ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILMINGTON, N.C.
SOURCE: Associated Press
NOTE: Lede
Hurricane Fran barreled ashore at Cape Fear on Thursday and tore through the Carolinas with 115 mph winds, ripping apart trees and blowing rain sideways as thousands of people scrambled for safety.
Fran accelerated and veered slightly to the east before the north wall of its 25-mile-wide eye passed over the cape just before 8 p.m. and then churned up the Cape Fear River to Wilmington, about 45 miles to the north.
``The wind has been screaming, blasting through here. But right now it's calm,'' Grover Gore, 65, said as the hurricane's eye passed over him in Southport, near the mouth of the river.
Gusts as high as 120 mph were reported as Fran first hit land. Top winds dropped to 100 mph and the eye fell apart by midnight, when the storm was centered near Currie, N.C., about 20 miles northwest of Wilmington.
But the brunt of the storm continued to tear up the coastal communities as Fran churned north, spawning tornadoes and pushing a storm surge of up to 12 feet over beaches washed out by Hurricane Bertha in July.
``It is pounding and pounding and pounding,'' said Mary Wasson, riding out the storm with her daughter in Wilmington, where their house narrowly missed being hit by a sycamore tree.
``The top 35 feet snapped off and did a somersault in the air over part of our house. It did a 180 in the air,'' said Wasson, whose house, like most in the city, was without power. ``It is just windy as the dickens.''
Fran was blamed for at least two deaths and caused widespread damage across the coastal counties of southeast North Carolina. It also panicked some of those who had ignored evacuation orders.
In Carolina Beach, southeast of Wilmington, a frantic group of people who stayed in The Breakers condominium called 911 saying the building was collapsing in the storm surge. It turned out that floating cars were slamming into the building, said David Paynter, a spokesman for New Hanover County.
At any rate, they were stuck; it wasn't safe for rescue officials to try to reach them, Paynter said.
More than a half-million tourists and residents had been ordered to evacuate the coast in North and South Carolina as Fran drew near, leaving a string of deserted beach towns.
``Believe you me, we wanted to get out of there,'' said Audrey Landers, who fled her town house a block from the ocean with her neighbors and their children. They took shelter at a high school in Conway, S.C., 15 miles inland.
Hurricane warnings were posted from Edisto Beach, S.C., to the Virginia line. People living as far inland as West Virginia were warned to expect tropical storm-force winds and 5 to 10 inches of rain.
Waves were crashing 10 feet high along the shore at Myrtle Beach, where the usually bustling Ocean Boulevard was deserted and driving was all but impossible with sheets of rain blown horizontal by gusts reaching 55 mph.
In North Topsail Beach, one of the beach towns hardest hit by Hurricane Bertha in July, a double-wide mobile home housing the town hall and police station either washed or was blown away.
Even 15 miles in from the coast, tree limbs and flooded highways made moving around hazardous. One motorist, a 66-year-old woman from Conway, S.C., was killed when her car hit standing water and flew down an embankment into a tree.
A second woman was killed in Onslow County, just northeast of Wilmington, when a tree fell on her trailer, trapping her inside during the height of the storm.
More than 9,000 people in both the Carolinas took refuge in hundreds of shelters. More than 60,000 people in South Carolina alone were without power, and much of eastern North Carolina - including Raleigh and Fayetteville - were in the dark as well.
In Calabash, just above the state line, Thomas Wynn's neighbors heeded the mandatory evacuation, but the 72-year-old World War II veteran decided to ride out the storm in his wood frame house. ``I've been under fire before,'' he said.
Lynn High, owner of Calabash Marina and Storage, pulled boats out of the water, put plywood over windows, then took off - with memories of Hurricane Hugo on her mind.
That huge storm caused almost $8 billion in damage, mostly in South Carolina, and killed 35 people as it tore through the Caribbean and up the East Coast with 135 mph winds in 1989.
``I'm more worried about this one,'' High said. ``We're in a little cove here, but I think we'll have a lot more wind and water than even during Hugo.''
Fran was slightly less powerful than Hugo, but just as large - winds of 74 mph or more swirled 140 miles out from the center.
The governors of both North and South Carolina declared emergencies. Businesses closed early, buses stopped running at noon, boat owners pulled their vessels out of the water and Amtrak trains and commercial flights were suspended.
But the brunt of the storm largely bypassed South Carolina, where by Thursday night officials were inviting tourists back.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Brian Shrum catches the winds ahead of Hurricaneby CNBFran off Tybee Island, Ga., Thursday. color.