North Carolina Hurricanes

Facts about recent hurricanes along the North Carolina coast, according to “North Carolina’s Hurricane History” by Jay Barnes. The Daily News archives and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Diana

1984: Sept. 9-14

After drifting around the Cape Fear for two days, Diana made landfall on Sept. 13 at Bald Head Island before heading into beaches at New Hanover and Brunswick counties. A category 2 storm by the time it hit the coast, Diana was the first hurricane of substance to hit the North Carolina coast since Donna in 1960.

Diana began north of the Bahamas and followed the Gulf Stream to North Carolina, scaring residents from Myrtle Beach to Ocracoke. Off the Cape Fear, it churned with 135 mph winds. As Diana stalled off the coast, many residents who had evacuated became impatient and returned only to be evacuated again when the storm turned and struck with diminished winds.

After dumping up to 13 inches of rain on the area, the storm tracked northeast and exited at Oregon Inlet. Some structures were damaged by the storm but the largest losses, $25 million, were in agriculture.

Gloria

1985: Sept. 26-27

In late September Gloria, a powerful storm, looked like a certain hit for Cape Lookout but later veered east and hit the Outer Banks.

Gloria began as a tropical depression off the coast of Africa and, as is custom, became stronger as it progressed across the Atlantic. By the time it was 400 miles off Cape Hatteras and threatening Morehead City, it was a category 4 storm.

Gloria, however, left little damage to the Outer Banks despite 98 mph winds and 120 mph gusts when it made landfall. It later churned back to the Atlantic where it moved at 35 mph into Long Island, N.Y.

Charley

1986: Aug. 17-18

Oddly enough, Charley started in the Gulf of Mexico and was a surprise for most emergency management officials in North Carolina when it crossed the Outer Banks during the height of the summer tourism season.

Charley landed in the Atlantic after it crossed Georgia. It was a rather weak system off the coast of South Carolina when it flared into a hurricane.

Fortunately, Charley was a category 1 storm that left minimal damage in Ocracoke, Pamlico Sound, Hyde, Dare and Currituck counties. Its legacy, however, was the thousands of people stuck in traffic trying to evacuate at the same time.

Hugo

1989: Sept. 21-22

While Hugo did not strike the North Carolina coast, it caused widespread damage inland after making landfall at Charleston, S.C. Hugo, which once attained category 5 status, had already left billions of dollars in damages and claimed 41 lives in Guadeloupe, St. Croix and Puerto Rico prior to hitting the U.S.

The most powerful to hit the U.S. in 20 years, left a path of destruction from South Carolina to Charlotte, Gastonia and Hickory. While 138 mph winds flattened historic Charleston, North Carolina’s most heavily populated city — Charlotte — was battered by 85 mph winds and thousands were without power.

In all $7 billion in damages were reported, at the time the costliest storm in U.S. history.

And though it did not get a direct hit, damages were reported in Brunswick, Onslow, Pender and New Hanover counties.

Emily

1993: Aug. 31

More than 120,000 people evacuated the Outer Banks as Emily lurched up the coast in late August 1993. Emily, a category 3 storm, brushed the area but luckily, the stronger winds stayed offshore. Still, it was the strongest storm to hit the Outer Banks in three decades.

Still, winds of 111 mph snapped trees, damaged roofs and destroyed some older buildings and homes. Some Hatteras Island villages were hip deep in water.

Bertha

1996: July 12-13

Bertha, the first July hurricane to make landfall in North Carolina since 1908, ripped into the coast between Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Island with winds in excess of 100 mph. It left behind a trail of downed trees, power lines and dunes from New Hanover to Carteret counties.

Topsail Island, where the storm surge was reported in excess of 8 feet, was hardest hit. Hundreds of residents lost their homes or found their residences seriously damaged. Beach erosion was massive, dunes were breached and flattened, leaving Topsail exposed to Hurricane Fran later in the summer.

Wind speeds were estimated at 100 mph along the coast in Onslow and Pender counties. Wind measurements included 81 mph at New River in Jacksonville, 89 mph at Casper’s Marina in Swansboro and 100 mph at Broad Creek. Waterfront areas in Swansboro, Sneads Ferry and Jacksonville were all underwater.

The hurricane, which threatened South Carolina before heading into the Cape Fear region, left $102 million in structural damage to Onslow County, its towns and Camp Lejeune.

Fran

1996: Sept. 5-6

While many in Onslow County were still recovering from Hurricane Bertha in July, Fran, a large category 3 storm, turned life upside down again.

Like Bertha, landfall was originally forecast for Myrtle Beach. Instead, it entered at Bald Head Island and followed the Cape Fear River. Again, beaches in Pender, Onslow and Carteret counties suffered the greatest amount of damage. More than 8 inches of rain deluged the area and a storm surge of 11 feet swamped North Topsail Beach, and created three new inlets. Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach again took another serious hit.

Onslow County’s structural losses exceeded $300 million. The total amount of damage from the storm totaled $3.2 billion, which included inland areas to Raleigh and beyond that felt Fran’s belt.

Bonnie

1998: Sept. 26

Bonnie became the third hurricane in three years to enter along the Cape Fear, leaving New Hanover, Pender, Onslow and Carteret counties in a world of trouble.

Bonnie, once a massive category 4 storm, stalled as it approached North Carolina, a mixed blessing that weakened the storm but meant up to 10 inches of rainfall.

Luckily, damage from Wilmington to Morehead City from Bonnie could not compare to that of Bertha and Fran. Still, Topsail Island suffered another severe blow on an area already at the mercy of the ocean.

