North Carolina starts a 24-hour emergency ferry between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe

The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division said it would begin 24-hour emergency ferry service between Stumpy Point and Rodanthe at 11 a.m. on Sunday 27 September 2026. The page gives 27 September 2026 as the published date and 11:32 a.m. that day as the last update. The sailings are a link between Hatteras Island and the mainland while a section of N.C. 12 remains closed between the Basnight Bridge and Rodanthe, after damage from the week’s nor’easter.

The notice sets the 27 September departures from Rodanthe to Stumpy Point at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., and from Stumpy Point to Rodanthe at 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. From 28 September it lists a three-boat schedule through the night and says that 24-hour pattern will stay the same while the emergency route operates. A one-way trip takes approximately two hours.

Dare County’s emergency rules allow only essential personnel, critical business vendors and permanent Hatteras Island residents onto ferries bound for Rodanthe. Visitors are not allowed on those departures. Departures to Stumpy Point are loaded first-come, first-served, with priority loading for vendors returning from their deliveries. The Stumpy Point terminal is at 100 Log Storage Road and the Rodanthe terminal is at 23170 Myrna Peters Road.

The same notice said N.C. 12 on the north end of Ocracoke remained closed because of ocean overwash, and that the Hatteras–Ocracoke ferry would resume once that road reopened. Ferries continued between Ocracoke Village and the mainland ports of Cedar Island and Swan Quarter. Cherry Branch–Minnesott Beach was on a reduced schedule. Bayview–Aurora, Currituck–Knotts Island and Southport–Fort Fisher were on their normal schedules.