THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994            TAG: 9411190435
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH ISLAND                  LENGTH: Short :   39 lines

FISHERMEN FORCED FROM ISLAND BY STORM SOME OF THE 61 ANGLERS WERE LESS THAN HAPPY ABOUT LEAVING.

Sixty-one anglers were evacuated from Portsmouth Island by boat Friday morning when Hurricane Gordon was threatening the unihabited island.

With the U.S. Coast Guard monitoring the operation, the anglers from Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia were removed - some reluctantly - by personnel from a local marina who had taken them to rental cabins on the island.

``Some of them didn't want to leave,'' said Katie Morris, owner of Morris Marina in Atlantic, N.C., which serves as the concessionaire for Portsmouth Island.

Morris said the decision to pick up the campers was made about 9:30 a.m. Friday.

``The Coast Guard didn't tell us to move them, and the Park Service didn't tell us to move them. We just looked around, and saw there was a lull, and that if we were going to move them, this was a good time.''

``Common sense told us to move them off the island,'' Morris added.

The Coast Guard monitored the evacuation by radio, according to Lt. Mike Guerin, a spokesman for the Cape Hatteras Group.

``We weren't actually involved,'' said Guerin. ``We stayed in touch with Mrs. Morris concerning the situation.''

The evacuation was completed shortly after noon.

Located south of Ocracoke Island, Portsmouth Island is owned by the National Park Service, and is part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. No one except Park Service personnel live there.

KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON by CNB