Downgraded Storm Leaves N.C., Heads to New England

Ophelia finally took leave of North Carolina on Friday, downgraded to a tropical storm but picking up speed for a possible run-in with the New England coast.

The storm left extensive damage in eastern North Carolina, including beach erosion and ravaged homes and businesses.

Overall, however, the region was spared the devastating blow that some had feared when the hurricane first came in contact with the coast on Tuesday.

One company that assesses risk estimated on Friday that losses would top out at $800 million.

“We were really blessed.... We had a potential to be neck-deep where we’re standing,” said lifelong Hatteras resident Allen Fagley, 54.

According to the North Carolina Agriculture Department, initial estimates of the damage to corn, cotton, peanuts, soybeans and tobacco crops reached $19.6 million.

Ophelia, which meandered north after forming off the Florida coast last week, was offshore again, moving north-northeast at about 8 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.

At 2 p.m. PDT, Ophelia was centered about 355 miles south-southwest of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.

A tropical storm warning was posted Friday for Rhode Island’s coast and southeastern Massachusetts, including Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

The warning means winds of 39 mph or higher were expected.

Stuart Smith, the harbormaster in Chatham, Mass., off Cape Cod, said fishermen were moving their boats to sheltered waters.

Smith said his patrol boats were checking remaining boats for loose moorings.

The storm took its time off the North Carolina coast, where its effects were felt for three days, slowing to a near stop at one point, battering beaches with high winds and waves.

On Friday, power was still off at about 9,000 homes and businesses, down from a peak of about 200,000.

Roads on Hatteras Island, a main link in the Outer Banks chain of barrier islands, sat under several inches of water, though the island was otherwise largely unscathed.

Carteret County appeared to have suffered the most. In the tourist area of Atlantic Beach, workers at restaurants and other businesses were cleaning up, stacking chairs and tables in the sunlight and piling debris from roofs into trucks to be hauled away.

“This is our communication line to the world right now,” said Marci Wilson, manager of a private ambulance company, as she pulled out her cellphone.

Environmental officials worried about erosion.

“It kept grinding away at the beaches,” said Chris Carlson, of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

At Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington, yellow tape blocked beach access at the end of one street, keeping people from an 8-foot drop where Ophelia had eaten away at the sand.

AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk-modeling firm based in Boston, said the damage included lost roof shingles, awnings and the like, along with damage from fallen trees.

Ophelia is the 15th named storm and seventh named hurricane of this year’s Atlantic season, which ends Nov. 30.