Hurricane Ophelia taunts Carolinas

Just listened to Geraldo totally mutilate *Ocracoke Island *. For the
record Geraldo, it's pronounced 'oak ra coke' island. Ocracoke Island
can only be accessed by water/ferry boat. It has year round residents and
lots of tourists in season.
Hurricane Ophelia taunts Carolinas
With Katrina in mind, residents wary of slow-moving storm

Sunday, September 11, 2005; Posted: 9:48 p.m. EDT (01:48 GMT)
WILMINGTON, North Carolina (AP) -- Hurricane Ophelia sat nearly stationary
off the coast of the Carolinas on Sunday, taunting coastal residents made
wary by the destruction that Katrina caused along the Gulf Coast.

The storm was more than 200 miles from land with sustained wind of 80 mph,
but it was piling up heavy surf that challenged surfers and pounded the
beaches. A hurricane watch remained in effect from just north of Edisto
Beach, South Carolina, to North Carolina's Cape Lookout, a stretch of more
than 250 miles.

Warning of the possibility of coastal flooding, Gov. Mike Easley sent 200
National Guard soldiers to staging centers in eastern North Carolina and
ordered a mandatory evacuation of tourists visiting fragile Ocracoke Island
on the Outer Banks, reachable only by ferry. Residents of the island were
allowed to stay.

Near Wilmington at Wrightsville Beach, lifeguards with megaphones ordered
swimmers out of the water.

"They are saying they don't want anyone to even touch the water," Kathy
Carroll, 37, of Wilmington, said after abandoning an attempt to body surf in
the waves. "Now I know how a flounder feels. I was getting tossed all over
the place."

Some people stocked up on groceries during the weekend even though
Wilmington, on the coast of southeast North Carolina, had breezy, partly
cloudy weather, said Warren Lee, emergency management director for New
Hanover County.

With a history of several destructive storms, the county has a
well-rehearsed disaster plan. But Katrina, a powerful Category 4 hurricane
when it devastated Mississippi and Louisiana, was on residents' minds even
though Ophelia was only Category 1 and had been waxing and waning in
strength.

"If it was a Category 4 barreling down here, I would get out if I had a
chance," Lee said. "The structures just can't take that kind of wind. We're
cautiously watching [Ophelia]. We're not giving up until it's north of us."

"You never know what is going to happen," Rose Davane, 41, said while
strolling on a Wrightsville Beach pier with her daughter and 18-month-old
granddaughter. She said Hurricane Fran in 1996 took everything from her
family. "I'm always prepared."

By 8 p.m. EDT, Ophelia was centered 245 miles south of Charleston, South
Carolina, and 255 miles south of Cape Hatteras with maximum sustained wind
at 75 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

It meandered slightly but essentially was stationary after following a
wandering course since it became a tropical storm Wednesday off the coast of
Florida.

Little overall movement was expected before Monday morning, the hurricane
center said.

Once the storm starts moving, the latest forecast track indicated the eye
could come ashore southeast of Cape Lookout near Wilmington and cross
Pamlico Sound on the central coast, said meteorologist Gil Wagi at the
National Weather Service office in Newport.

A front approaching from the west could push the storm away from the coast,
but the likelihood of that was uncertain, he said.

"It's basically a timing thing," Wagi said.

Regardless of its strength, Ophelia merits respect, said Larry Jenkins, a
worker at the Sportsman's Pier in Atlantic Beach.

"With what's happened down there [on the Gulf Coast] and what's happened in
Florida last year and this year ... I think people are much more aware of
the dangers and I don't think you'll see people taking it as lightly as they
possibly would have otherwise," Jenkins said.

Few fishermen came to the pier Sunday as 6- to 8-foot swells rolled ashore
early in the day with wind gusting to 25 mph, Jenkins said.

The swells seemed slightly weaker by midday, but the owners of hundreds of
pleasure and commercial boats docked in Atlantic Beach and nearby central
coast towns had started securing their craft.

Ophelia is the seventh hurricane in this year's busy Atlantic hurricane
season, which began June 1 and ends November 30. Peak storm activity
typically occurs from the end of August through mid-September.


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