Almost Washed Up, Dennis Reaches Shore : Storm: More nuisance than menace, the former hurricane begins to rain itself out over North Carolina. No serious injuries are reported.

After a week of wandering off the North Carolina coast, Tropical Storm Dennis washed ashore Saturday afternoon and dumped torrential rains through much of eastern North Carolina.

There were no reports of significant damage or injuries but flooding was reported in several coastal counties, along with scattered power outages.

The National Weather Service reported that the center of Dennis’ huge eye crossed the Core Banks shortly before 5 p.m., just south of Cedar Island. Sustained winds were clocked at 70 mph, just short of hurricane force.

Residents of fishing villages on the marshy peninsula where the storm hit said damage from the storm Saturday was not as bad as on Monday when it pounded them on its first pass through the area.

Mike Addertion, emergency management coordinator for Carteret County, said it appeared the worst was over, once the storm made landfall.

“It’s under control, I believe,” Addertion said.

Dennis was expected to weaken rapidly as it traveled northwest through North Carolina and across Virginia.

After all the time the storm had spent off the U.S. coast, nobody was sad to see it go, said Stacy Stewart, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“It’s like a dripping faucet that won’t quit and won’t go away,” Stewart said.

Dennis has been anything but a typical storm, the meteorologist said.

Stewart said winds of tropical storm force or stronger usually affect a single area for 12 hours or less on average. “That includes the approach, the center passing over, and retreating.”

“North Carolina has been getting battered for pretty close to a week,” Stewart said.

Flooding closed roads in Craven and Pamlico counties Saturday night. Flooding also was reported as far north as Elizabeth City, N.C.

Storm warnings were in effect along much of the North Carolina shoreline and extended northward along the Virginia coast to Chincoteague.

In southeastern Virginia, an apparent tornado touched down in the city of Hampton, damaging several apartment buildings and an assisted-living center and injuring more than a dozen people.

Another twister hit a barn and snapped utility poles in nearby Chesapeake, Va., police said.

Tourists on Hatteras Island who ignored evacuation orders last weekend found themselves stranded for a second time Saturday when the rising wind from the approaching storm disrupted ferry service to the mainland.

“We’re stuck,” said Martha Bourne of Beaufort.

A few tourists had left the island Thursday and Friday, when the first ferries delivered emergency supplies and heavy equipment to Hatteras and Ocracoke Island.

Engineers worked Saturday to rebuild state Highway 12, the only highway along the low-lying, fragile Outer Banks. The highway had been open to residents with four-wheel-drive vehicles, but was closed again Saturday afternoon as the wind increased and torrential rain flooded the island.

The rain was likely to be more of a problem than the storm’s winds, said Michael Moneypenny of the National Weather Service office in Raleigh.

“It will lose its punch rather rapidly as it comes inland,” he said. “But we’re getting up to an inch an hour of rainfall in the northeast. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for eastern North Carolina to get 3 or 4 inches.”

As the storm moved inland Saturday evening, 80 people took shelter at Pamlico County Community College in Grantsboro, said Tim Harvey, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

The storm was expected to deliver drought relief as far north as Pennsylvania, dumping 5 to 8 inches of rain in some areas, the weather service said.