chewed it all. She didn’t like that one bit.”
“She was glad to see them go next door,” Alton said about the kids.
Alton and Kenny Ballance talk about growing up on Ocracoke.
The dunes at South Point shift a little every time I return—sometimes a gentle reshaping, other times a dramatic redrawing of the horizon.
A ridge I once climbed at sunrise might be flattened by winter storms; a bowl of sand where I sat and watched the pelicans glide may be buried under a new crest by summer. Out here, nothing stays where you left it.
The wind and tide take what they want and give back something entirely different, without explanation and without sentiment. It’s a quiet reminder that this 14-mile stretch of Ocracoke has never belonged to anyone for long.
The island remakes itself as it pleases—just as it has with the businesses, the homes, the people, and the memories I once thought would stay put. To love this place is to accept that it won’t stop changing, even when you wish it would. Most everything that thrives here has wings or fins, is coming or going.
Everything has changed here since Hurricane Dorian (Sept. 6, 2019) and its seven-foot wall of water. Then came COVID-19, the work-from-home mandates, and a wave of newcomers who could suddenly live anywhere.
Nearly every house now stands on stilts. Nearly every business has changed hands. Nearly every record has been broken—home prices, occupancy rates, even the familiar boundaries of the season itself. What used to feel like a May-to-August rhythm now spills back into April and forward into September. Even the usually empty Variety Store parking lot is gridlocked with Mad Max-esque tourists, engines revving and tempers flaring as everyone jostles for a patch of asphalt further and further into the fall and winter when NRPOs like me come here to hibernate away from the cacophony of the world.
Arek with a drum.
The paint on our newly purchased home had barely dried before Dorian’s walls of water came surging through our neighborhood. In a daze, shuffling around like a storm-struck zombie, I went searching for my garbage-can holder and found it sitting in front of Arek and Pam’s house. For a brief, ridiculous moment I accused him in my head—imagining he’d swiped it in some hurricane-opportunist frenzy—before remembering that seven feet of rushing water can ferry a hundred pounds of lumber a hundred yards without asking anyone’s permission.
I connected with Arek Djigounian and his wife Pam the moment I met them. We were all in that post-storm, what-the-heck-just-happened, what-do-you-need mode—NRPOs wandering Cabana Drive together, comparing notes on losses and miracles.
Arek knew every line of every episode of Seinfeld, and when he looked at the devastation and deadpanned, “The seas were angry that day, my friend,” it was the only thing in the world that made sense. We snapped together instantly—like Lego blocks separated at birth. I loved him immediately: those monstrous Armenian shoulders shaped by years on Navy aircraft carriers, those oceans he’d seen that I’d only dreamed about. In the wreckage of Dorian, surrounded by this ocean we became the hurricane’s adopted sons.
When you get to be our age, new friends don’t come around that often, and we both quietly understood how rare and precious our time together was. For me, it was a five-hour commute to the ferry; for him, 90 minutes. We’d steal whatever moments we could—meeting out on South Point for drum when they were running, bluefish when they weren’t, and Spiny Dogfish on cold MLK weekends when the water punished every cast.
The ritual always ended the same way: a stop at 1718, where Arek refused, every single time, to let me pay for the tart cherry ciders I loved. As much as Arek cared for me, he cared for this place—these places—even more.
He knew who Raul was at the Variety Store. He knew to call Woody and who Woody even was when the roof leaked or a window needed replacing. He knew everyone and everything here in a way only true islanders or old souls ever do. We both loved this place that way and I loved him more because of it.
I hugged him on March 31st in front of the Ocracoke Oyster Company. He had extended his hand after lunch with our wives for a shake, but I wrapped my arm around those enormous shoulders instead—pulling him in and telling him I loved him. Then he and Pam headed to the 1 p.m. ferry back to Elizabeth City.
South Point.
The next day—April Fool’s Day—the phone rang to say he had just kept going, all the way off this earth. His larger-than-life heart had stopped. And I sat there with a second flood of water–pouring out of me this time–soaking my shirt and the keys of this keyboard still. The last text to him from my denial laden fingers asking, “ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?”
He used to say “No bueno” whenever things went south—when they ran out of his favorite beer, when the blues were biting off our rigs, when the weather turned on us without warning.
“No bueno,” he’d mutter, half annoyed, half amused. Now, the island and all of its changes feel no bueno to me. I barely recognize my own street, lined now with eight campers and travel trailers that weren’t there before Dorian.
I also barely recognize the tourists, who arrive in waves and leave my house—and so many others—thrashed and trashed after Airbnb work-from-home-weekends that blur into one long season. The people whose names I knew at the businesses I loved to frequent signed papers, got checks, and either retired or moved away entirely.
Eduardo is leaving next. The coffee shop is for sale. And if I sit still long enough, tapping these words out, I can almost hear Arek’s “no bueno” drifting down from somewhere above, carried on the same wind that reshapes these dunes.
Arek with a wahoo.
It was all easier to bear—the good changes and the bad—when I was sitting across from him at 1718 with a Tart Cherry Cider he would inevitably insist on paying for. Or when we were planted in our beach chairs, watching our mullet-loaded lines disappear into the surf, waiting for something to tug us back into the moment.
I’d grumble about whatever was bothering me, and he’d fire back with a simple, steady “No bueno,” and just like that we’d move on—two middle-aged men staring into the healing waters of the Atlantic. We were going to retire here in a few years. Be on this island full-time. Be here when the drum returned in fall and spring. Watch the July fireworks together, big shoulder to smaller shoulder.
But everything changes here. The dunes grow and shrink. Channels in the Pamlico shift left and right, deepening and shoaling with every storm. The island gives freely—memories, fish, clams, and a lifetime supply of sand ground into the carpet of my truck.
But it also takes. It exacts a toll from anyone who stays long enough to love it. Sometimes the price is too high. Others have lost far more than I have and still carry on—generations of pirates, pilots, and resilient souls who know this place better than I ever will.
Even still. I miss my friend.
Ocracoke property owner and Ocracoke Observer contributor, Michael Lydick and his family, live mostly in Winston-Salem.
Update from the NC Forecast Office Jan. 21: We are still tracking the potential for a significant winter storm to unfold across Eastern NC this weekend. The biggest changes this morning are increased confidence in ice and freezing rain impacts, and lower probabilities of snow impacts for most, except those along and north of US 264. The coast remains the biggest area of uncertainty regarding winter weather impacts due to lower confidence in sub-freezing temperatures.
Eastern North Carolina has been placed under a winter storm watch for this weekend, the National Weather Service’s NC Weather Forecast Office announced Tuesday morning.
It is too early to determine what type and amount of precipitation will fall. The storm could bring snow, ice, freezing rain or some combination of the three.
The Forecast Office will issue updates on timing and expected accumulation as additional data becomes available from forecasting models.
