THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411200079
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
Normally, this would have been a beautiful, no-care-in-the-world weekend in Sandbridge. Saturday dawned cloudless and even a steady, chilly sea breeze was easily offset by the warmth of the bright sun.
But there was plenty to care - and worry - about as property owners, city crews and contractors set about cleaning up after a two-day onslaught of storm-driven surf and unusually high tides caused extensive damage.
The sound of shovels scraping up mud, dump trucks hauling debris and helicopters overhead sometimes overwhelmed conversations of residents assessing the storm's impact.
``We've just had our toughest blow,'' said Thomas E. Fraim, a longtime Sandbridge resident and chairman of the city's erosion commission. ``It's the worst storm damage that we've had in 20 years.''
A few hundred feet away, their common neighbor ignored it all. The Atlantic Ocean, less angry now but still far from calm, slammed into undamaged bulkheads. The dull roar of the surf seemingly gave voice to nature's relentless demand: ``Let me pass.''
And the ocean did pass in many places all along Sandfiddler Road.
A 1,000-foot stretch of the road was swept away by the storm.
Hundreds of feet of expensive steel and wooden bulkheads were ripped out and twisted by strong tides Thursday and Friday.
A couple of homes that, at first glance, appeared to have been spared, were not. Tides undermined them, carving out floors and swallowing up the contents.
Dozens of homes, while largely undamaged, are now exposed to the full force of the sea because protective bulkheads failed. The back yards of several vanished, leaving drops of 10-15 feet to pits below.
At least four homes not protected by bulkheads lost everything around them - driveways, yards, walkways.
Up the coast at the Oceanfront, the curious came out in droves to look at the beach and check out the 14th Street fishing pier, which is 75-100 feet shorter after high waves sliced off its end.
Waves consumed huge amounts of beach. In some places, there is now a 5- to 6-foot drop from the edge of where the beach was to where it is now.
The cost of the damage is unclear. City inspectors will begin a house-to-house assessment of Sandbridge on Monday.
Even with all that, ``There's a lot of happy people down here,'' Fraim said. Even though a lot of bulkhead failed, it largely served its purpose and ``people are having dinner in their homes tonight,'' he said.
Fraim agreed many property owners had been lucky. Hurricane Gordon turned tail and ran back south before coming ashore in the Outer Banks. That eased weather conditions in Sandbridge, and may have spared some homes that lost bulkheads.
But until extensive repairs are made, ``We are in trouble. We are very, very vulnerable,'' said Fraim, who also is coordinator the Sandbridge Coalition, a residents' organization. ``We are punch-drunk, heavyweight fighters hoping to hear the bell for the end of the round.''
Many residents said people don't appreciate bulkheads.
``The news shows only show the houses that are damaged,'' said Darlene Massa, whose home is one of those protected by a bulkhead. ``They don't show all the houses that have been saved.''
Fraim estimated the average homeowner with a badly damaged bulkhead will have to shell out up to $50,000 for repairs. Most bulkheads cannot be insured, he said. And, he admitted, bulkheads are not the answer.
``They are insurance,'' he said. ``The purpose of the bulkheads have never been to keep the ocean from going westward; it's been to keep the land from going eastward. There isn't a person that ever built a bulkhead that loved a bulkhead. We want sand.''
City Council has approved replenishment, and Fraim hopes the work will be done in two years. To pay for it, Council established a special taxing district in Sandbridge for the next 50 years.
Sixty-five percent of the project will be funded by the state and federal government. The special taxing district will generate the other 35 percent. No other city money will be spent on the project.
Without it, some residents fear Sandbridge would be dramatically reshaped by the forces of nature.
``It's almost inevitable, unless we get sand,'' said Anson Hyde, 77, who has a home on the bayside of Sandbridge. ``It's obvious the bulkheads don't work.''
Hyde and his wife took their dog for a walk along Sandfiddler Road so they could assess the damage for themselves. They were not surprised by what they found.
His wife Ann could only look about at the damage and remember. ``This used to be such a beautiful, beautiful beach,'' she said.
In the 3300 block of Sandfiddler Road, one house was severely undermined by the surf. A concrete garage floor was largely gone. Standing 10 feet below Saturday, one could look up at a narrow lip of concrete left in one corner. On it stood a spare refrigerator.
Down the road, city crews and a private contractor were busy rebuilding the eroded stretch of Sandfiddler Road.
They used recycled asphalt as base material and piled smashed concrete, pavement and heavy debris along the ocean side of the road to create a protective berm.
Those two actions saved money, said Dan Kiley, an inspection superintendent with the Public Works Department. ``This will cost about $30,000,'' he said. ``But we probably cut the cost 30 percent by using recycled asphalt and not hauling out debris.''
Kiley said major repairs should be done and the road open by Monday. A new surface will be put down later in the week.
Farther down the street, a young mother shoveled a muddy layer of sand from her driveway like northerners shovel snow.
``My husband was in Guantanamo, Cuba, when Gordon came through there,'' said the woman who declined to give her name. ``He sent it up here. This is his gift to me.''
While some folks picked up the pieces, others enjoyed the storm's benefits.
Surfers and fortune hunters flocked to the ocean's edge Saturday. While wave riders did their thing, Roger Tackett, 52, an Ohio insurance salesman, looked for treasure on eroded beaches.
``When there's been a storm, you can find things you wouldn't normally find,'' he explained as he swept the public beach with an electronic sensor. ``I've got something here . . '' he said with hope. A second later he came up with something less than treasure: a muddy copper penny. ILLUSTRATION: Map
STAFF
Color photos
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
U.T. Brown, back-ground center, uses a shovel to clear sand from his
driveway on Sandfiddler Road. Helping him, from left, are Dave
Smith, Gilbert Smith and Jeff Smith. Brown and most property owners
in Sandbridge had a great deal of cleaning up to do after Gordon's
two-day onslaught.
Color photo
D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff
Above, road crews work to clear and repair a 1,000-foot stretch of
Sandfiddler Road that was swept away by the storm. They used
recycled asphalt as base material and piled heavy debris along the
ocean side to create a berm. At right, the deck of a house on
Sandfiddler Road is in disrepair.
Photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
A contractor's crane works the beach, where waves from the two-day
storm consumed huge amounts of sand. In some places, there is a 5-
to 6-foot drop where the surf left its mark.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE GORDON AFTERMATH SANDBRIDGE by CNB