I’m supposed to go there for a week, starting Sept. 11. This has been our traditional vacation week — it’s the shoulder season and rents/hotel rates plummet, but the weather’s still warm. However, it comes with its own risks when we pick a beach vacation.

Chief among those risks are hurricanes, and Hurricane Irene was a bad one.  We used to stay on Hatteras Island, which is so narrow in spots that you can see the ocean from the sound and vice versa. After we got evacuated off it a few years ago because of a pending hurricane, I started pushing to stay further north where the island was wider and the sound was much narrower.

It may be a good thing I did. Here’s Route 12 — the only main road down on Hatteras — after Irene rolled through:

One of these breaks is a new inlet, making Hatteras ‘island’ into Hatteras ‘islands,’ at least for now.  We won’t be going there.

Up in Nags Head where I’m staying, most of the damage came from Albermarle Sound,  which poured out of its banks and over the island as the hurricane went through it. The flooding apparently didn’t reach the ocean from the back side, and the ocean itself reportedly didn’t climb over the dune, so my oceanfront rental still might be safe. We’re going to find out soon enough.

I had two genuinely great meals at Nags Head last year. One was at the Blue Moon Beach Grill, a foodie place in a nondescript shopping center that probably is safe. The other was a dozen of the best crabs I had all year at the Sugar Shack, a little seafood market and carryout right by the sound on the causeway that goes to Manteo.  I sat out back on a picnic table and watched the ducks and geese on the placid sound. This year, I’m pretty sure the sound has claimed this little joint.

It’s hard to relax and have a vacation in a place that is likely to be as devastated as Nags Head. OTOH, unless the cottage is uninhabitable, I’ll never get my money back. We’ll see what happens.