Outer Banks Power Outage With Evacuation
An Outer Banks power outage has prompted Hyde County officials to call for a mandatory evacuation of visitors on Ocracoke Island. About 4:30am today a power outage occurred on both Hatteras and Ocracoke Island. The construction company PCL Construction apparently caused the power outage. This is the company that is building the Bonner Bridge replacement bridge. They say they “drove a steel casing into the underground transmission cable that runs between the south end of the existing bridge and an overhead rise pole.”
Update 7/28/17 Hatteras Island Evacuations Ordered For Visitors. This new evaluation order for Hatteras Island visitors is due to “life safety issues from the loss of reliable electrical power on Hatteras Island and growing uncertainty as to when repairs to the main transmission line will be completed to enable restoration of full power to the island, a mandatory evacuation has been issued for all visitors to Hatteras Island, effective at 6 a.m. on Saturday, July 29. This evacuation order includes the villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras.” Ocracoke and Hatteras are the only two island under evacuation for visitors. This does not include any area north of Oregon Inlet such as Nags Head, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Southern Shores, Duck or Corolla.
This power outage will last for days and possible weeks. If the electric company does not have the material on hand the repairs can not be made until the needed material is brought to the area. This may take weeks. Generators are being used in some areas like Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras Village but they require the practice of rolling blackout. Then means power will be cut on and off to different areas on a rotating schedule. Customers on the islands are being told to turn off their AC, hot water tanks, hot tubs and other items to limit the load on the generators.
With about 10,000 visitors on Ocracoke Island Hyde County officials have called for a mandatory evacuation of Ocracoke Island. Power is not expected back on until Sunday or Monday if not later. There has been no deadline set for the visitors to leave by a certain time. But official want visitors to start making plans to evacuate the island due to the extended island wide power outage. To those left on the island official are asking that they only use power for their refrigerators and fans.
Thankfully the weather forecast for the next several days is for air temperatures to be in the low to mid 80s. Light winds will help at 12-16mph but the humidity is high. Isolated storms and clouds are in the forecast which
may help keep thing cooler. With no power many business on the island have closed including restaurants, shops, gas stations, banks and more. Those on vacation may pack up and leave earlier than planned due to the extended
power outage.
