For the second time in a week, residents of the U.S. coast apparently were spared the worst from a potentially life-threatening hurricane, forecasters and officials of the Carolinas coast said today. Hurricane Dennis, which had teased the Southeast since Friday, took a predicted turn to the northeast Sunday night as it skirted the Carolinas, meaning the eye of the storm and the very fiercest winds remained offshore. But late this morning, the skies were dark and winds brisk, but no rain had attacked Wilmington. Roads were clear and cars were moving along. There was little visible evidence that it was the morning after a hurricane in Wilmington.
Officials are still concerned, however, about possible flooding today in low-lying areas.
Dennis is a large hurricane so you don't have to be at the center of it. Eight inches of rain pelted Southport, N.C., while as much as 15 inches fell over the Atlantic Ocean. The battleship USS North Carolina in Wilmington measured top winds at 75 mph, the equivalent of a minimal hurricane. At times, two inches of rain an hour were soaking Pender, Brunswick, and New Hanover counties along the North Carolina coast, causing flooding in the low-lying areas. Officials Sunday night had ordered evacuations of the vulnerable barrier islands from North Carolina's Outer Banks southward, and Wilmington resembled a ghost town as residents took shelter.