HYDE COUNTY, N.C. – Hyde County announced Tuesday it is terminating the evacuation order given on Friday for residents, property owners, and vendors on Ocracoke Island effective immediately.

The evacuation order will be terminated for visitors at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, August 5.

Officials say residents, property owners, and vendors can immediately begin accessing Ocracoke Island pending ferry availability.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division says it has conducted test runs of the ferry channels and deemed them safe for use. The United States Coast Guard has also authorized the ferries to resume service.

According to the NCDOT, Highway 12 is also passable and did not suffer any significant damage as a result of the hurricane.

Hyde County officials and the NCDOT also released the following additional information regarding ferry availability to other islands in the area as well as schedule:

Please be aware that the Hatteras to Ocracoke ferry schedule will be limited until additional vessels have returned from mooring. You may experience delays accordingly.

In addition, the sound route test runs have not been completed at this time and ferries from Swan Quarter and Cedar Island will not begin until this is done and they receive approval to begin service again.

The route will run this limited schedule for the rest of the day Tuesday, August 4:

• From Hatteras: 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., midnight
• From Ocracoke: 4:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m.

On Wednesday, August 5, the temporary schedule will be as follows:

• From Hatteras: 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight
• From Ocracoke: 4:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

The route will return to its full published schedule on Thursday, August 6 with the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry also returning to service that day pending channel assessment.

The Aurora-Bayview and Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach ferry routes have also resumed service. Other N.C. Ferry routes will reopen after ferry channels are checked for debris and approval is given by the Coast Guard.

Please check with the Ferry Division for any schedule updates. The NCDOT Ferry Division's Twitter Page will have the latest route schedules and updates.