6:00 a.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was 60 miles to the south. East-southeast winds were growing to over 50 mph, and gusts were in the low 70s. On the western shore, Goose Creek Island was nearly covered with water. The 5-foot storm surge reached up into Vandemere and the surrounding communities. The sound was slipping away from Hatteras.

8:00 a.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene crashed ashore near Cape Lookout. East-southeast winds approaching 60 mph and gusts up to 70 mph pushed water onto the western shore. Heavy rains fell; drops traveled horizontally. The storm surge continued to build, reaching 7 feet on Goose Creek Island. Water came up out of the creeks surrounding Vandemere.

10:00 a.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene's eye was over the southern portion of Pamlico Sound. Winds were swirling around the eye, steady at 55 mph with gusts of nearly 90 mph. Communities on both sides of the storm were feeling the hurricane's brunt. As Irene crossed over the sound, its forward motion slowed.

Noon
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene's eye was leaving Pamlico Sound. South winds of 50 mph, with gusts to 65 mph, blew over Hatteras Island. On the west side of the sound, wind speeds began to drop and swing to the northwest. Water started to recede from Goose Creek Island and Vandemere, flowing so fast it carried houses off foundations. On the Outer Banks, Pamlico Sound, pushed away from Hatteras Island for much of the morning, started to return.

2:00 p.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene's eye was northwest of Pamlico Sound. On the backside of the storm, 42 mph sustained winds, with gusts of over 70 mph, swept out of the south-southwest across the sound. The winds continued to carry the floodwaters away from Goose Creek Island and Vandemere. Water edged faster and faster toward Rodanthe and Avon on Hatteras Island.

4:00 p.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was 40 miles north of Pamlico Sound, almost due west of Rodanthe. The storm was slowly deteriorating, too big to weaken quickly. All the storm's hurricane-force winds were in the front-right quadrant, which was passing directly over Hatteras Island. Water was still draining from Goose Creek Island, and Vandemere was beginning to dry out. Pamlico Sound was reaching up over the banks of Hatteras Island and began to flood Avon and Rodanthe.

6:00 p.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was over 80 miles north of Pamlico Sound. Hatteras Island was still within reach of the maximum winds. The wind swung to the west-southwest at 46 mph with gusts to 66 mph. The water that was pushed against the sound's western shore was being shoved up and over Hatteras Island. By this point, residents had experienced 18 hours of continuous winds gusting from 50 to almost 90 mph.

8:00 p.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was more than 100 miles north of Pamlico Sound and over the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia Beach. The sound's western shore was drying as darkness fell. Water was building on Hatteras Island as the ocean-side dunes, built to keep the ocean waters off the island, trapped the sound-side flooding on top of the island communities. Sustained winds blew out of the west-southwest at 35 mph, but gusts were still reaching up to 60 mph.

10:00 p.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was more than 140 miles north in the Atlantic Ocean off Virginia's Eastern Shore. Sustained winds over Hatteras Island were 40 mph out of the west with gusts reaching over 50 mph. Water flowed through the villages of Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo and Avon to the south. Just north of Rodanthe at Mirlo Beach, water dug under the asphalt of N.C. 12, buckling pavement and tossing the roadway aside. Dunes were heaved into the ocean, and the highway was cut through. The water cleaved the island again, to the north at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

12:00 a.m.
Aug. 27, 2011

Irene was nearly 180 miles to the north over the Atlantic Ocean. Winds over Hatteras Island were 45 mph out of the west-southwest with gusts picking up to 55 mph. The storm surge peaked and lifted water 8.5 feet above normal level on parts of Hatteras Island. Standing water was all that remained from the storm surge on Goose Creek Island.

2:00 a.m.
Aug. 28, 2011

Irene was more than 200 miles away. Winds over Pamlico Sound were 33 miles out of the west-southwest with gusts just over 40 mph. Waters were receding on Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo and Avon, dropping to 3 feet above normal level. Water flowed freely from the sound to the ocean through two new inlets on Hatteras Island.

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Octavia Gibbs

Octavia Gibbs, who lived near Vandemere, screamed "Help!" into a cellphone as she sat on the roof of her trailer. She had squeezed herself through a window and pulled herself onto the roof to escape the rising water. The wind was howling, the rain was pouring down, and she was wearing nothing but jeans and a T-shirt in the middle of a hurricane.

