By Gene Cherry
Raleigh, North Carolina - Hurricane Alex flooded hundreds of homes and cars, sent water swilling along roads and cut power to thousands of people on Tuesday as it roared past the Outer Banks, an island chain off North Carolina that is a popular vacation spot.
"It was horrible" said artist Kathleen O'Neal, a resident of Ocracoke Island as she watched 1,2 metres of water recede from her yard on the 26km island south-west of Cape Hatteras.
"There is more water here than we have had from any storm in the 29 years that I have lived here," O'Neal said.
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| There were no fatalities or known major injuries |
Alex, with maximum winds of 160kph, pounded parts of the Outer Banks with winds of more than 120kph and heavy seas as it churned through the Atlantic Ocean.
The first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was rated at Category 2 on a scale of 1 to 5 that forecasters use to measure hurricanes. Such storms carry winds of 154 to 177kph and can damage windows and doors, fell trees and badly damage mobile homes.
There were no fatalities or known major injuries from the storm, state officials said.
The storm took a course parallel to the 160km island chain, with its core just offshore, before heading out to sea by Tuesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.
By 8pm (00h00 GMT), all storm warnings for the North Carolina coastline were canceled. Alex was 285km east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, at latitude 36.5 north and longitude 72.8 west, by 11pm (03h00 GMT on Wednesday) and was moving away at 28kph.
| Massive sand dunes near the road |
Last September, Hurricane Isabel slammed ashore with 160kph winds at Ocracoke Island before sweeping up through Virginia and states farther north. According to the hurricane centre, Isabel was directly to blame for 16 deaths and caused damage worth $3,37-billion.
Alex returned to almost the same spot but did not deliver a full-force blow to the Outer Banks, a fragile chain of islands known for its kilometres of undeveloped beaches where the population swells with thousands of tourists in summer.
But at least 100 cars were flooded in Ocracoke village by the surging water, Hyde County Manager Don Davenport told Reuters in a telephone interview from his office in Swan Quarter on the North Carolina mainland.
Many belonged to tourists stranded on the low-lying island, which has a summertime population of about 4 500 and is accessible only by boat or plane.
"We also have a number of homes that received flood water," Davenport said of Ocracoke village, which was worst hit along with the southern end of Hatteras Island.
Electricity was out on all of Ocracoke Island and portions of Hatteras Island. Officials in Dare County said that on Hatteras Island about 3 000 customers were without power by midafternoon. Power had been restored to 4 000 users there.
The storm left Ocracoke Island's only highway covered with water and sand in numerous places, Davenport said. The road, NC 12, leads to a ferry at the north end of the island.
Massive sand dunes near the road, which were reconstructed after Hurricane Isabel, also were destroyed, Davenport said.
To the north on Hatteras Island, Hatteras village, where Hurricane Isabel caused major damage last year, was also hit as were the villages of Buxton and Frisco.
"We are hearing of vehicles that were flooded, some homes that received water and some roofs that blew off," Dare County spokesperson Dorothy Toolan said. "But until we get assessment teams out, it is difficult to guess the damage."
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