Hurricane (Typhoon) — Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

2019-09-06 · Ocracoke Island, North Carolina

Event narrative

Hurricane Dorian brought record storm surge to Ocracoke Island and Village during the morning hours. Storm surge values averaged around 6 feet, to locally as high as 7 feet, across Ocracoke Village, peaking around 8:00 AM as water from Pamlico Sound surged onto the island. An incredible 5 feet of water rise happened in just 10 minutes time. Most homes and businesses suffered damage due to storm surge inundation. Hurricane force wind gusts as high as 89 mph were recorded, which peaked at 6:15 AM.

Wider weather episode

Hurricane Dorian was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season. Dorian formed on August 24, 2019 from a tropical wave in the Central Atlantic and gradually strengthened as it moved toward the Lesser Antilles, becoming a hurricane on August 28. Rapid intensification occurred, and on August 31, Dorian became a Category 4 hurricane. On September 1, Dorian reached Category 5 intensity, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, and a minimum central pressure of 910 mb (26.87 inHg) while making landfall in Elbow Cay, Bahamas. Dorian made another landfall on Grand Bahama several hours later. The ridge of high pressure steering Dorian westward collapsed on September 2, causing Dorian to stall just north of Grand Bahama for about a day. It is the strongest known tropical system to impact the Bahamas. A combination of cold water upwelling and an eyewall replacement cycle weakened Dorian to a Category 2 hurricane on the next day. On the morning of September 3, Dorian began to move slowly towards the north-northwest. Dorian subsequently completed its eyewall replacement cycle and moved over warmer waters, regaining Category 3 intensity by midnight on September 5. In the early hours of September 6, Dorian weakened to Category 1 intensity as it picked up speed and turned northeast. Dorian would pick up speed and move northeast along the North Carolina coast September 6, moving east of the Crystal Coast, clipping Cape Lookout and eventually making landfall at Cape Hatteras before making yet another landfall in Nova Scotia on September 8.

The initial impacts from Dorian actually occurred during the morning hours of September 5 when several tornadoes touched down in eastern North Carolina. The most damaging tornado occurred in Emerald Isle in Carteret County. The tornado touched down shortly after 9 AM and damaged numerous businesses and homes, including the Salty Pirate Water Park. This tornado was rated an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with estimated winds of 115 mph. As the eye of Dorian moved northeastward and clipped Cape Lookout, peak wind gusts of 110 mph were recorded at the Cedar Island Ferry Terminal, 89 mph at Fort Macon, 85 mph at Beaufort and 82 mph at Cape Lookout. Wind gusts around 100 mph were also recorded on Hatteras Island. Rainfall amounts of 5 to 10 inches were recorded across a broad area of Eastern North Carolina. Storm surge flooding occurred in Cedar Island, Hatteras Island, and Ocracoke Island. The most severe storm surge flooding occurred in Ocracoke where several people were trapped in their attics by flooding from the 4-to-7-foot storm surge, requiring rescue by boats. People were airlifted off the island to shelters on the mainland while food and water were brought in to residents on the island. North Carolina Highway 12 along Ocracoke Island suffered significant damage from flooding. More than 190,000 North Carolina homes lost power during the storm.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 847024. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.