Octavia Gibbs

Gibbs heard a faint sputtering and saw a bright-orange Coast Guard boat, blue emergency lights flashing, coming down the river that was once a street. A man jumped into neck-deep water holding a rope line and trudged toward her. She threw her arms around his neck, squeezing so tightly he told her, "I can't breathe, you're choking me."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said. He carried her more than a hundred feet through surging water and floating trash. On the boat, cold and shivering, Gibbs wrapped up in a blanket.

The Popperwills

In Lowland, Jennifer Popperwill watched water reach her 4-foot-high front porch. "This can't be real," she thought. Old-timers persuaded her to stay during the storm by swearing that her family's home had never been touched by storm surges.

Water entered her living room, and soon linoleum and carpet were afloat. Along with the water came snakes. Her husband, Todd, beat three to death.

The Popperwills told their daughters to sit on the couch, an island in their living room. "Don't move, stay right there," Jennifer said as she and Todd gathered clothing. They both took a tiny, blond-headed girl under each arm and began to walk then swim down the road to find a dry place.

The Popperwills

The Popperwills climbed aboard a 50-foot shrimp boat to escape the waters but didn't stay for long. Jennifer and the passengers put the girls in plastic fish baskets and tossed them to another boat. They tried to head toward a Coast Guard station, but intense waves forced them to turn back. The Popperwills retreated to their flooded home to gather supplies. Suddenly the water began to recede.

Tyler Hooper

Across the sound near Avon, Tyler Hooper picked up fish and clams from the empty sound. He turned back toward the harbor when he saw the water trickling around his feet.

Justin O'Neal

As the sound waters returned to Rodanthe and rushed up on Hatteras Island, Justin O'Neal photographed his cousin Elijah Midgette with waves crashing around him as he played in the yard. They both hopped on Justin's WaveRunner and rode down the flooded highway to see what was happening.

Justin O'Neal

In Rodanthe, Justin O'Neal watched a nearby dock explode from the water's pressure and saw broken boards float into his yard. The water flew past, headed for a dune at the other end of the street. It submerged his neighbors' yards. For about 20 minutes, O'Neal's yard, which he painstakingly built up to defy flooding, was an island. Then it, too, succumbed.

Tyler Hooper

In Avon, Hooper remembered he left his boat in the harbor, so he and his cousin headed out, braving the pounding wind, darkening skies and rushing water to get it. Hooper told his cousin to hold the front of it because if the wind got it it would blow into the air. Instead, his cousin grabbed at the rope at the front of the boat. A blast of wind reached under the boat and flung it up in the air, his cousin along with it. Now, the cousin listened to Hooper, grabbing the aluminum instead of the line.

Justin O'Neal

A glow on the horizon caught O'Neal's attention. A fire turned the sky from an inky black to orange. Worried it was the home of an older woman he knew, he got on his WaveRunner and raced up the highway buried under feet of water. Realizing it wasn't her house, he turned back toward the campground to check on the trailers. Suddenly he was caught in the river storming its way from sound to ocean.

Justin O'Neal

O'Neal, caught in a river of water as he checked on a campground, was swept toward the ocean. In moments, the water carried him 1,000 feet.

As he passed a campsite, he grabbed the electrical box but couldn't hang on. The water pulled him toward the dark ocean.

O'Neal jumped off the WaveRunner, and it disappeared from sight. He stuck his feet into the sand, digging his toes in deep. He told himself not to hurry, go one step at a time toward the highway.

Justin O'Neal

At Rodanthe, O'Neal plunged back into the current and made slow steps up the road. When he reached the road the water was over his head. He swam, pushing his aching limbs a little bit further. Debris was everywhere - trailers, boats, pieces of pilings.

After what seemed like an hour, he made it home and collapsed into a chair, still in disbelief. He prayed for the water to stay where it was. O'Neal nodded off.

The Popperwills

On Goose Creek Island, mosquitoes kept Jennifer Popperwill awake all night, squeezed on her king-size bed with Todd and the girls. She swatted the pests from her daughters while her mind envisioned snakes slithering under the covers.