Cleanup crews are working to pick up the pieces in Brunswick County’s coastal communities after Hurricane Isaias made landfall in southeastern North Carolina.
Isaias followed the Interstate 95 corridor through North Carolina and up through Virginia to New England. The fast-moving system, downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved inland, killed nine people, according to the Associated Press.
The tide pushed sand and ocean water into roads along the beaches on Oak Island and Ocean Isle, near where the storm made landfall late Monday night.
The storm also spun off four tornadoes in North Carolina, including one in Bertie County that killed two people in a mobile home park.
On Oak Island Wednesday morning residents were evacuating the hardest hit areas along the beach. Sand and debris still covered the roads as contractors worked to start cleaning up and assess damage to the homes along the barrier island.
Several inches of sand covered the roads on Oak Island going back at least two blocks on parts of the island.
The Town of Oak Island ordered everyone to evacuate the hardest hit areas of the island and put a curfew in place for the entire town from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. until further notice.
A Spectrum News 1 reporter on the island Wednesday said the western side of Oak Island looked like a ghost town by midday.
Houses were still standing on Oak Island, but many had walls separate from foundations in the storm.
Isaias knocked down trees and cut power to much of Brunswick County, but most of the area has power back on as of midday Wednesday. Most of the remaining areas without power are along the beaches on the Oak Island and Ocean Isle Beach and in Southport, according to the Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation.
In Southport, city officials lifted the curfew at noon Wednesday, but the waterfront and marina are still closed.
“The Waterfront area suffered infrastructure damages, and is not safe or secure,” the city said in a statement Wednesday.
The waterfront road in the city was damaged and crumbling into the sound in some areas. In the city’s marina, boats were pushed against each other and the dock slips were broken against the shore in the storm.
Gov. Roy Cooper is scheduled to survey the storm damage in Bertie County midday Wednesday.
Crews are working to clean up the Bertie County mobile home park where two people died and at least a dozen were injured when a tornado touched down during the Isaias.