Eastern NC rivers lost water as the Outer Banks gained it during wind storm

Photos taken at the mouths of rivers in Eastern North Carolina on Friday show the opposite effect a windstorm had at the Outer Banks.

Strong winds caused by a cold front from the west and a nor’easter that moved up the East Coast pushed (or pulled) water out of the rivers.

A tweet by the National Weather Service’s Morehead forecast office included a photo from television station WITN’s webcam at the historic Washington waterfront on the Pamlico River.

Several boats are shown beached, sitting on the riverbed. Next to the photo was a graph showing the Pamlico’s water level at Washington falling more than 4 feet below normal level.

By about 2 p.m. Friday, a record-low water depth of 5.43 feet below the normal was recorded on the U.S. 17 bridge, Washington Dockmaster Rick Brass told The Washington Daily News. The previous record was 4.7 feet below normal, the report said.

People took photos and videos of the low river, some taken from places that would normally be underwater.

Similar conditions were reported for the Neuse and Trent rivers in New Bern and parts of Pungo Creek in Belhaven, according to WITN.

New Bern resident Emily Edwards, who last summer captured video of a bottlenose dolphin in the Neuse River, posted on Friday “The #NeuseRiver disappeared!”

This story was originally published March 3, 2018 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Eastern NC rivers lost water as the Outer Banks gained it during wind storm."