The Outer Banks have spent generations taking punches from the Atlantic. But this week’s nor’easter landed another one. Nearly a knockout. A slow-moving coastal storm has hammered North Carolina’s barrier islands with pounding surf, overwash and flooding, with N.C. Highway 12 taking some of the worst damage. WCNC reported that heavy ocean overwash and wind damage forced closures that effectively cut Hatteras and Ocracoke islands off from the mainland. Watch scenes of the chaos below, and more catastrophic damage here . On Pea Island, the North Carolina Department of Transportation said “extreme tides broke through protective sand dunes and covered, then undermined, the roadway.” Roughly 500 feet of asphalt was damaged near the Pea Island Visitor Center. The visuals are brutal: brown water pouring across roads, dunes stripped down, surf exploding across the beach and debris moving through neighborhoods.…