Hurricane Isaias brings unexpected windfall for Ocracoke Island

By Richard Adkins, WRAL photojournalist

Ocracoke, N.C. — When the wind and rain of Hurricane Isaias brushed by Ocracoke Island, there was very little damage to homes and business. But the one thing that was destroyed was the island’s name.

The Weather Channel made an error in a graphic, typing Corncrake instead of Ocracoke, and people on social media was more than happy to point out the mistake.

“Hey, @weatherchannel it isn’t Corncrake Island. It is Ocracoke Island,” tweeted Leslie Lanier, owner of the island’s Books to be Red.

“That was a shock, funny, but a shock,” Lanier said in a video chat Wednesday. “We’re very used to Ocracoke being spelled incorrectly, Ocracoke being pronounced incorrectly, but that one took us by surprise. We’ve not seen ‘Corncrake’ before.”

Facebook and Twitter quickly filled with references to the mistake, even the North Carolina Ferry System getting in on poking fun with this Facebook posting Wednesday, “We are resuming service between Hatteras and Ocracoke (also known as Corncrake) Island today …”

The island, and the village of Ocracoke, are still hurting from Hurricane Dorian less than a year ago. Many homes are still being repaired or replaced.

Janille Turner organizes the relief effort known as Ocracoke Strong, she decided to turn all this attention into a money making effort for her charity.

“We were cracking up about it that night,” Turner said of the on-air mistake, “And the funds were starting to run a little low. And you know, I was like, I should make a sticker for this, and run with it, and I’m sure we could get another one or two thousand dollars.”

She is selling the stickers on the Ocracoke Strong website. She has already had numerous phone calls and emails from people wanting in on the joke.

“It’s going to help a lot of people,” Turner says of the effort, “It’s funny. It makes you laugh. It makes you happy and it’s for a good cause.”

All the money goes to help residents on the island recovering from Dorian’s wrath. ​