THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070430
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Compiled by staff writer Steve Stone
LENGTH: 118 lines
Rain: 3 to 6 inches inland; 0.42 of an inch at Cape Hatteras
Top wind gust: 74 mph
Sustained winds: 25 to 40 mph along the northern end, 40 to 60 mph at the southern end.
Flooding: Pasquotank River over its banks, flooding some parts of Elizabeth City; North Carolina Route 12 overwashed.
Damage: Trees down on buildings throughout the region.
CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA
Rain: 9.44 inches in Raleigh area.
Top wind gust: 79 mph from the northeast at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, breaking a record of 61 mph set in 1986.
Sustained winds: 50 to 60 mph
Flooding: Crabtree Creek out of its banks, flooding Raleigh's principal east-west thoroughfare and the city's largest mall.
Damage: Most of the capital city blacked out.
SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA Rain: 8 to 12 inches
Top wind gust: 124 mph at Frying Pan Shoals; 86 mph at Wilmington. Unofficial reports of gusts up to 140 mph on the barrier islands.
Sustained winds: Up to 115 mph on the beaches; 60 to 90 mph inland.
Flooding: The entire town of Carolina Beach was under about 8 feet of water, and a storm surge of up to 12 feet hit beaches already washed out by Hurricane Bertha in July; Wrightsville, Kure and Topsail beaches were also submerged.
Damage: Catastrophic damage in coastal communities of Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach, with scores of homes destroyed and hundreds of buildings heavily damaged; extensive power failures; gas lines ruptured; hundreds of trees uprooted or felled.
Miscellaneous: National Guardsmen threatened to arrest anyone venturing into evacuated areas as officials tried to contact people who weathered the storm on fragile barrier islands.
``We took the full brunt,'' Wilmington Police Chief R. W. Simpson said. ``It was by far the worst one I've ever experienced.''
SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA
Rain: 0.38 inch at Norfolk International Airport; 1.78 inches at Kilby Lake in Suffolk; 1.87 in Williamsburg; 3.76 in Wakefield.
Top wind gusts: 71 mph in Hampton; 63 mph at the Naval Eastern Oceanography Center, Norfolk Naval Air Station; 63 mph at Cape Henry; 59 mph in Newport News; 52 mph at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton; 48 mph at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach.
Sustained winds: 30 to 45 mph on shore; 60 mph at Diamond Shoals Light.
Flooding: No serious flooding.
Damage: 39,000 Virginia Power customers in the dark; a large piece of facade on the side of the Ramada Inn at 57th Street at the Oceanfront was ripped off; trees down throughout the region, some damaged homes and vehicles.
Miscellaneous: False Cape buoy 50 miles east of Virginia Beach recorded peak seas of 15 feet.
CENTRAL/SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA
Rain: 6.94 inches in Lynchburg; 5.68 inches in Charlottesville by 8 a.m.; 4.77 inches in Chesterfield County, near Richmond; 2.69 inches in Danville; 1.81 inches in Richmond.
Top wind gust: 53 mph in Richmond
Sustained winds: 30 to 40 mph
Flooding: About 20 families evacuated by boat along Fall Creek as floodwaters surrounded their homes. The Dan River basin, which includes Pittsylvania and Halifax County and Danville, is expected to crest 11 feet above flood stage, one foot higher than the 1972 record; heavy flooding in South Boston area; Albemarle County officials evacuated 30 to 40 homes in the Sugar Hollow area after water began lapping over a dam on Moormans River, 20 miles northwest of Charlottesville.
Damage: Trees snapped and uprooted; roads were blocked by debris; 80 percent of Danville blacked out; more than 92,000 Richmond homes without electricity.
Jack Craft, 40, waved a candle from an upstairs window to draw the attention of searchers who rescued him from his house in a boat. Just before dawn, water from Sandy Creek rose halfway up the walls of the first floor of his house.
``We saw the candle moving, so we knew he was alive,'' Ringold community fire chief Mike Neal said. ``The water could easily have wiped away the foundation and sent the house down the creek. The current was racing. It was sort of like water going down a drain - it had a whirl to it.''
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Rain: 14.3 inches at Toms Branch (13.9 inches fell in 12 hours).
Sustained winds: 35 to 45 mph
Flooding: Ground left sodden from up to five inches of rain earlier this week turned highways into rivers and stranded hundreds of people in their homes and cars. Entire city of Elkton cut off by surrounding flood waters; National Guard helicopters were used to evacuate families from remote areas of Rockingham and Page counties hit by flash flooding.
UTILITIES
Virginia Power said more than 415,000 customers were left without power - the largest outage in the company's history. By 5 p.m., 276,000 were still in the dark. The utility has mobilized 1,000 repair crews, called in contractors from other states and sought help from neighboring utilities. South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. crews will arrive in Virginia today to help with repairs.
American Electric Power Co. estimated that 48,000 of its customers were without service in central and southwestern Virginia.
Carolina Power & Light said it had 670,000 customers without power. A spokesman said Hurricane Fran will equal or surpass the $12.3 million in damage to the utility's electric grid caused by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
Duke Power Co. estimated 372,000 of its customers were without power. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic by Michael Hall/The Virginian-Pilot
[path of Hurricane Fran]
B\W Photo by D. Kevin Elliott
A 50-by-50-foot chunk of the Ramada Inn at 57th street in Virginia
Beach fell off Thursday night during the storm.
B\W AP photos
[For complete copy, see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FRAN NORTH CAROLINA VIRGINIA STORM
DAMAGE by CNB