45 mph (64-72 kph) there," Charlie Utz, the ferries' administrative officer, said by telephone from Morehead City. On Ocracoke Island, a 16-mile (25-km) barrier island southwest of Cape Hatteras that is reachable only by boat or plane, winds "are just now reaching 30 mph (48 kph)," said David Styron, Ocracoke operations manager for the state Ferry Division, said around 9 a.m. (1300 GMT). Styron estimated as many as 4,500 residents and visitors were on the island earlier in the week. There has been no mandatory evacuation of the island, "but a lot (of visitors) left on their own," Styron said. A hurricane warning was in effect for the coastline from Cape Lookout on the southern end of the Outer Banks up to Oregon Inlet, which is just south of Nags Head. A tropical storm warning, meaning possible tropical storm conditions in the coming 24 hours, was in effect from north of the Oregon Inlet to the North Carolina border with Virginia and from Cape Lookout to Surf City, North Carolina.
