Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Tourists evacuate North Carolina islands, hurting local businesses.
A “steady stream” of tourists left a North Carolina island Saturday under evacuation orders prompted by a widespread power outage, wiping out a significant chunk of the lucrative summer months for local businesses.
It could take days or weeks to repair an underground transmission line damaged early Thursday by construction crews working on a new bridge between islands. The construction company drove a steel casing into an underground transmission line, causing blackouts on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.
Cars lined up Friday to get on ferries, the only way off Ocracoke Island, after about 10,000 tourists were ordered Thursday evening to evacuate. A second order for visitors to Hatteras Island, south of Oregon Inlet, meant up to 60,000 additional people had to evacuate starting Saturday, primarily north over the inlet bridge.
Gov. Roy Cooper said he called local officials to pledge state help.
“We’ll do all we can to get repairs moving,” he said in a release.
Excavation at the site revealed Saturday that one of three underground transmission cables that supply the islands’ power is missing a 2-foot section. A timetable for repairs won’t be known until crews determine whether either of the other cables, still buried as of Saturday afternoon, was damaged, according to Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative.
Dare County spokeswoman Dorothy Hester had no estimate for how many people still needed to leave Hatteras Island.
“We realize people are disappointed. They brought a lot of stuff here. They’re packing up and moving out,” she said. “While disappointed, they’re going to make their way home.”
Roughly 80 percent of the islands’ tourism stems from vacation rentals, and the order coincides with the customary Saturday turnover for weekly home rentals, so those people would be leaving anyway. The big question is when visitors can get to homes already rented for upcoming weeks in the height of tourism season, said Lee Nettles, director of the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau.
While villages north of the bridge may benefit from some displaced tourists, others “got the message and are staying home,” he said.
The order barring inbound tourists did not apply to Hatteras Island’s roughly 6,000 year-round residents or to other property owners.
“Residents are fine. We all know how to pull together,” said Angela Conner Tawes, manager of Conner’s Supermarket in Buxton, which delivered about 90 barbeque sandwiches to utility workers for lunch. “But financially for us, losing time in August is a big deal. This is when we make our money for the year.”