Message From a Proud Island: ‘We Need Your Help’.

OCRACOKE, N.C. — I write this from a barrier island 26 miles off the mainland coast, accessible only by boat or plane. It has been about three weeks since Hurricane Dorian blew through, tore up and submerged the place that my 1,000 or so neighbors and I call home. While it might seem from a distance that the storm has passed, we are all as shellshocked as we were on Day 1. 

This stretch of Highway 12 in Ocracoke, N.C., was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian.

I first came to Ocracoke as a 17-year-old who’d just lost her legs to meningitis and sepsis. The topography was overwhelmingly beautiful — and one night on the beach with a full moon, I found a reason to live again after tragedy. Nearly seven years ago, I came again for a 10-day vacation with my children, and never left. I didn’t stay because of the geographical beauty, I stayed because of the village. 

Many natives are descendants of the quartermaster of Blackbeard the pirate and still speak with a Hoi Toide brogue, a reference to the way the natives pronounce “high tide.” It’s a magical village where barters of bourbon for fresh fish take place with ease between bicycle baskets. Neighbors help neighbors, and newcomers who stay live by the motto of the native Ocracokers: We don’t ask for help, we give help. But that has changed. America, we need your help.

Read the story from The New York Times by Kelley Shinn - “Message From a Proud Island: ‘We Need Your Help’.”