Troops Haul Supplies Into Outer Banks : Weather: National Guard brings food and water to residents stranded by Tropical Storm Dennis. Workers begin to clear washed-out highway.

BUXTON, N.C. —  National Guard troops ferried supplies Thursday to residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks who were stranded in the wake of Tropical Storm Dennis, and crews struggled to clear the lone highway on the barrier islands.

Stalled since Monday off Cape Hatteras, Dennis has battered the barrier islands with gale-force winds and surging tides as it continues to draw strength from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream that have kept the storm from dissipating.

“Ordinarily you’d say something sitting still over the water is going to bring up cold water and that kind of would cook its goose,” National Hurricane Center Director Jerry Jarrell said. “It’s got this conveyor belt bringing up warm water all the time.”

Dennis has leveled protective dunes along the length of the Outer Banks, a 130-mile-long chain of barrier islands.

Also on the Outer Banks, at least three cars were buried in sand up to their door handles in Nags Head. One cottage collapsed at Kitty Hawk and five were reported destroyed at Rodanthe on Hatteras Island.

Forecasters said the storm likely would wash out the Labor Day holiday weekend for the oceanfront communities.

National Hurricane Center expert Richard Pasch said the worst-case scenarios left Dennis spinning off Cape Hatteras for two to three days before backtracking south along the North Carolina coast over the weekend.

The storm stranded an estimated 5,000 people on Hatteras who ignored evacuation orders and 700 people who rode out the storm on Ocracoke Island. Ferry service to Ocracoke, the only way on and off the island, resumed for residents Thursday.

“What we understand is they have a big mess [on Ocracoke]. The island was covered with water at one point, completely covered with water,” said North Carolina emergency operations center spokesman Robert Carver.

Another military convoy trekked to Buxton and the village of Hatteras on the southern tip of Hatteras Island, where residents were cut off after surging waves washed out a stretch of state Highway 12. President Clinton declared 50-mile-long Hatteras Island a disaster area.

National Guard troops first reached Buxton late Wednesday, crossing the breached three-quarter-mile section of roadway at low tide to haul in food and water. Helicopters also ferried in supplies.

A window on the historic Cape Hatteras lighthouse was blown out, the foundation was flooded and a temporary weather station on top of the tower was destroyed after recording a 128-mph wind gust on the storm’s first trip past the area, the National Park Service said.