By STEVE STONE By Steve Stone and Catherine Kozak The Virginian-Pilot Gabrielle lived down to expectations Sunday. The tropical storm slid ashore along North Carolina's Outer Banks as predicted just before noon with blustery winds.

Tropical Storm Gabrielle made landfall Sunday on North Carolina's Outer Banks, packing 50 mph winds and plenty of rain, but not enough of a threat to scare vacationers from the shore and surfers from the beach.

By Catherine Kozak, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Mar. 5--It was during what some locals called "the summer of the piping plover." Two vehicles were parked on the beach on the south end of Hatteras Island. Nearby, on a pole shoved crookedly in the sand, was a sign: AREA CLOSED. Bird Use Area.

NEW BERN, N.C. - Hurricane Ophelia weakened slightly as it crawled along the North Carolina coast at a tortuously slow pace on Thursday, and early indications were that the storm had not caused the severe flooding many feared.

NEW BERN, N.C. - Hurricane Ophelia weakened slightly as it crawled along the North Carolina coast at a tortuously slow pace on Thursday, and early indications were that the storm had not caused the severe flooding many feared.