By Gabriella Souza
The Virginian-Pilot
HATTERAS ISLAND, N.C. — They lumbered off the emergency ferry in Rodanthe on Wednesday morning: a cargo of UPS trucks, phone and Internet crews and state marine and transportation vehicles.
For the next few weeks, the ferry will be Hatteras Island’s lifeline, shuttling supplies and recovery crews across Pamlico Sound from Stumpy Point. Hurricane Sandy sliced open pavement and deposited deep sand on N.C. 12, the island’s only connection to the mainland, between Oregon Inlet and Rodanthe, closing that stretch.
But there is an end in sight. Dare County announced Wednesday that N.C. 12 should be open to traffic by Thanksgiving.
An inspection of the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet determined the bridge is safe for emergency vehicles, but it will need to be repaired before it opens to normal traffic, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said in a release. The department said it was working to award a contract to repair tension cables damaged during Sandy, which will happen before the rest of N.C. 12 is repaired.
Crews are still determining the extent of the damage to the rest of the closed portion of N.C. 12, and life is heading toward normal elsewhere on the Outer Banks. On Wednesday, the ferry between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands ran for the first time since Saturday. In the northern Outer Banks, roads flooded by Sandy reopened to vehicles, including two of the four lanes of the U.S. 158 bypass in Kitty Hawk and sections of N.C. 12 known as the “beach road.”
Hatteras Island will not allow visitors onto its shores until Friday, however. Until then, ferry traffic is limited to residents and delivery trucks, though tourists are able leave the island on the ferry.
The ferry’s 11 a.m. Rodanthe departure on Wednesday included a mix of visitors with fishing poles and camera equipment and locals, who used the 2½-hour ride to catch a nap or eat some lunch.
Ernie Wheatley and Rose Mary Main left Hatteras Island after an extended vacation in Avon. They’d rented a beach house for two weeks and had planned to leave Sunday. But when Sandy arrived and shut down N.C. 12, it stranded the Chesterfield, Va., residents.
This is not their first hurricane go-round. In 2011, they arrived on the ferry to start their beach vacation after Hurricane Irene shut down N.C. 12. The couple has rented the same home in Avon for the past six years.
“We think it’s kind of neat to be leaving on the ferry this year,” Wheatley said. “It’s like we’ve come full circle.”
Tricia Walls’ reason for taking the ferry was a practical one. She’d run out of medicine and needed to get to the pharmacy in Manteo.
The Frisco resident estimated it would take five hours for her round trip. But even with the inconveniences, she wouldn’t think of moving.
“I still love it here,” Walls said, “so it’s worth it.”
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