Ophelia Crawls Northward Off Mid-Atlantic Coast

NAGS HEAD, N.C. - Tropical Storm Ophelia crept northward off the mid-Atlantic coast Friday, weakening after its eye scraped North Carolina's Outer Banks but still threatening coastal flooding and heavy rain from Virginia to New England.

The storm, which punished the same fragile barrier islands for three days with wind and surging surf, was downgraded from a hurricane late Thursday. By midday Friday its top sustained winds had fallen to about 60 mph as it wobbled northeast at roughly 7 mph.

"She just won't go away," said a weary Dare County emergency manager. Parts of Hatteras Island remained under a voluntary evacuation order, and a few hundred residents were still in shelters.

The National Weather Service posted tropical storm warnings from Cape Fear, N.C., to Watch Hill, R.I., including the Chesapeake Bay and the tidal Potomac River. Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches was forecast along the coast, with isolated totals up to 6 inches.

Ophelia's slow march across the Outer Banks washed out sections of N.C. Highway 12, the only road linking Hatteras Island to the mainland, and pushed sand and seawater into oceanside homes. Officials said damage appeared far lighter than feared, in part because the storm's eye never drove fully ashore.

"We dodged a bullet compared to what folks on the Gulf Coast are dealing with," said a Kill Devil Hills restaurant owner who rode out the storm. "Nobody here is complaining about a few feet of sand in the driveway."

Utility crews restored power to most of the roughly 100,000 customers who lost electricity at the storm's peak. The Coast Guard reported rescuing a handful of boaters but no deaths were attributed to the storm.

Forecasters said Ophelia could strengthen slightly as it passes near the warm waters of the Gulf Stream before turning toward the Canadian Maritimes over the weekend.

The storm's arrival barely three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast put extra urgency into preparations that officials conceded would have drawn a shrug in quieter seasons.

"After what we all watched in New Orleans, people boarded up early and didn't argue," the emergency manager said.