Some hardy North Carolina islanders unfazed by Earl

HATTERAS ISLAND, North Carolina (Reuters) - As Hurricane Earl threatened the North Carolina coast, Kathleen O'Neal was preparing to ride out the storm with her husband, their two dogs, three cats and two dozen beloved bantam chickens.

They refused to join the thousands of people fleeing this island on North Carolina's Outer Banks, which jut into the Atlantic, and were hunkering down at home instead.

O'Neal said she couldn't leave behind her pets, especially the chickens raised in a coop behind her house. "I am too attached to them to turn them loose," she said.

She was among a small group of residents of the Outer Banks who ignored mandatory orders to evacuate as Hurricane Earl barreled toward the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard.

Earl was expected to unleash powerful winds and pounding surf as it passes the North Carolina coast early Friday. Forecasters said they did not expect its core to come ashore and predicted it would move parallel to the U.S. East Coast.

O'Neal spoke by telephone from Ocracoke Island, a barrier island of nearly 800 residents accessible only by ferry or private plane on the Outer Banks.

Ferries leading to the islands stopped running earlier on Thursday.

On Hatteras Island, Betz Mullen, a retired school teacher, said she was staying behind with her husband, Charlie.

"If we are not having a direct hit, I prefer to stay here," she said. "The house is secured, we have food and we have water, and we have each other."

While dozens of vehicles waited at the Hatteras Island ferry landing for a ride back to the mainland, Harry and Rachel Clark were the only ones headed in the opposite direction. The Ocracoke natives were returning home from a dental appointment.

"I don't scare easy," said Harry Clark.

His wife added, "I've never been anywhere else for a hurricane since I was born."

Phil Auth, a resident from the Outer Banks town of Salvo, had been debating whether to evacuate. He said he was worried what could happen if Earl's direction suddenly shifted westward, bringing the core of the storm onto land.

"If it's a direct hit, it's going to be scary," he said. "You know there's no way out of here, there's flooding to deal with, the roads are closed and stuff flying off houses."

On Ocracoke, meanwhile, O'Neal, a metalsmith, readied for Earl. She moved her prized chickens into three large dog crates and put them in her kitchen.

"These are kind of a specialty breed, and they are dying out, and I don't want any more to die," she said.

"That's one reason why I can't evacuate."

(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Beech)