Cristobal expected to brush coast

Surfers and fishing enthusiasts were out along the coast Saturday afternoon looking for more swell in the waves and an extra fish or two.

Three to five inches of rain were forecast to fall on Onslow and Carteret counties late Saturday and early today as Tropical Storm Cristobal moves northeast along the North Carolina coast, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm on Saturday brought higher than normal waves - up to eight feet in places - which attracted surfers from all over the state.

"I came here for this," said Bob Alexander, a 40-year-old construction foreman from Greenville who said he travels to Bogue Banks every storm season to catch a ride on a storm-driven wave. "It is funny to be heading this way while everyone else is going that way."

Alexander said that sometimes when he reaches N.C. 58, he is the only car on it headed southbound.

"It wasn't like that (Saturday) morning, but this storm isn't going to be that bad," he said while pulling his Pearson Arrow surfboard out of the back of his Chevy Tahoe at a public beach access on Atlantic Beach. "I just couldn't wait any longer to get out here."

Carteret County is flying warning flags along the beaches, alerting swimmers to rip currents and higher than normal waves - predicted to reach 6 to 8 feet this morning.

The NWS is calling Tropical Storm Cristobal a "coastal event."

"We expect most of the rain to fall on the east side of the storm - out in the ocean," said John Cole, a duty forecaster with the NWS in Newport. "Rain is to be expected heaviest along the coast with little activity inland."

Cole said that there had been a few reports of water spouts in Pamlico Sound and wind gusts up to 50 mph were expected this morning with the storm rolling on this afternoon.

Though the possibility exists, the National Hurricane Center does not expect the storm make landfall nor to strengthen into a hurricane.

Anglers were reeling in blues and mullets late Saturday at the packed Oceana Fishing Pier in Atlantic Beach.

"The rain don't bother them," said Lil Willis, a 22-year employee of the pier. "They will stay out there until the thunder and lightning gets too close."

Rudy Peck, a Kinston resident with a trailer in Surf City, said he was catching Spanish and spots earlier Saturday at the Surf City Ocean Pier.

"The fish come in now, the day before the storm," he said. "My father would always bring us here right before a hurricane. I do it now."

Peck had two of his grandchildren in tow.

"They don't fish much," he said. "They like to run up and down the pier and look at what other people are doing."

Cristobal formed Thursday off the coast of Florida and developed as it lumbered northeast along the coast of Georgia on Friday.

Elsewhere Saturday, Hurricane Fausto strengthened far off Mexico's Pacific coast, while Hurricane Bertha raced rapidly to the northeast over the North Atlantic, hundreds of miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Neither of those storms currently threaten land. Bertha had blustered across Bermuda earlier this week, knocking out electricity to thousands there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact crime reporter Lindell Kay at lkay@freedomenc.com or 910-554-8534. Read Lindell's blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.