Bringing The World Home To You

© 2024 WUNC North Carolina Public Radio
120 Friday Center Dr
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
919.445.9150 | 800.962.9862
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ocracoke Island To Open For Thanksgiving Tourism With Residents Still Displaced

Nearly 10 weeks after Hurricane Dorian struck North Carolina’s coast, Ocracoke Island is still under an evacuation order blocking visitors and tourism. On Monday, Nov. 11, the Hyde County Board of Commissioners agreed to allow visitors starting Nov. 22, which is the same day the island’s main road is expected to reopen. 

Many businesses pushed to reopen the island to tourists before Thanksgiving to recoup lost profits, but concerns remain about whether the influx of visitors will delay repairs for permanent residents. Host Frank Stasio talks with Connie Leinbach, the editor and co-publisher of the Ocracoke Observer, as well as Tom Pahl, Ocracoke's elected representative to the Hyde County Board of Commissioners, about engaging democracy during disaster recovery.

Grant Holub-Moorman coordinates events and North Carolina outreach for WUNC, including a monthly trivia night. He is a founding member of Embodied and a former producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.