THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 19, 1994 TAG: 9411190447
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: 8A EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 140 lines
When Gordon's winds wind down and the surf ceases to seethe, most Hatteras Island residents will remain unscathed.
But they may be cut off from the rest of the world for a while.
The stormy Atlantic washed away a section of the only highway linking four southern villages to the northern Outer Banks Friday. State troopers blocked all traffic south of Nags Head. Thousands of residents remained isolated on the island.
The ocean rushed across the thin strip of sand and undermined the highway about four miles north of Rodanthe. There, as the sun slipped into foggy dusk, N.C. Route 12 crumbled into the ditch. A 300-foot stretch of asphalt was washing away.
``You can't get through because there's not a road to travel,'' a North Carolina trooper warned travelers about 5:45 p.m. ``There's transportation guys down there checking it out right now. But I think you all better turn around.''
The beach road wasn't the only structure that succumbed to the sea on Friday.
At dawn, at least four Kitty Hawk cottages fell into the 10-foot tide.
``I've lived here 12 years. And I've never actually watched anything like this happen,'' said Steve Downing, who was watching Hurricane Gordon's force with his wife and black lab. ``Just let me watch one more go in. Then, I'll be satisfied. Then, I can go to work.''
A white cottage with Carolina-blue trim was still standing when the Downings got there. But by the time their dog, Jake, had found himself a seafood breakfast in the rubble, the beach box had been swept away.
``It was a slow death,'' said Sarah Downing, standing barefoot in the warm 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 for my home.''
Waves whipped beneath the floorboards of a half-dozen oceanfront homes, causing the pilings to creak and moan. Staircases snapped like felled timber. And electric wires popped off rafters and telephone polls, swinging across the street.
One cottage that had gone in 30 minutes eariler had only a porch to mark its grave. A ``For Sale'' sign still hung onto the front yard, but a rental company's ``Weekly Rates'' placcard was washing away.
At another tumbling home, the roof fell first. A brick chimney shot through the top, thrusting three feet above the rafters. Then a tidal surge lifted the eaves off - and the chimney disappeared into the undertow.
Farther south, in Buxton, 10 truckloads of concrete rubble that emergency work crews dumped around the base of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse couldn't keep the waves away.
Twelve-foot crests swept across hundreds of 2-ton sandbags at the base, creating a moat around the 208-foot-tall tower. The tide subsided some by noon. But the watery ditch remained as waves continued to climb more than halfway over the canvas bag wall that protects the lighthouse from the Atlantic.
``We tried to get a contractor in here Thursday night to stack another 230 sandbags around the base. But the truck couldn't get through because of the storm,'' said Rich Schneider, maintenance chief for the National Park Service, Friday afternoon. ``I don't think there's any serious threat to the lighthouse right now.
``The sea has cut through the beach all the way up to the wooden walkway. But we had crews out Thursday night putting rubble around the base until 3 a.m. That's seemed to help some,'' Schneider said. ``And we'll get those extra sandbags in as soon as the contractor can get through.''
Trucks couldn't make it Friday because N.C. Route 12 remained closed from Kitty Hawk through Hatteras Village. Although some parts of the beachfront road were passable in the northern towns, other areas of the two-lane thoroughfare were waist-deep in ocean water, covered with sand, and littered with lumber, garbage cans and other debris.
Near Hatteras Village, waves flattened between 300 and 400 feet of dunes, a state trooper said. ``They were right there by the road - and they're all gone,'' said the trooper, Dana Harris. ``And there are three big new homes in South Nags Head getting ready to tumble.''
The oceanfront cottages, all less than a decade old, were being undermined even during subsiding tides. Waves washed between the pilings and through the driveways. Staircases tumbled in their wake.
Roc Sansotta owns four oceanfront homes in South Nags Head. In frothy yellow surf, he struggled to secure air conditioning units to the homes' understories. He was hoping he wouldn't have to cut off the electricity.
``There's not a thing I can do about Mother Nature,'' said Sansotta, a dripping tool belt hanging from his waist. ``As much as I try, it keeps on coming. Had to drive through 5-foot deep foam this morning just to get here. Couldn't see a thing. But I had to get here to do whatever I could before high tide.''
All four of Sansotta's large, two-story homes have been rented for Thanksgiving weekend. He said he wasn't concerned about the potential loss of income. But he was very worried about losing the houses.
``The water guys came by and said they may have to pull my main meters. I'm worried that the septic tanks will wash away. The power might have to be cut soon,'' Sansotta said. ``If any of those things happen, the town will condemn these structures. Even if the ocean doesn't take them, they won't be any use to anyone.''
On Coquina Beach, near the Bodie Island lighthouse south of Nags Head, the sea had carved a 35-foot-wide swath through 7-foot-high dunes. A river of foamy ocean water washed all the way to the road. A stop sign lay toppled in its wake.
``Looks like someone cut a new street through here since last night,'' National Park Service Ranger Chris Eckart said as he surveyed the scene just before noon. ``It's eerie, this storm. Doesn't seem to know what to do. Now, the sun's even starting to come out some.
``There were a couple of guys out here fishing at Oregon Inlet this morning. Catching a mess of big trout. They wouldn't leave,'' Eckart said. ``I kept telling them. But they didn't want to go. That's insane, that's what it is.''
Elsewhere...
At the Outer Banks mall in Nags Head, four men struggled in the warm, windy morning mist to protect the plate glass windows with plywood. Two held the sheets while the others attached the wood with nail guns. Soon, the entire shopping center was boxed in.
Three dozen sports fishing boats at Oregon Inlet were moved inland to Wanchese by Friday morning to wait out Hurricane Gordon. Only one white craft remained. A broken vessel, it was tethered to a piling, bobbing in the growing waves.
Across the Outer Banks, merchants were getting ready for Gordon. Some welcomed the weather with signs like: ``Greetings, Gordon.'' Another marquee above a Kitty Hawk pizza parlor wished the storm away: ``No Turkey here for you, Gordon.'' MEMO: Related stories on pages A1 and A9.
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Perhaps the only up side of a storm like Gordon: The same waves that
erode beaches, take out pilings, destroy houses and flood roads also
provide terrific surfing. Friday, a huge wave wiped out this surfer
at Atlantic Beach, N.C.
Photo by JOE FUDGE, Newport News Daily Press
Just after high tide Friday morning, neighbors help to move a
drifting boat from the path of a van on the road at Milepost 4 next
to the bypass on Highway 158.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON DAMAGE by CNB