Category Archives: Weather

Arthur’s Passing, the Video

Time looses meaning in the middle of a storm. I felt disoriented and way out of my norm.

Sleep was marginal. I got up several times to look out a window or check the barometer. The pressure dropped and winds accelerated, and for a brief time it fell out dramatically. Then it switched more westerly and picked up to hurricane force again, the Pamlico Sound rising 8 feet in what seemed only minutes.

I went to check on things, heading to the gallery door, in the lee of what seemed like a jet engine next to the house. Power lines were sparking like stars in the sky (upper left corner in video). The water came in very fast, bringing in a tide of vegetation and mud.

Click link below for video clip. It was shot at 4:45 not 5:30 as mentioned.

2014-07-04 04_45_30-2 – Medium

To be continued…

Jim Cantore Sighting

I’ve never had a 4th of July celebration quite like this year. It came with a big bang. Hurricane Arthur was a little too much, too soon. Winds began to really wail at around 2 in the morning, and by 4 or so they were approaching, possibly exceeding 100 mph. I drifted in and out of sleep, winds buffeting the roof over my head.

The wind fell out briefly then switched back to hurricane force, pushing the Pamlico Sound waters across our vulnerable village. My barometer read 978 millibars and gradually began to rise around 5:00 or so.

Midgett Way

At dawn Arthur revealed her wrath. It was a wind and storm surge flooding event, and I knew from experience this would make for an arduous clean up. I’ll continue this blog after I’ve had time to pick up the pieces and regain my composure.

The day after the storm, Denise and I went to the Waves Market for a sandwich from their Deli. The Weather Channel was out front preparing for a broadcast. I spoke to an assistant as meteorologist Jim Cantore walked up to say hello. Denise came over and said she had placed our order at the Deli. Jim replied that he’d just eaten there and that “their sandwiches are phenomenal”. That’s an endorsement we agree with.

We spoke of storm surges and flooding. Cantore added that this time the hurricane’s speed of movement was our friend. I couldn’t agree more with him. It made the effects much less than it could have been.

To Be Continued…

Oregon Inlet

We hear a lot about Oregon Inlet, and the bridge spanning it. Nowadays you can hardly talk about one without mentioning the other. It’s nothing new and has been an issue for a long time.

When I first came here, driving over that beautifully curved bridge across the inlet was an awesome experience, the vistas remarkable. It was sort of an environmental work of art that served a purpose, getting to and from Hatteras Island. I would eventually learn that it was a bit more than that.

In April of 1977, while driving to Nags Head, I watched 4 trawlers coming in through the well-marked channel. There was no traffic and I had just gone over the peak of the bridge. I stopped overlooking Bodie Island spit, got out and took one shot with a 400mm lens on a fairly new Nikon F2.

In January of 1985, we had a severe cold snap. Temperatures were low enough to freeze portions of the Pamlico Sound. I was so impressed that I hired a pilot to take me up and shoot the ice flows from above. We ascended to 7,000 feet, and the view was spectacular.

December of that same year, I was shooting a story on commercial fishing for Outer Banks Magazine. Arrangements were made for me to spend 3 days on a trawler from Wanchese, where Captain Terry Saunders welcomed me aboard the “Richard Wayne”. There were 2 days of fair weather, but when a northeaster set in on the third day, the boats decided to come in early. Crossing the bar at the mouth of the inlet was rough, and Captain Stevie Daniels maneuvered “Bailey Boy” through, right behind us.

I flew during a northeaster in 1989 and made shots along Hatteras Island. There was no jetty in place at the inlet yet, and the Coast Guard Station was beginning to wash away. At the time, they were abandoning the station and moving to a newly built facility on the north side, next to the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center.

No recollections of Oregon Inlet would be complete without mentioning the October 1990 incident of a dredge taking out 400 feet of Bonner Bridge. I made this shot that December riding the ferry across the inlet when repairs were being made.

On an overcast September day in 2005, I went airborne with a videographer shooting a documentary on rising sea level. The section of the bridge that was taken out in 1990 is noticeable as a darker shade of gray in the pavement.

Hurricane Irene radically reshaped Oregon Inlet in 2011.

The only inlet on the east coast facing northeast, Oregon Inlet was originally formed in 1846. Since then, it has migrated over 2 miles south. Watching the area change and shift over the years continues to be fascinating. It’s a display of man’s engineering prowess in the face of some of nature’s most powerful forces. It’s also very expensive.

Skipjack and Cold Front

I’m often asked what my favorite picture is. The answer is that I can’t single out any one, from many preferred images.

One of my most endearing shots was taken the day before Thanksgiving, 31 years ago. I was into my second season of oyster dredging on the Chesapeake Bay, aboard the sailing skipjack, Virginia W.

There were reports that the day before another workboat, Hilda Willing, had dredged its limit of 150 bushels near the mouth of the Choptank River. With oyster populations in steady decline, that was a rare occurrence.

So early that Wednesday morning, all the Tilghman Island skipjacks set out for the same spot. There was no wind, however an approaching cold front was forecast to sweep in. We had our sails up ready to work. A light breeze began to fill in, though we were still underpowered and moving at a slow pace, barely able to pull a single dredge.

Skipjack and Cold Front-1982- prints available on request

As was typical of my working the middle deck, throwing the starboard dredge, I had my Nikonos rangefinder camera by my side. The massive clouds of the cold front began rolling in, getting closer. I looked over to see the Sigsbee, full sails up, waiting for wind. I took 6 shots, then put my camera away.

The front was an ominous sight as we prepared for more breeze. We tied 4 reefs in the main, deployed a second dredge and began catching a few oysters. Our speed increased, a gust of wind hit, and the boat heeled over, filling my right boot with sea water. There were some tongers working nearby, and maneuvering was tight. Coming about for another lick, we had a near collision with one of them, our massive bow sprit crossing over his cabin top.

By that time it was blowing a gale, and impossible to control the boat safely. We dropped our sails, deciding to call it quits after bringing in 4 bushels and headed home for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Mirlo Madness

The road conditions at Mirlo Beach continue to plague NCDOT, as well as residents of Hatteras Island. It’s an issue that has been ongoing during the decades that I’ve lived here, and longer.

In the past several years the problem has accelerated and occurs more frequently. NCDOT’s reaction has been to perform the same repairs over and over again. They dig overwashed sand from the road surface, and pile it seaward to build a dune. Storms wash over the dune, moving the sand back onto the road.

The recent storm that moved off the coast buried the road and left standing water on the surface. I put my boots on and walked there to document the scene in photographs… again.

A number of homeowners in the Mirlo Beach subdivision have been trying to repair their condemned rental properties in hopes generating income. A pile of newly delivered lumber lies washed up in the sand. The approach taken to save Mirlo and highway 12 is not working.