102 mph wind gust clocked on the Outer Banks; residents suspect tornado

NAGS HEAD — The Outer Banks experienced a wind gust equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane as a strong storm system moved across the area Tuesday night.

The National Weather Service measured a gust of 102 mph at 10:18 p.m. at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

Originally reported as 101 mph, the gust’s speed will be updated to reflect its accurate measurement of 102 mph as the strongest part of the “low pressure system with a very strong cold front” moved through, according to Ryan Ellis, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service’s Morehead City office.

The Jennette’s Pier gust ties the Atlantic Channel reading “down in the Core Banks — much further south” at 9:26 p.m. Tuesday for the strongest gusts of the storm, according to Ellis.

The storm had prompted warnings of hurricane-force winds as well as tornado watches all along the coast. A Category 1 hurricane has winds of 74-95 mph, and a Category 2 hurricane has winds of 96-110 mph.

As of Wednesday morning, no tornadoes had been confirmed, but that may change as more data is collected, according to Ellis.

The National Weather Service had teams out at Harkers Island and Topsail Island, both in the southeastern part of North Carolina, on Wednesday morning to investigate possible tornadoes, Ellis said.

On the Outer Banks, some residents of Wanchese — a small village on the southern end of Roanoke Island — said that they had experienced a possible tornado Tuesday night.

“I don’t know if the tornado actually touched down, but it may have just like gone over all of us…I think it was right in our backyard,” Wanchese resident Zack Holton said in a phone interview Wednesday morning.

He described the wind strengthening and “getting really weird-sounding” between 10 and 10:15 p.m. as branches and other objects hit the walls.

“I honestly thought…just the pressure of the wind was going to bust the windows out,” Holton said. “You could almost feel a pressure change in the house.”

He, his wife Haven and her brother who lives with them looked out the windows but were not able to see anything other than trees bending over because of the heavy wind and rain.

After 1.5 to 2 minutes, the wind “calmed down and almost stopped completely,” he said.

Other Wanchese residents, even those “a ways away from us” also described feeling “it was right on top of them,” he said.

“I don’t know if there were multiple ones or if it was one that went over Wanchese and just a lot of people were affected by it,” Holton said. “As far as I know, nobody saw it.”

Several mature pine trees behind his house were broken about halfway down their trunks, he said.

Both Holton and another Wanchese resident, Leigh Dickerson, reported one resident’s shed being flipped upside-down from the possible tornado and that other residents suffered car damage from trees that fell.

Dickerson, 30, has lived in Wanchese about four years but has always lived on the Outer Banks. He said he’s been through multiple hurricanes, but claims this was his first tornado experience.

“It doesn’t sound like your typical high winds,” he said. “It definitely was a tornado, no doubt.”

Between 9:45 and 10 p.m., “the wind started picking up real heavy all of a sudden, and the power went out,” Dickerson said. “It scared me. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my girlfriend.”

He said they went into the bathroom. The wind kept gaining speed, and “then it started sounding like a train, and like, vibrating the house.”

He said he went out to look around the area around 5 a.m. Wednesday and saw “clear paths of destruction” that fortunately spared homes.

After about 12 hours without power, the power was restored Wednesday morning at his house, Dickerson said.

Ellis was not sure if a National Weather Service team would dispatch to Wanchese—about 3.5 hours from the Morehead City office—in the coming days to survey for a tornado.

He said, “It is possible” a tornado was there but also that the reported damage, including mature tree trunks broken in half, could have been caused by “straight-line wind.”

The office recorded wind gusts from 40-64 mph Tuesday night at many locations across the Outer Banks, with maritime stations on Ocracoke Island and the Pamlico Sound reporting gusts in the upper 70s.

Dare County Schools, originally set to operate on a two-hour delay Wednesday, closed to students and became an optional workday for staff because of weather conditions, including high winds and tidal flooding, according to a press release.

“North of Oregon Inlet, there are over 1,600 households still without power,” a message from Dare County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight said. “We also have staff members who travel in from outside of the district where roads are blocked or unsafe for travel.”

Sound water flooded N.C. 12 in four spots on Hatteras Island, and N.C. 12 on the north end of Ocracoke was expected to remain closed Wednesday due to ocean overwash flooding. Sound water was coming across Colington Road in two places on Colington Island as Wednesday morning, according to a Dare County Sheriff’s Office press release. That road remained passable.

Ferries running to and from Ocracoke Island were suspended Wednesday due to the weather, the N.C. Ferry Division said on social media.

Currituck County Schools announced a virtual learning day Wednesday because of power outages at multiple school buildings.

The public library in Barco was closed Wednesday because of its loss of electrical power, but the Moyock and Corolla branches were open on a normal schedule, according to Currituck County spokesperson Randall Edwards.