Weather Channel reports on mysterious ‘Corncrake Island’ in NC. It meant Ocracoke
More than 1,500 cars had to be ferried off “Corncrake Island” before Hurricane Isaias made landfall in North Carolina Monday night, according to The Weather Channel.
Er, Ocracoke?
A local newspaper on the island caught the mistake.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, the Ocracoke Observer pointed out the household brand in weather news had “mangled the name of Ocracoke.”
A day later, The Weather Channel issued a not-so-formal apology on Twitter.
“#Corncrake Island’s forecast: Cloudy with a chance of some bad autocorrect,” the tweet reads. “We’ll get it right next time, Okracat, er, we mean Orcakite... We give up.”
The apparent spellcheck mishap occurred during a broadcast on Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall at Ocean Isle Beach as a Category 1 storm shortly after 11 p.m. Monday.
Ocean Isle, just north of the South Carolina border, is more than 150 miles down the coast of North Carolina from Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks.
The town is prone to flooding during major storms.
After Hurricane Dorian in 2019, Ocracoke was inundated with up to five feet of water from the Pamlico Sound, The News & Observer reported.
Officials with the North Carolina Ferry System consequently evacuated 1,580 cars and at least 3,300 people from the island ahead of Isaias, according to OBX Today.
That’s presumably what The Weather Channel was trying to convey during its broadcast.
Internet sleuths were quick to discover the media outlet’s meaning — and whether a “Corncrake” actually exists.
According to New Zealand Birds Online, a Corncrake is a bird native to New Zealand with “solid bodies, strong legs, long toes, short, rounded wings and a short tail.”
It has a distinctive “crex-crex” call.
There was also at one time a Corncrake Inlet in North Carolina located near the Cape Fear River, the Ocracoke Current reported.
“It was shoaled and closed in 1998 due to damage from Hurricane Bonnie,” according to the online news site.
Regardless, Twitter users were quick to point out the error.
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Weather Channel reports on mysterious ‘Corncrake Island’ in NC. It meant Ocracoke."
