THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 18, 1995 TAG: 9508180368
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY AND JENNIFER CHRISTMAN, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
Ashley Bender and her new husband, Michael, made all the right romantic arrangements. They would spend their honeymoon sprawled on the sun-speckled sands of Nags Head - the town where the couple met three years ago.
But on Tuesday, Felix stepped in and spoiled their plans.
Worried about their safety - and pushed by a mandatory hurricane evacuation order - the newlyweds fled to Greenville.
``We crashed with some of my younger sister's friends from college,'' 26-year-old Ashley Bender said Thursday as she and thousands of others returned to the Outer Banks.
``We were crammed for two days in a two-bedroom house with seven other people. We spent our honeymoon watching `Beverly Hills 90210.' And it was a re-run.
``Needless to say, we could not wait to get back to the beach.''
As a gray-flannel blanket of clouds floated westward and sunbeams streamed across North Carolina's barrier island beaches for the first time since Tuesday, county officials decided Hurricane Felix might finally have swung out to sea.
At 1 p.m. Thursday, the Outer Banks officially reopened to traffic.
Then, the return of the natives - and tourists - began.
Travelers who had waited in three-hour traffic jams to get out of town Tuesday easily re-entered the islands without roadblocks or passes, probably because many of the tourists who fled never came back.
Businesses that had boarded up in the face of Felix gleefully reopened, plywood panels falling from shuttered windows like dry leaves from a tree.
The returnees said they were glad to be back - but would leave again in similar circumstances.
``We've had a home down here since 1951. And this is only the second time we've had to leave,'' 67-year-old J.D. Peele said from his two-story cottage in South Nags Head. Peele and his wife, Jennie, drove totheir other home in Rocky Hock when they were ordered off the barrier islands three days ago. They got back to their beach house about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The couple unhooked the wooden boards from their windows immediately. But they decided to leave the plants - and porch furniture - inside.
``I don't know if it's gone yet or not. But we're back. So we've got to open up again,'' said Peele, who also owns a rental cottage in South Nags Head.
He had rented the cottage to two Ohio sisters and their daughters for the week. When the exodus began, Peele took his temporary tenants with him to Rocky Hock - a three-hour drive inland, near Edenton.
``We had two extra beds. And they didn't have any place to go. All the motels were filled with other evacuees,'' Jennie Peele said of her last-minute shelter set-up.
``We wined and dined them at our farm for two days. Do you know those girls hadn't ever seen peanuts growing on a vine before or tasted fresh sweet potatoes? Those are things you wouldn't usually get to do on a beach trip.''
Pat Kaiser, the Ohio vacationer, said that although she and her family were happy to return to the barrier islands, they actually enjoyed the temporary evacuation - and chance to see Edenton.
``We were going to head back to Ohio today and give up. Instead, we got three vacations in one,'' Kaiser said as her daughter and niece frolicked in the yellow froth Felix was still shoving ashore. ``We got to go to the beach - twice. And we also had a farm vacation we hadn't counted on.''
Sandy and Barbara Collins of Wilmington, Del., said that although Felix was still swirling somewhere offshore, they had to return to their Kill Devil Hills vacation cottage from Washington for their children's safety.
``If we did not come back and give these kids something to do, they probably would have killed each other,'' Barbara Collins said, pointing to her 5-year-old son Craig and 7-year-old daughter Amy in the back seat of the family's blue Honda Accord.
Alexandria, Va., residents Paul Hunt and Jennifer Ellison also were anxious to complete their beach trip. Seven months ago, the couple and two of their friends had booked a Kill Devil Hills cottage. When they were evacuated Tuesday, their friends fled to Florida. Hunt and Ellison spent seven hours in a traffic jam, trying to get to Portsmouth. But they were evacuated from their hotel there as soon as they'd unpacked the suitcases.
``It's been insane. Crazy. We're looking forward to catching some fish and getting good tans,'' Hunt said as he carried coolers and folding chairs up the oceanfront cottage's wooden stairs. ``We finally spent the first night in Suffolk, after being evacuated twice in one day. Then, that hotel got too full so we had to move to Williamsburg.
``We spent $200 in hotels alone - and another $100, at least, in food and gas. The beach house lease specified no refunds for hurricanes. And we had to leave all the food we'd planned to cook for the week behind.''
``Our friends will be bummed when they find out we got back onto the beach today and they drove all the way to Florida,'' said Ellison. ``We recorded all our adventures for them, though, on their video camera. They can re-live our evacuation experiences when we all get back home.''
Although some residents and tourists complained that the decision to have people abandon the Outer Banks was hasty, Dare County spokesman Charles Hartig said the area's elected officials acted with public safety in mind.
``Our major goal here . . . when a hurricane poses a threat to Dare County - our residents and our visitors - is to move people out during daylight hours before the arrival of tropical storm winds,'' Hartig said.
``What we were seeing earlier this week indicated clearly that Hurricane Felix could be a very disruptive storm.''
Felix's damage to the Outer Banks may have been minimal, Hartig said. But the control group felt that evacuation was the best option. Faced with a similar decision, he said, county officials would choose the same course of action.
Many residents who evacuated - and returned - agreed.
``My daughters were scared. And we all literally were looking into the face of a hurricane head-on. Lots of my neighbors left, too,'' Colington Harbour resident Eileen Myers said Thursday afternoon, three hours after returning to the Outer Banks. Myers and her family fled to Greenville, to stay at a daughter's residence. There, they found many other Outer Banks evacuees.
``All of the hotels there were filled with frustrated vacationers. This morning, everyone was packing up,'' said Myers. ``I'd leave again in a minute. You have to believe the experts on things like this. It really isn't worth the risk.'' MEMO: Staff writer Lon Wagner contributed to this story
ILLUSTRATION: [This photo appeared in North Carolina Metro section only]
Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/Staff
A boy checks the puddle's depth before his family car attempts the
crossing in the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Thursday, south
of the Oregon Inlet Bridge. People returned to the coast Thursday,
hoping for the best.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FELIX by CNB