SWAN QUARTER, N.C. (AP) _ Pastors of the only two churches on Ocracoke Island have evacuated as Hurricane Earl threatens the North Carolina coast.

The Rev. Ivey Belch of Ocracoke Assembly of God says he and the island’s Methodist minister were on the same ferry to the mainland, and they joked that other islanders could view their departure as ominous.

Belch says people have asked how he can pray that the storm will miss Ocracoke, but evacuate anyway.

He responds that while the Bible says faith is believing what you can’t see, “stupidity is staying when you’re seeing, and not believing it.”