Hurricane Ophelia soaks North Carolina
Hurricane Ophelia continued its tortuously slow crawl along North Carolina coastline early today as officials feared serious flooding, but do not expect it to make landfall.
Ophelia was expected to churn away from land and into the Atlantic Ocean later in the day or early tomorrow after an anticipated 48-hour onslaught of lashing rain and wind.
More than 12 inches of rain had fallen on Oak Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River south of Wilmington, according to the National Weather Service in Raleigh.
City crews were out clearing tree limbs and other debris from major roadways. Early indications were that flooding may not have been as severe as feared.
In New Bern, on Pamlico Sound, waters were receding early this morning.
At 7am local time (noon Irish time), Ophelia’s centre was about 35 miles east-north-east of Cape Lookout and was moving north-east at about 6mph. The hurricane centre said it did not expect the storm to make actual landfall as it passed through later today.