Dennis

1999: Aug. 28 to Sept 4

From the beginning, forecasters predicted Hurricane Dennis, a category 1 storm, would bend and only skim the North Carolina coast before heading back out to sea.

They were partially right.

Hurricane Dennis did bend, brushing areas from Wilmington to Cape Hatteras. Original damage was moderate — until Dennis stalled along the Outer Banks.

For three days Dennis, then a tropical storm, battered Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke and other fragile barrier islands. Thousands of people who did not evacuate were stranded and lashed with 70 mph winds. Beach erosion was massive.

On Sept. 3, Dennis looped and turned back down the North Carolina coast, nearly retracing its previous path to the North. It finally made landfall in Cedar Island in Carteret County leaving many residents flooded from the Pamlico Sound to New Bern.

Floyd

1999: Sept. 15-16

North Carolina’s coastal residents were still picking up the pieces from Hurricane Dennis when a new menace appeared — Hurricane Floyd.

From the start forecasters from the Hurricane Center in Mi ami kept an eye on Floyd, one of the most frightening storms to approach the East Coast in the last 10 years and a rival to Hurricane Hugo. Floyd’s everaltering path terrorized coastaldwellers from Florida to Virginia Beach.

Eventually, Floyd’s path was eerily similar to that of Dennis. Floyd, which weakened from a category 5 to a category 2 storm in cooler, brushed the North Carolina coast but left behind record rainfall in an already saturated area. And while the beaches were again stressed by erosion and wind, inland was where the bulk of the damage occurred. The New River in Onslow County swamped several residents in up to 18 feet of water. The Trent, Neuse, Lower Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear all had record flood stages, leaving hundreds of eastern North Carolina residents without homes. Hog farms were swept away leaving a trail of carcasses in the waterways. Major roads were closed by floodwaters, leaving many motorists stranded for days.

It was the largest natural disaster in state history with billions in reported crop damages and billions and personal losses to North Carolina residents from Tarboro to Wilmington.

Isabel

Sept. 18-19, 2003

On Sept. 11, emergency managers in Onslow and Carteret counties began to look nervously to the Atlantic. That was the day Hurricane Isabel strengthened to a deadly category 5 storm. It was still too early to predict whether or where Isabel will strike the U.S. mainland but most could tell it would be within range of the Onslow or Carteret coasts in seven days.

The timing proved correct. The strength, fortunately, wasn’t.

Isabel crossed the Outer Banks around midday. The storm that had once threatened 160 mph winds and a 12-foot storm surge actually had a 5-foot surge and 100 mph gusts.

Onslow County and its Topsail Island beaches were spared the worst, but the Downeast Carteret County communities of Otway, Bettie, Harkers Island, South River and Merrimon weren’t so lucky. Ninety mph winds whipped nearby waterways into a fury that swamped the low-lying area and left dozens of residents with flooded homes.

Statewide, more than 2.2 million lost power

Alex

August 2-3, 2004

Alex was sneaky hurricane, with a starting point not off the coast of Africa but almost on top of the U.S. East Coast. The first hurricane of 2004, he started as a tropical wave off Florida and Georgia on July 30 and then became a tropical depression 80 miles south of Charleston, S.C.

And then it sat and waited, and waited, and waited.

By the afternoon of Aug. 1, Alex became the year’s first tropical storm and started to get some attention in Onslow and Carteret counties as it began to move north-northeast. Forecasters called for the storm to turn in time to keep the worst of rain, wind and storm surge offshore.

And it did. By the time the storm approached this area, it was a category 1 hurricane with winds in excess of 75 mph. By the time it brushed the Outer Banks, Alex was a category 2 with winds of 100 mph.

And Alex made history when it became the strongest hurricane, at 120 mph, to ever venture that far north (N or 38 degrees north latitude).

Charley

Aug. 14, 2004

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Alex brushed the Onslow and Carteret coasts, along came Charley.

Charley formed in the Caribbean, moved at breakneck speed, topping Jamaica before strengthening near Cuba. By the time it approached western Florida, it was that state’s most intense hurricane since Andrew hit near Miami in 1992. The category 4 storm whipped into Fort Myers with winds of 145 mph and a storm surge approaching 10 feet. Damages were in the billions before the hurricane exited at Daytona Beach after crossing the state.

Then it set its sights on the Carolinas. Eventually it came ashore again Aug. 14 near Cape Romain, S.C. with winds of about 80 mph. It moved north through the Virginia coast before becoming indistinct near southeastern Massachusetts a day later. Insured estimates were around $14 billion, making Charley the second-costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

Ophelia

Sept. 13-15 2005

Just weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, eastern North Carolina braced for Ophelia, a smaller storm but one that battered the Cartret and Onslow coasts for hours before heading out to sea.

Hurricane Ophelia hit the area with its worst on the night of Sept. 14. She peaked as a category 1 hurricane but was a turtle of a storm that impacted the North Carolina coast for three days with prolonged winds and rain. It never made a direct landfall.

Onslow County saw its share of problems, with an estimated $8.5 million in structural damage as well as beach erosion and crop losses. The vast majority was at North Topsail Beach, Sneads Ferry and Swansboro.

Carteret was the hardest hit county in the state, with the storm surge and rising waters causing extensive damage from flooding, particularly in the Down East communities.

South River, Merrimon, and all of the stretch leading to Cedar Island saw floodwaters make roads impassable. Because Cedar Island was cut off from the mainland, National Guard troops were sent in to assess the situation.

Along Bogue Banks, docks and piers were wiped out and the tiny community of Salter Path was particularly hard hit. A cluster of businesses, including the landmark Crab Shack restaurant, were severely damaged or destroyed.