THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 21, 1995 TAG: 9508180612
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
TALK ABOUT GOOD timing.
Writer Jay Barnes' ``North Carolina's Hurricane History,'' was published by the University of North Carolina Press this year.
Barnes' book is a valuable reference work and contains some great photographs, including a dramatic one by Hugh Morton on the cover showing a young Charlotte News reporter - Julien Scheer - slogging through debris-strewn water to escape the tide pushed ashore by hurricane Hazel.
Like many, I have always admired the grit of Tar Heels on the Outer Banks during hurricanes.
Outer Bankers seem to be born with a sense of tide and weather. A true native is said to be able to discern the presence of an advancing hurricane by the sound of Atlantic breakers splatting ashore.
One of the most chilling descriptions of a hurricane in the Barnes book was penned by S.L. Doshoz, Weather Bureau observer at Cape Hatteras after the hurricane of 1899.
Winds during that storm have never been precisely determined, although gusts were measured between 120 and 140 miles an hour before the weather station's anemometer blew away.
Doshoz wrote of the effects of the hurricane on Hatteras Island when the storm stuck on Aug. 17:
``The howling wind, the rushing and roaring tide and the awful sea which swept over the beach and thundered like a thousand pieces of artillery made a picture which was at once appalling and terrible and the like of which Dante's Inferno could scarcely equal,'' he wrote.
``The frightened people were grouped sometimes 40 or 50 in one house, at times one house would have to be abandoned and they would all have to wade almost beyond their depth in order to reach another.''
Doshoz said when the storm ceased, strong men wept like children in relief and gratitude.
``Cattle, sheep, hogs and chickens were drowned by hundreds before the very eyes of the owners who were powerless to render any assistance on account of the rushing tide,'' he reported.
In the old days, Outer Bankers living on those sandy islands off the Carolina coast installed trap doors in the floors of their homes to allow rising water to enter. The doors were installed to prevent the structures from floating off their foundations and drifting away. But not all homes had them.
Outer Banker Ike O'Neal told Associated Press columnist Hal Boyle about his adventure during the 1899 hurricane. He said as the tide rose around their home, his father handed him an ax and told him to scuttle the floor.
``I began chopping away and finally knocked a hole in the floor,'' O'Neal recalled. ``Like a big fountain the water gushed in and hit the ceiling, and on top of the gusher was a mallard duck that had gotten under our house as the tide pushed upward.''
Such stories sound like tall tales. But most of them are true. Houses really did float around like matchboxes during hurricanes striking the Carolina barrier islands.
I remember interviewing boatbuilder Willie Austin of Avon, years ago at his home that had a red metal fish on the roof as a weathervane.
The worst storm Willie could recall was the hurricane of 1944. He pointed with a finger to the newel post inside his house, showing where the water had risen to 5 feet above the floor.
``I'd say about 90 percent of the houses around here were knocked off their foundations during the 1944 storm,'' he said. ``Houses were floating everywhere like boats.''
He laughed recalling neighbor Clemmie Gray's experience during the storm.
``During that blow Clemmie was sitting in his house talking to his wife and watching the hurricane's doings through the window. Then he turned to her and said, ``Look out! That house over yonder is moving right at us.''
Willie slapped his knee in merriment. I didn't see the humor.
``Only it wasn't the other house that was moving at all,'' he explained. ``Clemmie's was floating, and the other house was standing still.''
The Outer Banks. . . they make 'em rough and ready down there. ILLUSTRATION: Color illustration
Book cover
by CNB