THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994 TAG: 9406280485
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY AND JON FRANK, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: 940628 LENGTH: Long
The storm included gale-force winds, torrential rains, hail, thunderstorms and waterspouts.
{REST} It began about 9 a.m. in North Carolina and lasted more than eight hours in some areas, toppling trees, power lines and trailer homes. Some secondary roads were closed after debris fell across them, and the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet was shut down temporarily by a tractor-trailer accident.
In Virginia, the storm system began its assault at about 12:30 p.m., with winds reaching nearly 65 mph in some areas, said Tony Petrolito of the National Weather Service Office in Norfolk. Damage was limited to downed trees and power lines, Petrolito said.
Virginia Power service to about 23,000 customers in Hampton Roads was disrupted, said Mike Helck, a company spokesman in Norfolk. He said power was restored to most customers by early Monday night. All customers, he said, should have had power by early today.
``It certainly was a damaging storm,'' said Doug Hoell, an emergency-management coordinator who oversees 15 counties in northeastern North Carolina. ``We're fortunate no one else was injured.''
The storm's one fatality, 66-year-old Clifton Holloway, was sitting in his living room in Kinston, N.C., about 9:15 a.m. when a 60-foot oak tree crashed through the roof of his two-story home. The tree landed on Holloway - who was on the ground floor. He died instantly.
``The place was just flattened to the ground,'' Kinston Police Sgt. Annette Boyd said.
To the northeast, in Tyrrell County near Columbia, N.C., more than 60 homes were damaged when trees, power lines and other debris fell on them, County Commissioner Gordon Deaver said.
``The storm really boomed there for awhile,'' said Dennis W. ``Buddy'' Swain Jr., Tyrrell County's emergency-management coordinator. ``We've had it. We got hit bad.''
In Craven County, N.C., near the town of Havelock, the storm hit shortly before 3 p.m., clearing a 100-yard-wide swath and damaging many trailer homes off Route 70. No one was killed.
George Lemons, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh, N.C., said that no tornadoes had been confirmed in North Carolina on Monday afternoon. But Lemons said two or three small twisters may have touched down. He said an investigation will be conducted today to determine if tornadoes accompanied Monday's storms.
There were no confirmed tornadoes in Virginia either, the Weather Service in Norfolk reported.
The storm destroyed and damaged structures in these North Carolina counties: Pitt, Washington, Currituck, Martin, Perquimans, Gates, Chowan, Craven, Pasquotank, Lenoir, Dare, Camden and Tyrrell.
``I was out behind my garden when I saw the trees whipping around real fiercely. Then, you could hear the limbs start popping and snapping overhead,'' said Tyrrell County resident Everett Bateman, who lives just outside the Columbia town limits. ``I couldn't see the funnel actually. But it left quite a bit of damage.''
The same was true shortly before 1 p.m. in Norfolk and Portsmouth, when wind-whipped rain began pelting down as the severe thunderstorms moved into Virginia.
Sharon Devine, of the 3600 block of Goose Bay Drive in Portsmouth, said she heard a high-pitched whine at about 12:45 p.m, and then a crack and a thud.
Devine said a neighbor's oak tree had been uprooted and fell on her property. Also, a pine tree snapped off about 10 feet above the ground and fell into her yard.
``I didn't see a funnel cloud,'' she said. ``But I did hear an extremely loud, high-pitched whine like a truck stuck in high gear.''
Lifeguards closed beaches along the Virginia Beach Oceanfront as the storm system began to move across the resort city.
``The first crack (of lightning) and everybody's out,'' said Rob Putz, who communicated with his supervisors via walkie-talkie.
For the most part, visitors followed the advice of lifeguards.
``They were all pretty good,'' lifeguard Chris Graves said. ``But every once in a while, you get the people who have paid for parking and for a hotel, and they don't want to leave.''
In Norfolk, where a blustery storm unleashed a brief downpour, twigs and leaves littered the streets and large trees were toppled. In the 9200 block of Granby Street, officials from the city's Parks Department cleared a massive branch from the street.
W.E. and Evelyn Smith, who watched the crews from their porch across the street, said they were watching television when the storm roared through.
``The TV acted like it exploded,'' Smith said. ``Water was coming down in buckets, and it looked like foam in the gutters.''
In Weeksville, N.C., just south of Elizabeth City, a multimillion-dollar airship once leased to rock band Pink Floyd was damaged by winds at an airstrip around 10:20 a.m.
The 195-foot blimp, owned and operated by Airship International Ltd., was moored in an open area near a hangar when it was swept up, said Scott Bennett, a spokesman for Airship International's home office in Orlando, Fla.
The airship was deflated and its fiberglass gondola was slightly damaged, Bennett said.
In Dare County, N.C., a tractor-trailer rig straddled part of a guardrail on the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet in 70 mph winds Monday afternoon. The wheels on the right side of the truck went over the guardrail, tilting the cab precariously. The driver was not hurt.
The accident occurred in the northbound lane on the same span where, in 1990, a dredge blown from its moorings struck the bridge, causing a portion of it to collapse.
Between 50 and 75 feet of the metal guardrail were damaged. Vehicles were backed up for more than a mile as officials closed the bridge to traffic and tried to remove the truck.
{KEYWORDS} STORMS ACCIDENT GENERAL FATALITY
by CNB