ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A FEW SHOWERS, a stiff breeze, some lost vacation time ...
Hurricane Bertha may have bombarded the coast, but she was expected to leave only a little rain and wind in Western Virginia.
The showers should be brief, with forecasters calling for sunny skies by noon today, according to meteorologist Mike Emlaw of the National Weather Service's Blacksburg office. Rainfall was expected to be been heaviest east of the Blue Ridge mountains.
Bertha's impact on the region should be minimal, Emlaw said, but she could offer winds up to 25 mph. This storm is tame compared with 1989's Hurricane Hugo, which brought gusts of 54 mph to the Roanoke Valley, cutting power to more than 90,000 Appalachian Power Co. customers.
Bertha did interfere with some residents' vacation plans.
Ronnie Hall and his family went to Myrtle Beach last Saturday and weren't scheduled to leave until today. They headed home Thursday after an evacuation was ordered.
"We were going to ride it out ... we figured we were in a condo that was paid for," said the 32-year-old Hall, who lives in Southeast Roanoke. "I could still be lying on the beach right now."
After watching television coverage of the hurricane ravaging the South Carolina coast, Hall said he's glad they left when they did.
"It wouldn't have been any fun to be there in that."
LENGTH: Short : 36 linesby CNB