Hurricane Jose causes overwash along Outer Banks

The state Transportation Department said in a Facebook post Monday that ocean overwash has occurred at Pea Island, Rodanthe, Avon and Hatteras village on Hatteras Island. About 4 inches of standing water was reported on N.C. Highway 12 at the northern end of Rodanthe, but all roads remained passable.

DOT urged drivers to drive slowly through the water.

Ocean water also was sloshing under some beachfront homes and into nearby streets and at high tide, seawater comes blasting beneath stilted houses, swamping yards.

"I rent the same house every year and I have never seen anything like this," said Patrick Holmes, who arrived at his rental home Saturday to find the dunes gone.

Many beach house tenants were awestruck by Monday's weather, describing it as fun and exciting.

"All these houses are under water. Some of them look like they have moats around the whole house," said Emma Smith. "We've never seen anything like this, so we're just having a good time."

Jose was about 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras on Monday and moving north at 10 mph. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

"It just happened to be the week we are down here at the beach," said Jennifer Prilliman of Cary, who was fishing at Nags Head on Monday morning. "It does make it more challenging. Your line’s constantly moving on you. You got to really watch to see if you’ve gotten anything on the end of your pole because it could just be a wave coming in."

"We feel for all of our friends and families that are in the islands now struggling," said Chelsea Quattrone, who was doing yoga on Jennette's Pier in Nags Head. "That’s another reason to be here and filled with joy and prayer, because at this time, we are experiencing our normal, everyday lives."

Two schools on Hatteras Island closed Monday because of weather conditions.

The National Weather Service warned of dangerous rip currents along the coast.

"You need to heed the warnings and use some common sense," said Jason Gottschalk of Richmond, Va., who was trying to squeeze out a last bit of beach time at Rodanthe before conditions worsened. "I'm not going out there [in the water] much above my knees until a wave comes in, and you've got to look for the rip currents."

A surfing competition scheduled for this week in Nags Head had to move some events up a day, from Monday to Sunday, to avoid the rough surf. Officials expect to resume the competition on Tuesday.

"It's just a lot of current, a lot of white water. This doesn't look enjoyable at all for surfing," Michelle Sommers said. "The current, for one, is just ripping down the beach. It's ripping down, and it's ripping out. The waves are coming in and breaking on the sandbar really hard, and they're big waves."

Two more high tides are expected before conditions improve.

Meanwhile, Gov. Roy Cooper rescinded the state of emergency put in place almost two weeks ago in advance of Hurricane Irma.