HATTERAS CLOSURES DURING GOVERMENT SHUT DOWN!

Residents and visitors can expect wide-ranging consequences tomorrow if there is a government shutdown.

They include:

• By 7 a.m. all ramps on the seashore – on the oceanside and the soundside – will be chained.
• All visitor centers and maintenance and administrative facilities will be closed.
• The road to the Bodie Island Lighthouse will be blocked.  The Lighthouse Road in Buxton will be blocked just beyond Flowers Ridge Road.
• All ORV permit offices will be closed.
• All parking areas on the soundside and the oceanside will be closed and secured – including facilities at Coquina Beach, Ocracoke Day Use Area, Canadian Hole, Kite Point, the Frisco Bathhouse, and Sandy Bay day use area. Also closed and secured will be all parking areas at various oceanside ramps on Hatteras and Ocracoke.
• Campers will have 48 hours after Tuesday at 6 p.m. to clear the campgrounds.
• Commercial operations within the seashore will also close, including the Avon Pier, Oregon Inlet Fishing Center, and businesses that offer attractions such as horseback riding on the beach. The Fishing Center will have until 6 p.m. Thursday to close down.
• The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, a state-owned facility on park land, will remain open.
• The three airstrips in the park area will be closed.
• All National Park Service websites will be closed down, and visitors to the sites will get a message about the shutdown.