ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090046
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILMINGTON, N.C.
Hurricane Fran stranded hundreds of people on barrier islands, and its remnants flooded Virginia hollows Friday. More than a million customers were without power and at least 17 people were killed, including two in Virginia.
Rescue workers struggled in boats, helicopters and military vehicles to reach those endangered by flash floods in Virginia, where the ground had been saturated by days of rain before Fran dumped up to 10 more inches.
``They just waited too long. When they saw the streams rising, they should have gotten out,'' said Leon Rickard, emergency coordinator in Page County in northwestern Virginia.
Fran roared onto land at the Cape Fear River with 115 mph winds Thursday night before weakening to a tropical storm by dawn Friday in Virginia. It was merely a depression by midday Friday, but it continued to pour heavy rain over a wide area.
By 5:30 p.m., its top winds had declined from 115 mph to about 29 mph, and the storm was centered over West Virginia, on a path to dump rain through much of the Northeast over the next couple of days.
About 6 inches of rain - up to 11 inches in isolated spots - rushed down Virginia mountainsides into creeks, streams and rivers still sodden from Tuesday and Wednesday, when 5 inches fell.
Water lapped over reservoirs and threatened to breach earthen dams. Elkton, in the western foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was an island, with water covering all roads out.
Rescuers in a boat saved Jack Craft from his flooded home near Danville, after they saw a candle he was waving in an upstairs window just before dawn Friday.
In North Carolina, National Guardsmen threatened to arrest anyone venturing into evacuated areas as officials tried to make contact with people who had weathered the storm on fragile barrier islands.
President Clinton declared a major disaster in Virginia and North Carolina, making storm victims eligible for federal loans. Clinton also dispatched James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to oversee recovery efforts.
The islands just east of Wilmington appeared to be hardest hit. Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Topsail Beach were completely underwater at the height of the storm, and oceanfront homes were plowed flat on all three islands.
Entire neighborhoods remained knee-deep in water Friday. The remains of a half-dozen homes littered the highway in Surf City, and telephone poles leaned against the houses still standing. In the sound west of Topsail Beach, one home could be seen floating slowly away.
On Carolina Beach, residents of The Breakers condominium complex emerged unscathed. They had called 911 in a panic, fearing a building collapse when floating cars and garbage bins started slamming into the walls. By then, it was far too dangerous to attempt a rescue.
On Holden Beach, west of Cape Fear, a ``For Sale'' sign advertised a 3-bedroom oceanfront home, but concrete blocks were all that was left. Randy Stanton's home, in the same neighborhood, was one of four that remained standing - 15 feet out in the surf. He wasn't giving up on it.
``If I could get out there, I'd sleep in it tonight,'' he said.
The hurricane knocked out electricity to more than a million customers in the Carolinas and Virginia, including most of the eastern half of North Carolina and central Virginia.
The Insurance Information Institute estimated losses to insured private property owners at $625 million, but with many roads and bridges impassable because of fallen trees, sand and high water, overall figures were hard to come by.
The 17 people killed included a Virginia woman whose all-terrain vehicle was swept away when she tried to cross a flooded creek, a 13-year-old North Carolina boy whose house was hit by a tree and a West Virginia man who was swept off a flooded highway.
Officials had no way of knowing about other possible fatalities on some of the barrier islands Friday - about 140 people who rode out the storm along Cape Fear on Bald Head Island were left incommunicado, and heavy surf in Fran's wake kept boaters away.
Surf City also was heavily damaged, and residents were frustrated at being held back by National Guard troops.
Many people had stayed in Topsail Beach during Hurricane Bertha earlier this summer, but almost everyone evacuated before Fran hit, flattening the dunes, leveling houses and leaving the main road impassable, with sand piled 5 to 6 feet high.
``Compared to this storm, Bertha was a light rainstorm,'' said Eric Peterson, Topsail Beach town manager.
Most of Raleigh, 130 miles northwest of Wilmington, was still without power Friday night, and Raleigh-Durham Airport had only limited flights. Cars lined up 40 deep as some gas stations regained power and resumed pumping.
Jerry Parker fled his home on Topsail Island for Raleigh with eight family members, only to spend the night in the heart of the storm. But he wasn't visibly upset.
``We're in the glass business in Hampstead, just north of Wilmington,'' Parker explained. ``Boy, are we going to have a good time down there.''
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Boats scattered along the shoreline at North Topsailby CNBBeach, N.C., testify to Fran's fury. color. Graphic: Map by KRT.
color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY