THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411190443
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS AND PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines
Hurricane Gordon's strange movements had residents of the Outer Banks bewildered Friday, wondering what the dawn would bring today.
While high tides hammered the beaches, temperatures climbed into the 70s, sunlight skidded through a salty haze and ``breeze'' became too strong a word for wind conditions.
Residents mostly went calmly about their daily business. Some were left to recover from the morning high tide and the rest hunkered down waiting for Hurricane Gordon's next move.
The storm idled south of Cape Hatteras for hours and then turned to the south. No one could be sure what the storm would do next. But with the sea as frothy as a panting dog's mouth, the evening high tide passed with little bite.
Kitty Hawk volunteer firefighter Joe Lauro, directing traffic at the washed-over corner of Eckner and N.C. 12, said he expected trouble this morning.
``Thursday night was no slouch,'' added firefighter Don Petree, who had been on the job since 6 p.m. Thursday.
N.C. 12 was closed for the day on Hatteras Island, and island residents bought groceries, tied down boats and secured property in anticipation of the storm's wrath.
``This morning, there was almost a social atmosphere,'' said Irene Nolan, editor of the Island Breeze. ``People were buying groceries and talking to their neighbors.''
Denise Burrus Barnett, whose family owns Burrus Red and White grocery store in Hatteras Village, said business was brisk.
``We've been going strong all day,'' she said. ``The water has pretty much run off the road. About three hours ago, they opened the road to four-wheel-drive vehicles, and we had a big run.''
In the wake of the big crowds, the grocer came up short on only one key staple. ``We ran out of milk,'' Barnett said. ``We're in pretty good shape with everything else.''
Store owners along Route 158 said the flashlight and battery business was strong in the morning, but sales slackened by early afternoon. Proprietors thought the storm snuck up on people.
``I think it's a surprise,'' said Jackie Hall, a cashier at Ace Hardware in Kitty Hawk. ``Caught everybody off guard. I didn't expect anything from it.''
At Bear Drug in Kitty Hawk, ``It's been wild and wooly,'' said the pharmacist. Her name is Carol Gordon - ``like the hurricane.''
A couple of miles up the road, officials surveyed a block-long, 30-yard-wide swath of wooden rubble that had been four houses before the morning's high tide shattered them like toothpicks. Jagged pieces of lumber mingled with sand, completely obscuring the Beach Road.
William Dorsch, a volunteer firefighter from Kitty Hawk, was standing guard over the junkyard. ``That's number five right there,'' he said, pointing to a battered home standing precariously on a sandy peninsula apart from the debris.
Yards away, Vince Mascitti surveyed the damage around his mostly intact home, where waves had stripped five or six feet of sand from his pilings.
``You go pity someone else, man, 'cause I'll be there forever,'' said Mascitti, 53, as waves licked the base of the house. ``I'm not finished yet. . keep the house standing.''
Mascitti said his pilings had been sunk deeper than coding required, and he thought the house would withstand the ocean's onslaught. But he was concerned that the storm wouldn't leave him with enough sand to get his septic tank back in order.
``I never expected it to get as bad as it did Thursday night,'' Mascitti said. Conjuring the benchmark storm and flooding of 1962, he said, ``It was worse than Ash Wednesday right here.''
Motel owners in the area had to contend with rising floodwaters.
In some areas, ocean waters crossed the fragile strand known as the Outer Banks and came to within two feet of the Pamlico Sound. Water had already risen a couple of feet on the sound, to the surprise of locals.
But the uncertain conditions didn't stop people from enjoying an unplanned day off.
Windsurfers were out in numbers, and some fishermen plied the waters.
In Kitty Hawk, ``We were just walking the beach,'' said Susan Nelson, trying to keep track of her children as they scampered over the soggy dunes. ``Wading in the water, finding toys.''
Nelson has been through a lot of bad weather in a lifetime on the Outer Banks. ``You have to respect it and not play games with it,'' she said. ``We're out now because it's low tide.''
Others were out, too, exploring or seeking souvenirs from the first wave of the storm.
``Everyone's curious,'' said Margaret Thompson, an employee at Winks grocery, a mile north of the toppled houses. ``I've seen a lot of people with cameras, video cameras. A lot of kids here are happy they didn't have to go to school today.
With the low-tide lull in place, officials who had already pulled up to 24 hours of continuous duty said they hoped for a chance to relax before conditions worsened again.
``I'm gonna try to get a couple hours off so I can take a shower, change clothes,'' firefighter Petree said. ``I imagine everyone will be back tonight. Anybody that's walking.''
Nolan said people on Hatteras but were nervously watching to see what would happen next.
``A lot of people I talked to are ready for the storm to do what it's going to do and move on,'' she said. ``They're not panicking, but they are nervous.''
Barnett said the storm has left residents wary and confused.
``Everybody's watching this storm pretty closely,'' she said. ``My dad was saying that if this were two years ago, a storm like this would have him concerned. But after Emily, we're used to this sort of thing. This storm is so bewildering because it's behaved so erratically. It's taken us by surprise.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON. Staff
The remains of cottages litter the beach in Kitty Hawk on Friday
morning after they had been destroyed by the storm.
Color photo by BILL TIERNAN, Staff
Thomas Swayne, a North Carolina Department of Transportation worker,
holds a group of dead power lines Friday that fell across N.C. 12 in
Kitty Hawk. He held the lines so other workers could clear debris.
ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Cars wait in line to cross a flooded section of N.C. 12 going north
toward Nags Head on the Outer Banks Friday. The highway was closed
for the day on Hatteras Island after Gordon pushed floodwaters and
sand over the road.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON DAMAGE by CNB