Hurricane Irene: Rain begins pounding North Carolina coast

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Near Morehead City –- the southern edge of the unlucky stretch of North Carolina coast where the hurricane is expected to make landfall –- Irene’s outlying rain bands began pounding the tiny boarded-up communities with an eerie, sustained vigor at around 4:30 p.m Friday.

Most businesses were closed, and many boarded up, along Highway 24, which follows the mainland coast of Bogue Sound. At Zena’s, a quickie mart covered in promotional posters for North Carolina tobacco products, the doors and windows were barred, and someone had taped up a modest sign, writing in felt-tipped pen, ‘Stay safe.’

Many of the locals riding the storm out found their way, over the course of the day, to the tiny Town & Country IGA Food Store, on the road to Morehead City, to stock up on last-minute essentials before hunkering down for the storm’s expected strike on Saturday.

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It had been a wild day at the IGA. Though there was still food on the shelves, both ice coolers were empty by dusk. Manager Tom Kelly said the store had a generator. The top brass, he said, hadn’t yet decided whether to stay open Saturday. But it was a possibility.

‘We’re ready,’ he said.

Myra Miller, 43, and her son Turner, 16, left the checkout stand at around 5:30 p.m., loaded down with cheese-stuffed frozen pizzas, Doritos and 2-liter bottles of soda -– junk food, mostly for the boy, she said, and mostly in preparation for a hurricane reality that goes hand-in-hand with danger: boredom. Turner, she figured, would have nothing to do Saturday but sit around, listen to the wind, and eat.

They were on their way to Myra’s aunt’s house to keep her and Myra’s elderly mother company. The house was a few miles from the shore, and they figured they’d be safe there. They’d left their own home with the bathtubs full in case they returned to a home without running water and needed some to flush the toilets.

Myra said she’d spent her whole life here in North Carolina and had seen too many storms to count. But this one had her particularly nervous. “This one is heading straight north,” she said — meaning straight here. “This one hasn’t turned, like so many have in the past.”

View Hurricane Irene track forecast in a larger map
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--Richard Fausset in Morehead City , N.C.