Carolina Beach, N.C. – Hurricane Ophelia lashed the North Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rains Wednesday, beginning an anticipated two-day assault that threatened serious flooding.
With the slow-moving storm expected to produce up to 15 inches of rain in places, Gov. Mike Easley told people to get out of the storm’s path.
“If you have not heeded the warning before, let me be clear right now: Ophelia is a dangerous storm,” the governor said from Raleigh, warning of storm surges that could reach 11 feet.
As it brushed the coast, Ophelia ripped away one barrier island street and chased emergency personnel to shelter. The storm had sustained winds of 85 mph Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The governor urged people to leave flood-prone areas.
“We’re asking and begging them to do that because it’s going to be hard to get them out later,” he said.
The storm’s center was expected to make landfall Wednesday evening in Carteret County, at the corner of North Carolina’s central coast. Hurricane warnings covered the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
Ophelia was moving northeastward at just 7 mph after following a looping, meandering course along the coast since it formed off Florida.
Authorities expected the storm’s passage across North Carolina to take some 48 hours from the start of rainfall on the southeastern coast Tuesday afternoon to the storm’s anticipated exit off the Outer Banks and back into the Atlantic late Thursday.
By midafternoon Wednesday, about 12 inches of rain had fallen on Oak Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River, said me teorologist Jeff Orrock with the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
Following the criticism of its response to Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 250 workers on the ground, a larger-than-usual contingent given Ophelia’s size. FEMA also put Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian Peterman in command of any federal response the storm may require.
The governor said he had spoken to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff and that National Guard teams were prepared to evacuate sick, frail and elderly residents.
At 3 p.m. MDT, Ophelia’s large eye was centered about 40 miles east of Wilmington and about 50 miles southwest of Cape Lookout on the Outer Banks. Hurricane-force winds of at least 74 mph extended 50 miles out from the center and forecasters said some strengthening was possible.
