THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180677
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
Hurricane Gordon continued to confound forecasters this morning, making a sharp turn to the west-northwest overnight and taking dead aim at the fragile Outer Banks, where a hurricane warning is in effect today.
Hurricane-force winds of 75 mph were reported just offshore at the Diamond Shoals light this morning, with sustained winds of 40 to 50 mph at Buxton.
Wind-driven tides were already doing their worst just after dawn. At least three unoccupied homes in Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks collapsed into the surf at high tide and at least a dozen more were in peril.
``I've lived here 12 years. And I've never actually watched anything like this happen,'' said Steve Downing, who was among about 12 people on hand to watch Gordon's fury. ``Just let me watch one more go in. Then, I'll be satisfied. Then, I can go to work.''
The white cottage with Carolina blue trim was still standing when the Downings got there.
``It was a slow death,'' said Sarah Downing, standing barefoot in the seething surf. ``A wave would come up and take one wall. Then the next wave would swell under the floor and that would fall in. Then another wave and all the furnishings were gone. It's really sad. I could've used those kitchen cabinets. . . ''
Waves whipped beneath the floorboards of a half-dozen oceanfront homes, causing the pilings to creak and moan. Staircases snapped loudly like felled timber. And electric wires popped off rafters and utility poles.
A cottage which had fallen a half-hour earlier had only a porch to mark its grave. A ``For Sale'' sign was left in the front yard.
Dawn's charcoal skies found the Atlantic three blocks west of where it ought to be - thigh-deep and growing, angrily surging through the sidestreets of Kitty Hawk.
The sea spit foam across the highway while piles of lumber, metal and debris floated through driveways.
Highway overwash forced the closure of most of N.C. Route 12, the principal roadway through Hatteras. Police set up road blocks three miles south of Oregon Inlet.
Ferry service to Cedar Island was halted because of high winds and Dare County schools were closed.
Winds were expected to increase to near hurricane force - 74 mph - later today.
All this from a storm that, just 24 hours earlier, had been forecast to bypass the mid-Atlantic coast and head harmlessly out to sea.
``It's been very difficult to predict,'' Richard Pasch, a forecaster at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said this morning. ``Things keep changing with this particular system. It's been very notorious and has done several about faces.''
That's what appeared to have happened overnight. The storm had been heading northeast when it made a 90-degree turn in a few hours and steered northwest and then west.
As it churned offshore, its forward speed dropped from 25 mph Thursday afternoon to a mere 6 mph before dawn. At 7 a.m., Gordon was centered about 100 miles south of Cape Hatteras and was moving between the west and west-northwest near 8 mph.
``Gordon is expected to turn to the northwest and north later today, bringing the center near the Outer Banks,'' Pasch said. ``However, if the westward motion continues today, the center of Gordon may be near the coast of North Carolina tonight.''
Pasch blamed the westward jaunt on an atmospheric roadblock - a strong high pressure system to the north and the same system forecasters had originally been counting on to actually help steer Gordon away from the coast.
``We had a high pressure ridge building in the atmosphere along the East Coast,'' Pasch said. ``We had anticipated that the storm would move to the northeast ahead of it. But it didn't move fast enough to escape the blocking effect of the high. That forced it back west.''
While it was unclear when, where or even if Gordon would make landfall, it did appear certain that the Outer Banks - and, to a lesser degree, Hampton Roads - would remain under the hurricane's influence for an extended period.
``You want to monitor what is going on with this storm,'' Pasch warned. He said hurricane warnings might be required in Hampton Roads today or tonight, depending on the eventual course of the storm.
And it's not just the hurricane that's causing problems. The region is caught in the middle of a triple whammy of weather misfortune.
To the south, Gordon is spinning counter-clockwise and steering winds and tides at the coast. To the north, a strong high pressure system, rotating clockwise, is pressing up against and combining with the hurricane's circulation.
Together, the two systems create a strong pressure gradient, easily likened to the effect of an egg beater.
Meanwhile, overhead, a full moon is adding to the coastal misery, creating tides that would be higher than normal even if Gordon didn't exist.
In the Sandbridge section of Virginia Beach, strong tides ripped into a weakened bulkhead and swallowed up sand from behind it. Water overwashed Sandfiddler Road at some low spots this morning, carrying debris and mud with it.
The full moon made an occasional, erie appearance in the pre-dawn skies at the Virginia Beach oceanfront this morning.
``Whew, that's weird,'' said surfer Alan Arnold, 22, said as looked skyward from Rudee Inlet about 3:30 a.m. He had come to the Oceanfront to get a glimpse of the surf with hopes for some good waves to ride as the storm passes. What he got was very wet without even setting foot in the pounding surf.
Even as fast-moving clouds cut off the moonlight, what appeared to be a wall of fog churned down the water's edge from the north. The grayish wall swallowed up the glow of street lights along the boardwalk one lamp after another.
Only at the last moment, just before the wall reached the inlet, did Arnold realize what it was.
``Here comes the rain! Watch out!''
Within seconds, he was soaked by the drenching yet mist-like rain.
Earlier, during high tide Thursday night, strong surf had pounded the parts of the Boardwalk. Waves broke over the concrete barrier in several places, leaving behind as much as an inch of muddy sand in some places. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
DREW WILSON/Staff
The remains of collapsed cottages litter N.C. 12, the beach road in
Kitty Hawk, this morning as Hurricane Gordon bore down on the
coast.
ASSOCATED PRESS
Driven by winds approaching 50 mph, waves crash over the seawall at
Fort Monroe as the aircraft carrier George Washington rests at
anchor offshore, 4,000 yards short of its destination at Norfolk
Naval Base. Rough seas churned up by Hurricane Gordon forced
postponement of the ship's arrival Thursday. The Navy was attempting
to bring it ashore this morning. Related stories, Pages A5-6.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON by CNB