Outer Banks vulnerable during storms

HATTERAS, N.C. (AP) - Ocracoke Island is part of North Carolina's Outer Banks, a roughly 200-mile stretch of fragile barrier islands off the state's coast.

Pristine beaches and wild mustangs attract thousands of tourists each year. Aside from Ocracoke, the other islands are accessible by bridges to the mainland and ferries. The limited access can make the evacuation particularly tense.

All the barrier islands have the geographic weakness of jutting out into the Atlantic like the side-view mirror of a car. The location has frequently been in the path of destructive storms over the decades.

Many remember 1999's Hurricane Floyd, which made landfall as a Category 2 and caused a storm surge that wiped out scores of houses and other properties on the Outer Banks.