Hatteras Island meets Hanna

We made it home safe and sound. The outer bands of Hanna reached Hatteras about an hour before our noon departure Friday. By the time we topped off the gas tank and turned in our house keys, highway 12 was covered with 2-3 inches of water. Gusts were 18-20 mph coming off the Atlantic and made steering the SUV a bit challenging. With a steady stream of vacationers leaving the island, our self-imposed evacuation was uneventful and without incident. We can't complain about leaving one day early, five perfectly beautiful days preceded our departure.

Here's a few pictures from our week and exodus.


An eastward view of the Pamlico Sound. I snapped these two pictures from our upper deck on Tuesday and Wednesday. I loved the house with the mock lighthouse (below) overlooking the sound.

On Monday we ventured south to Buxton where the famous Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is located, to do some body surfing and boogie boarding. We discovered this little beach on our third trip to the island in 1997 and have been going there to play in the ocean during every trip since.

The "point" as the locals call it, Diamond Shoals is also known as the "Graveyard of the Atlantic", is pictured below from my beach chair vantage point. It's about a mile or so from where we were on the beach.

This was the calm before the storm. On Thursday it was clear we were going to get hit. Hanna was still about 800 miles south, but the sky told us how close she was.

The moon to our southeast on Thursday evening.

Wednesday evening sundown over the Pamlico Sound.

This was about 11am on Friday. We'd decided Thursday night to leaving a day early before Hanna hit the coast, however, the northern outer bands hit Ocracoke and Hatteras well before the eye made land-fall.

The surf was kicking-up and a lone kite-surfer could be seen doing his best to keep control as Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel broadcast live from the beach in Rodanthe just across highway 12 from our rental house. We were on "Cross Of Honor Way" and the first time we rented a house with such wonderful sound and ocean views.

When I snapped this shot of the windshield, the flash made Nick and Eddy think the truck was hit by lightning. I guess I should have warned them.

The storm coming off the coast.

A sign of God's promise, His covenant with humanity. Just outside Richmond we could see this rainbow. The weather improved as we continued to travel northwest though Virginia into West Virginia.

As we continued it was clear that Hanna was coming ashore and the outer bands were reaching us as we traveled.