THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250480
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
Hurricane Nanna was a howling Category 4 storm when it blew through a Coast Guard Air Station conference room Wednesday where Virginia and North Carolina officials were evacuating thousands of tourists from the storm-lashed Outer Banks.
Hurricane Nanna was a drill, of course, but it was realistic enough to blow the minds of about 75 public safety officials who attended the two-state hurricane preparedness meeting.
Hurricane season starts June 1, and some predictions call for eight of the storms this summer, three of them severe.
But, rehearsal or not, ``Nanna'' made it clear that Virginia Highway 168 through Chesapeake to the North Carolina border is not an evacuation route favored by Virginia transportation officials. It's the main road from Norfolk to the Outer Banks, but during the summer, two-lane stretches of Virginia 168 in Chesapeake often are jammed.
``We've been talking to people in Virginia, and they don't want us to send anyone north on Highway 168 to Chesapeake during an evacuation,'' said 1st Sgt. A.C. Joyner, who commands the North Carolina Highway Patrol in Dare and Currituck counties.
Instead, Joyner said, patrol officers probably will direct evacuating motorists west on either U.S. 158 in Currituck or on U.S. 64 through Manteo and the south shore of Albemarle Sound.
Several North Carolina officials suggested sending some evacuees as far west as I-95.
``But if 168 is closed in Virginia,'' Joyner said, ``you may hear from some residents of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach when we make them drive all the way over to U.S. 17 from Barco to get home.''
North Carolina officials are widening 168 from Moyock to Barco, and Virginia's cooperation in improving the road north of Moyock is part of a still-unsettled Lake Gaston water pipeline agreement between the two states.
All the planners agreed that completion of the second Wright Memorial Bridge span at Point Harbor in Currituck County will speed evacuations to the mainland.
Douglas Hoell is North Carolina Emergency Management coordinator for most of the coastal counties that are in harm's way when hurricanes aim at Cape Hatteras on the way to Southeastern Virginia. He was the moderator for the elaborate hurricane exercise that was played out as a table-top storm strategy game.
The drill was complete with National Weather Service storm warnings, evacuation orders by town officials, and a presidential disaster area proclamation for Northeastern North Carolina and the Delmarva area of Virginia.
By then the theoretical coast was a theoretical mess from Delaware to South Carolina.
The biggest problem addressed by both North Carolina and Virginia public safety officials was when to evacuate the Outer Banks and other low-lying areas.
``And we have to know when you do,'' said Wallace Twigg of the Virginia Department of Emergency Services.
National Weather Service meteorologists from the new Doppler-radar forecasting centers in Wakefield, Va., and Newport, N.C., near Morehead City said a new storm warning system will show the radius of gales far out from a hurricane's eye.
``These warnings will now be called `Tropical Cyclone Forecast,' '' said Don Bartholf, a weather service forecaster at the Newport station. He said the new forecasts will give emergency managers at least 36 hours of lead time before gale winds move on shore.
``We have to start evacuating before the winds arrive,'' said Clarence P. Skinner, vice chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners. Skinner also heads an emergency management control group that includes much of the northern coast.
Sandy Sanderson, Dare County's emergency planner, said portable low-power AM broadcast transmitters will be installed along evacuation highways to inform motorists of the latest weather news and any changes in escape routes.
Red Cross officials from both states said emergency management communications with inland shelter areas will be important so that the number of evacuees can be calculated.
James B. Talbot, deputy coordinator for emergency services in Norfolk, told the storm planners that Norfolk intends to take emergency vehicles off the streets and station them at designated shelters to ride out the weather.
``And do you have refuges-of-last-resort for emergency crews who remain behind?'' Hoell asked. ``And what do you do with thousands of dogs and cats and other animals?'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff map
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE by CNB