A nor’easter has closed sections of NC 12 on the Outer Banks. Here’s what to know.
Residents and visitors along the N.C. Outer Banks were stuck more or less in place Monday morning as crews worked to clear water and sand from N.C. 12 and inspect the road for damage after a nor’easter.
The state Department of Transportation reported that as of Monday morning:
- N.C. 12 was closed on Ocracoke Island from the northern ferry terminal to the National Park Service Pony Pens, due to ocean overwash.
- N.C. 12 was closed between the Marc Basnight Bridge to the town of Rodanthe.
- Ferry service was suspended between Ocracoke Island and Hatteras Island because of rough seas.
The closures began on Saturday.
Jamie Kritzer, a spokesman for DOT, said Monday morning that crews said there didn’t appear to be damage to the highway’s pavement.
“They’re just battling Mothe Nature,” Kritzer said, referring to he constant push of the ocean and the approach of the mid-day high tide.
He said crews weren’t sure when N.C. 12 on Ocracoke would reopen.
On Hatteras, Kritzer said, crews found minor damage to the road on Pea Island, south of Oregon Inlet, but the rest of the road appears to be OK. Crews were hauling sand in dump trucks to rebuild the protective dune in hopes of reopening the road by 6 p.m. on Monday, he said. “But much will depend on the next high tide and what Mother Nature brings.”
Two-lane N.C. 12 runs from Sea Level, in Carteret County, to Corolla, near the Virginia border, and – with ferries and bridges that cross the waters in between — connects the islands of the Outer Banks like the twine between a popcorn garland on a Christmas tree.
People who live on the islands plan their big shopping trips and medical appointments around expectations of road conditions. Just a few inches of water can cause a car to float away and deep sand can bog down even the most reliable four-wheel drive.
So as a nor’easter approached last week, residents made sure they had what they needed in case travel in or out was cut off.
Many received an emergency notice just before noon on Saturday via cell phone when the DOT announced Highway 12 had been closed at Rodanthe. The alarm, the same one used for an Amber Alert when a child goes missing, blared from the cell phones of more than a dozen people who had come to the beachfront in the village of Buxton to check on a row of houses at risk of falling into the ocean.
Nine houses have tumbled into the sea in Buxton, on Hatteras Island, since mid-September, the result of heavy erosion caused by the passing of three hurricanes so far this year: Erin, Humberto and Imelda.
The nor’easter that moved up from Florida over the weekend worsened the damage. Its onshore waves of up to 15 feet coincided with a king tide, caused by the alignment of the Earth, sun and moon, so at high tide more than a dozen houses and hotel buildings along the Buxton waterfront stood with their support pilings in the surf.
But as of Monday morning, no additional buildings had fallen in Buxton or Rodanthe, where erosion also has been accelerated by the recent storms.
The storm also sent the ocean over the tops of the piles of sand the DOT had pushed to the seaward side of the highway in places where the natural dunes have eroded., forcing the road to close.
This story was produced with financial support from the Hartfield Foundation and Green South Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. If you would like to help support local journalism, please consider signing up for a digital subscription, which you can do here.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 10:34 AM.
