Witness to history | September 1846 storm creates new inlets.
A violent coastal storm, heroic efforts to save a ship after the captain is swept overboard…just one of the stories of fear and wonder when Hatteras and Oregon Inlets were born. Check out the story from Kip Tabb in the Coastal Review Online for the details.
“For a brief period in North Carolina’s early history, the only passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the sounds protected by North Carolina’s Outer Banks was through Ocracoke Inlet, an entry that supported small but thriving villages on Ocracoke and, especially, Portsmouth Island. But in September 1846, that changed as a powerful, slow-moving tropical system opened Oregon and Hatteras inlets, changing transportation patterns along the coast and wreaking havoc at sea.
As the storm passed, eyewitnesses described the formation of Oregon Inlet.”
[box type=”bio”] On a dark and stormy September night, Hatteras and Oregon Inlets were created, forming the modern Outer Banks. Read the rest of the story on the Coastal Review Online.[/box]