Nor'easter Breaks Through Outer Banks Dunes, Tearing Up 500 Feet of N.C. 12

A powerful nor'easter broke through the protective sand dunes on North Carolina's Outer Banks early Thursday and sent the Atlantic Ocean across N.C. 12, the only highway linking Hatteras Island to the mainland. By afternoon, the state Department of Transportation said about 500 feet of pavement near the Pea Island Visitor Center was broken or undermined.

The department closed the road between the Marc Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe after the morning high tide breached the dune and caused what it called major ocean overwash. Around 8 a.m., an NCDOT live camera caught a large crack opening in the asphalt just north of Rodanthe while a state vehicle struggled to get through. The Weather Channel reported that a 16-mile stretch of the highway was shut in both directions.

In an update at about 4:30 p.m., NCDOT said there was no estimate for when the road would reopen. Crews are still assessing the damage, and the storm is expected to push more overwash across the road during the next several high tides before conditions improve Saturday. Water and sand also covered parts of the highway farther south in Buxton, Hatteras and Ocracoke, and several eastern North Carolina ferry routes suspended service because of the wind.

For the people who live on Hatteras Island, the closure is more than a traffic problem. "Everybody's also worried about Pea Island," Buxton resident Kevin McCabe told WRAL. "That's our lifeline." McCabe said neighbors are worried about how a long closure would affect mail, groceries and getting to a doctor. Dare County schools switched to remote learning Thursday, and a coastal flood watch covers the whole county through midnight Saturday. N.C. 12 has been washed over and broken by strong coastal storms many times over the decades, and the storm also hit the site of a $42 million beach restoration project on the Outer Banks.

Forecasters expect the storm to keep grinding up the coast. WRAL said gusts could reach 40 to 50 mph on the Outer Banks, with waves of 15 to 18 feet. The Weather Channel said the worst coastal flooding will run from the northern Outer Banks to the southern New Jersey shore, including the Virginia Tidewater and Chesapeake and Delaware bays, over several high tides into the weekend. Coastal flood warnings are posted for Virginia Beach, Dover and Atlantic City. Flooding was already reported Wednesday in downtown Norfolk, Smithfield and Suffolk, Virginia, and rising water forced organizers to cancel the Oceans Calling music festival in Ocean City, Maryland.

The storm's strongest winds are forecast for Friday and Saturday from eastern Long Island to southeastern New England, where gusts could reach 60 mph. Forecasters warned of downed trees and power outages in the Boston area, Providence and Cape Cod, and of flash flooding in cities as the heaviest rain falls on coastal New England over the weekend. CBS News reported that millions of people along the East Coast could lose power.

A nor'easter is named for its winds, which blow in from the northeast around a low-pressure system sitting just off the coast. They are most common between late fall and early spring, when they are best known for heavy snow. This one is arriving in September with no snow, but its slow track and days of onshore wind are piling ocean water against a long stretch of the coast.