Bruce the Road Worrier Siceloff is unhappy with NCDOT’s 511 service and their website. Me too. Here’s my tale:

My goal to get to Ocracoke if possible.The NC Ferry website had said that the ferries weren’t running. Then that they were but not which ones or when they would start. More importantly could I even get to the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry by car as it turns out.

starting at 11 am

511 – no ferries are running

website- some ferries but not which ones

phone call to ferry station on Hatteras:
me: is highway 12 open down Hatteras?
ferry: the dare county sheriff has that information
me: is the ferry running?
ferry: not much reason to run with highway 12 closed
me: closed on ocracoke or hatteras?
ferry: yes, there’s an ocean overwash. would you like the sheriff’s number?

phone call to ferry station at Swan Quarter:
me: is the ferry running?
ferry: we expect it to run at 4 pm
me: can i get there from here?
ferry: now you can. the road was flooded but it’s fine now.
me: think it’ll still be good in the morning?
ferry: sure

hours later (4 pm):

web site: no update as to status of individual ferries. New line in alert “Ferry service to Ocracoke will resume once flooding subsides at Hatteras and Ocracoke.”

511: updated but not specific. notes exceptions in ferries but is vague on which ones will run when. confusing information about Highway 12 based on counties through which it runs. voice mail system aborts. “we seem to be having technical problems. please call back.”

Note: The 4 pm ferry from Swan Quarter did not run on Wednesday afterall. When we got down on Thursday morning there were several unhappy carloads of people who had spent the night as close as they could get to the ferry after having been stranded there the night before.