By admin 
A 14-mile stretch of North Carolina’s coastal highway was closed early Thursday after a “life-threatening” coastal storm breached dunes at the Pea Island Visitor Center, according to the N.C. Department of Transportation.
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“Major ocean overwash” is reported on N.C. 12 between the Basnight Bridge to Rodanthe, state officials said.
The closure comes as a slow moving storm continues to gain strength in the Mid-Atlantic, the National Weather Service says.
Forecasters say wind gusts near 60 mph can be expected off the northern Outer Banks, “with significant wave heights as high as 15 to 17 feet in the nearshore coastal waters.”
On Thursday morning, a buoy off the state line between Virginia and North Carolina recorded a wave of 18 feet, 7 inches, the National Buoy Data Center reports. An 18-foot wave was recorded off Nags Head, the center said.
Breaking waves on Outer Banks beaches could be 8 to 12 feet in height, resulting in coastal erosion, officials said.
The National Weather Service has issued wind advisories, coastal flood warnings, a high surf advisories and a high rip current risk warning for the Outer Banks.
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“Gale-force winds and hazardous seas are expected to impact the region from North Carolina to New Jersey,” the U.S. Coast Guard said in a news release.
“These conditions create life-threatening beach hazards, such as dangerous rip currents and large battering waves, particularly along the coastal waters of Virginia and North Carolina.”
The storm will begin moving northeast toward New England late Thursday into Friday, the National Weather Service reported Thursday morning.
“Widespread moderate-to-locally major tidal flooding (inundation of 2-3 feet above ground level) will continue through at least tonight’s high tide, with some degree of tidal flooding likely continuing through part of the weekend,” forecasters say.
The National Park Service has told visitors to stay out of the ocean off Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and to avoid the beach in northern Rodanthe, where seaside homes may fall in the ocean due to erosion. Multiple homes have collapsed in recent years, leaving dangerous debris spread for miles.
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