Hurricane Earl, a large and powerful storm, remains on track to impact the national parks of North Carolina's Outer Banks region. The three national parks in the storm's crosshairs Cape Lookout National Seashore, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and Wright Brothers National Memorial -- will continue to implement emergency plans for protecting people and property. Visitor evacuations are underway, facilities are being closed on a staggered schedule, and by 5:00 p.m. today the Outer Banks parks will be closed until further notice.
At nearby Roanoke Island, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site occupies a relatively protected location and has no seashore beaches. Emergency managers do not anticipate serious impacts there, but the park's visitor center will close at 5:00 p.m. today.
The post-storm assessments for the Outer Banks parks is scheduled for Friday, depending on the timing of the storm's arrival and its duration. Until the parks are re-opened, the seashore beaches are presumed to be unsafe for recreational use due to rough surf, dangerous rip currents, and ocean overwash. Off-road vehicle use is temporarily prohibited in the parks until conditions are once again deemed safe for ORV activity.
At 8:00 a.m. EDT, Hurricane Earl was located at 24.5 N 71.6 W (780 miles SSE of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina) and moving NW (310 degrees) at about 16 miles per hour. Bearing maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, and generating hurricane-force winds across a zone several hundred miles wide, the Category 3 storm is fluctuating in intensity (which is quite normal) and can be expected to attain Category 4 strength at times. This is a serious storm by any reasonable measure
Forecasters are confident that Earl's track, which has shifted westward a bit during the past few days, will bring it close to the Outer Banks and then northeastward along the Atlantic Coast before it eventually moves away from the mainland. However, they can't know exactly what path the storm will take over the next few days. Much depends on the storm's location relative to a trough of low pressure lying to the west. Where Earl will go, how strong it may become, and how heavily it will impact the Atlantic Coast depends a good deal on the trough's position as the hurricane nears the mainland.
The storm's effects will be apparent in the Outer Banks parks today, but won't reach their maximum extent until late Thursday.
Hurricanes are a familiar feature of Outer Banks weather. On average, the region gets brushed by a powerful storm every two or three years and takes a direct hit every seven or eight years. In July 2008, Hurricane Cristobal brought winds of 50 mph to the region.
Emergency planners at Gateway National Recreation Area in New York/New Jersey and Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts are watching this storm with growing concern. The 5-day forecast cone and estimates of associated maximum windspeeds strongly suggest that these parks, and perhaps those in the Mid-Atlantic, may be in for a rough patch by Friday.
Comments
I too enjoy kids getting outdoors...
As far as plenty of room: There is now, but if and it is a BIG if these plovers get lets say 120 nests on Cape hatteras and lets say these nests were 1,000 meters apart. This will in fact shut down the islands beaches. Funny 120 sure does not sound like too large of a number.
There is pressure on the ORV crowd, but it seems they are not the only ones distorting and pushing their agenda. Look into the Enviro news reports and find me an honest story stating that pedestrian and ORV access is being limited.
And this:
Cape Hatteras National Seashore Enabling legislation is the legislation that formed this park and is separate from the consent decree.
“Except for certain portions of the area, deemed to be especially adaptable for recreational uses, particularly swimming, boating, sailing, fishing, and other recreational activities of similar nature, which shall be developed for such uses as needed, the said area shall be permanently reserved as a primitive wilderness and no development of the project or plan for the convenience of visitors shall be undertaken which would be incompatible with the preservation of the unique flora and fauna or the physiographic conditions now prevailing in this area . . .
(Aug. 17, 1937, ch. 687, Sec. 4, 50 Stat. 670; June 29, 1940, ch. 459, Sec. 1, 54 Stat. 702; Mar. 6, 1946, ch. 50, 60 Stat. 32.)”
Did you know at the time this included preserving from KDH down to Okracoke as wilderness per the history I have read at several locations including the NPS site.
No one knows for sure to what is meant by "other recreational activities". No one can say this did not mean driving on the beach is not included any more than they can say Plovers were on this island before the 80's. When this legislation was created it was done so after all of the original island plant (trees) inhabitants were cut down and burned or used for building. Why is it that we do not bring it back to its original state rather than to one that suits one agenda or the other?
"CHNS should be providing management that encourages these species to remain and flourish in the Park."
Why when it only wserves one side and it was not originally as hospitable to these protected creatures? Who cares where they nest as long as they do right? OOPS not according to the people who do not count them as existing. Like all things NPS related if it does not happen there it must not be happening.
"From my perspective the ORV access side started the hardball game and now is crying about the federal umpire calls."
Well if that is truly how you see it then you are as %@#%$%^#$ as they say. Since we are not the ones who dropped the ball for 30+years on a plan to govern ORV's (thanks NPS) and we are not the ones who are suing to close human access to the National park system to protect a bird who enjoys but a 50% chance of survival. and we are the only ones who answer ansd report both sides of the story. Find a enviro whacko who will admit he needs an ORV for accessing the point and you win , but all orv people who access the point or Cape hatteras will tell you they are for the survival of all creatures that inhabit the seashore. Besides your umpire was crooked before and he always had it out for people on the beaches.
Matt your welcome to have the last word on it, I’m done.
“120 nests on Cape hatteras and lets say these nests were 1,000 meters apart”
Not going to happen, plovers have very specific nesting requirements, which are found primarily at the Points and spits. The 1000 meters applies to when chicks are on the ground because that is how far a ping-pong ball size chick might roam with the parents. A lot of the nesting area is going to overlap. The parents are not going to set up exactly1000 meters apart from each other. In any case I see your point there should be a relaxing of the regs as the numbers of nesting pairs increase. Access should be rewarded for good stewardship not penalized.
“that pedestrian and ORV access is being limited”
Little pedestrian access is limited, as pedestrians seldom attempt to access the ORV routes/ beaches and I realize that the best fishing areas are catching the majority of the closures that translates into a much larger burden for recreational fishermen.
“Did you know at the time this included preserving from KDH down to Okracoke as wilderness per the history I have read at several locations including the NPS site.”
Not sure what your point is here.
“No one knows for sure to what is meant by "other recreational activities". No one can say this did not mean driving on the beach is not included any more than they can say Plovers were on this island before the 80's. When this legislation was created it was done so after all of the original island plant (trees) inhabitants were cut down and burned or used for building. Why is it that we do not bring it back to its original state rather than to one that suits one agenda or the other?”
The burden of proof for what recreational activities (other or stated) that are allowed depends on weather they are compatible, “with the preservation of the unique flora and fauna or the physiographic conditions now prevailing in this area” plus a number of other attributes (as dictated by Park management plans, EOs and acts of congress) that all National Parks should have in common.
"Well if that is truly how you see it then you are as %@#%$%^#$ as they say."
Yes I believe the ORV access side started this when they got a previous superintendent fired and then dictated a Interim Protected Species Management Plan (IPSMP) with a superintendent who was pre-approved by them. The whole thing is a joke. The NPS gets so much public comments on these plans that they can then basically make any plan they want saying they incorporated public ideas into the final plan. I can say with 100% accuracy that lack of pedestrian access around resource closures is more of a fault of ORV advocates than environmental advocates.
I’m not happy about any of it, how the resource is managed, the current loss of access, or how access is allocated. It is all about vendetta and politics.