Hurricane Dorian is gone, thank goodness, and the cleanup is going very well. The northern Outer Banks completely opened to visitors this afternoon and hopefully Hatteras Island will follow suit in a few days.
Ocracoke, though, is going to take a while to cleanup and get ready for visitors. Initial reports seem to indicate there was record flooding from the storm surge. That much water, about 8', does a lot of damage and the mess that has to be cleaned is time consuming and kind of yucky.
The northern Outer Banks got off pretty easily. There was some damage, but nothing catastrophic, unless of course, a tree is resting on your roof. There was, thankfully, very little of that.
There was some damage though.
Both the Avalon Pier and Nags Head Pier lost part of the pier. It appears to be about last ten yards in both cases. Avalon Pier has already said they are going to rebuild. We haven't heard anything from Nags Head Pier yet, but it's a really popular fishing site, so hopefully they will also be rebuilding.
Dominion Power is getting high marks for getting power restored as quickly as they have. One of their most remarkable feats has been replacing every power pole along the Causeway between Nags Head and Manteo.
Every pole was taken out. Some were shattered like matchsticks, others leaned almost to the ground. Not count on how many poles there are, but there were a lot there.
Mostly, though, life is pretty much getting back to normal now that Hurricane Dorian has passed.
The ESAs are this coming week beginning on the 15th. Held at Jennette's Pier, it's the largest amateur surfing competition on the East Coast and one of the largest anywhere.
We're back to almost normal on the Outer Banks. See for yourself how special life on a sandbar is a when you reserve your Joe Lamb, Jr. & Associates home.
