Tropical Storm Ophelia brought power outages, minor damage to Wilmington area
Tropical Storm Ophelia arrived in the Wilmington area Friday and departed Saturday morning leaving little damage beyond some downed limbs and power outages.
The storm began as a low-pressure system and brought heavy rains to the Cape Fear region beginning late Thursday, before rapidly gaining strength and becoming a named storm Friday afternoon. Rain continued to fall throughout the day Friday and overnight before ending early Saturday morning.
Preliminary 48-hour rainfall totals from the National Weather Service Office in Wilmington showed much of the area received more than 1.5 inches of rain. Southport, St. James, Ogden, some portions of Wilmington, and Surf City all received more than 3 inches of rain. Wind gusts hit 60 mph offshore but dropped into the 40s or lower in most inland areas.
Officials reported little to no damage from the storm other than a few downed trees and limbs. But despite most warnings and watches being cancelled before noon Saturday, things didn't return to normal immediately.
While the Bald Head Island Ferry resumed operations Saturday morning, rough conditions caused delays in ferry operations mid-day. On Saturday morning, the N.C. Carolina Ferry System announced on its Facebook page that all routes − including Southport-Fort Fisher − remained suspended.
Early Saturday morning, several thousand homes across the Cape Fear region were without power. According to the Duke Energy outage map, most of those were in Kure Beach and Wrightsboro. In Brunswick County, several Boiling Spring Lakes residents lost power Friday evening, and it was not restored until about 10:30 a.m. Saturday. But by Saturday afternoon, only a dozen or so customers across Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties were still without power.
Once Tropical Storm Ophelia had moved out of the area, Wilmington area residents enjoyed cool, fall-like weather. But the break was short-lived, with highs back into the 80s on Sunday and forecast to remain in high 70s through the rest of the week.
After brushing the Wilmington area, Ophelia trekked north where it hammered the beaches of Carteret County and the Outer Banks with gusts of 50 mph, heavy rains and large swells. As of Saturday afternoon, the Poweroutage.us website reported more than 30,000 North Carolina customers were without power, and parts of N.C. 12 on the Outer Banks had sand and water on them, although the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) said the road remained open.
State officials didn't report any storm-related fatalities Saturday, although localized flooding was a growing concern as heavy rains dropped by Ophelia moved toward the coast. Heavy surf also prompted several water rescues in coastal areas.
The storm crossed into southeastern Virginia early Saturday evening before weakening into a tropical depression as it approached the Washington, D.C. area.
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This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington area sees rain, winds of 50 mph from Ophelia
