Ophelia strengthens, batters Carolinas

CAROLINA BEACH – Hurricane Ophelia strengthened Wednesday as it battered the southeast coast of North Carolina and slowly moved toward the Outer Banks.

Top sustained winds in the storm grew to 85 mph, up from 75 mph earlier in the day, and some gusts nearing 100 mph have been reported along the coast near Wilmington.

Tens of thousands of customers have lost power, and some flooding is being reported.

Forecasters warn that the storm’s slow movement means it will batter the same areas for many hours.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said forecasters told him Ophelia could grow to Category-2 status, with winds of 95 to 100 mph. He also said flooding could be a serious threat.

“If you are asked to evacuate, please do so,” Easley said. “The flooding potential is greater than had been anticipated yesterday.”

While the center of the storm is moving parallel to the North Carolina coast today, its western eyewall has been along the shoreline for several hours in Brunswick County, just south of Wilmington.

Ron Steve, of the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, said gusts of 75 to 80 mph were reported shortly before noon at Wrightsville Beach and on Bald Head Island, near Wilmington. Earlier, an 84 mph gust was recorded at Carolina Beach.

Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington reported sustained winds of 68 mph and gusts to near 80 mph at 1 p.m.

In Brunswick County, Ophelia washed out a 50-foot section of beachfront road on the eastern end of Ocean Isle Beach, and there were reports that at least one house was washed into the water. The only bridge to the barrier island was closed.

Raleigh-based Progress Energy reported 34,000 outages in eastern North Carolina, including 25,000 customers in New Hanover County.

Overall, about 41,000 homes were without power in New Hanover and Brunswick counties, as strong winds toppled trees and made repairs impossible.

To the north of Wilmington, Four County Electric Membership Corporation said about 80 percent of its customers are without power, mostly in Duplin and Pender counties.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had at least 200 workers on the ground in North Carolina for the first post-Katrina hurricane. FEMA put Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian Peterman in charge of handling any FEMA response in North Carolina.

As the power outages mounted, more than 600 people entered shelters in Brunswick and New Hanover counties. The only hospital in Brunswick county was without power, but a generator was providing the facility with power.

The heaviest rainfall reports have come from Brunswick county, where almost 8 inches had fallen by 2 p.m. Several more inches could fall.

Farther to the north, in places such as Jacksonville, Morehead City, and the Outer Banks, residents and officials rushed preparation as they watched Ophelia strengthen and move towards them.

Winds already were gusting to 50 mph in Jacksonville.

The storm blew shingles off roofs and knocked out power to thousands of customers Thursday morning in South Carolina’s Horry County, especially north of Myrtle Beach; and in Brunswick and New Hanover counties of North Carolina.

At 2 p.m., the large eye of Hurricane Ophelia was centered 40 miles southeas of Wilmington and 70 miles southwest of Cape Lookout.

The National Hurricane Center said hurricane warnings are in effect for the entire North Carolina coast, from the Virginia border south to Little River. Watches are in effect on the Virginia coast, and a tropical storm warning remains posted for northeast South Carolina.

Although the sluggish storm is only fractionally as powerful as Hurricane Katrina, which mauled the Gulf Coast two weeks ago, authorities are taking no chances.

Schools are closed today in several counties along the coast, and classes have been canceled at UNC-Wilmington and East Carolina University in Greenville.

Even north of Wilmington, where the storm’s full fury has not reached, problems already are being reported.

At 9 a.m., water had climbed over the seawall in Swansboro and was over the docks at Halnot Creek. Officials in Onslow County, north of Wilmington, said a storm surge of 5 to 7 feet was expected later today.

Tourists and residents on Hatteras Island were ordered Tuesday to pack up and run.

Evacuations also were ordered along Brunswick County’s beaches, many of which are annual summer destinations of people in Charlotte and the rest of the western Carolinas – Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle Beach, and Holden Beach.

On Hatteras Island, where the evacuations were ordered Tuesday, some people left; some didn’t.

“Oh, I’ll be here,” said John Hardison, 64, who lost his Hatteras Village home and nearly his life during Hurricane Isabel two years ago.

“I think that’s more for the tourist types than anything else.”

Flooding is expected today on the prime escape route, N.C. 12, the two-lane road along the spine of the low-lying Outer Banks.

In Morehead City, a likely spot for Ophelia to make landfall later today, Tuesday was a day of boarding up and making ready for hurricane veterans like Troy Morris III, 53.

At his Harbor Master marina, he had 55 boats stacked by nightfall. Like a chronicle of tree rings, high-water marks inside the repair shop record the inundation of every visiting hurricane since deadly Hazel in 1954.

In all those years, Morris hasn’t lost a boat.

“Not yet,” he said Tuesday, tucking away the Miss Anna, a 26-footer from Ohio.

Forecasters warned that Ophelia will saturate the coast as it crawls northward, its slow movement insuring that heavy rain will fall in the same areas for long periods of time.

Five to 10 inches are expected along the coast, with some areas receiving up to 15 inches. The tier of counties inland, east of Interstate-95, could get from 3 to 6 inches of rain. Little rainfall is predicted west of I-95.

Seas up to 15 feet are expected to gnaw at the Outer Banks’ fragile beaches.

Flooding is the main concern, though experts said Ophelia is no match for 1999’s Hurricane Floyd, whose 20-inch deluge drowned 50 people and left much of eastern North Carolina under water.

“The beaches we expect to take a real beating,” said N.C. Gov. Mike Easley. “The bottom line is we’re going to get flooding – not only on the coast, but in low-lying areas.”

Those who stay in coastal areas should prepare for three days or more without power, Easley warned.

Virginia Dominion Power, one of the major electrical suppliers on the coast, recalled crews from Louisiana and Mississippi, where they were restoring power after Hurricane Katrina, said Doug Hoyle, N.C.’s emergency management director.

During the day Tuesday, before the heaviest rain bands had even arrived, blistering rain left a foot of water on the aptly named Canal Street in Carolina Beach, a short distance southeast of Wilmington.

Jane Ranney parked her car a block away on higher ground, struggling to her home with a 21-pound bag of cat food for a litter of kittens. As she marched, the wind snapped her umbrella inside out.

“Slow it down!” she bellowed at passing SUVs, sloshing wakes to her lawn. “That’s what does the damage.”

Down the street, Sean Cook and Erik Ebert returned to their home to find their trash can and Sunfish sailing boat floating away. They waded in and retrieved both.

“We figured it was going to be a lot of water, but not this much,” Cook said.

Observer staff writers Sharif Durhams in Raleigh and Henry Eichel in Columbia and the Associated Press contributed to this story.