THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060285
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Bright skies and climbing temperatures are expected to clear the roads - and the sounds - of ice today, but life won't return to normal on the Outer Banks.
Schools will still be closed and plumbers will still be busy dealing with frozen water pipes which left many residents without water Monday after early morning lows dropped to 10 and 12 degrees in some areas.
Black ice blanketed most Outer Banks roads Monday morning, making even the slowest driving dangerous. Temperatures never crept above 25 degrees. And wind chills stayed below zero all day.
But by mid-afternoon the sun was shining - and most of the U.S. 158 bypass was dry. Even vehicles that ventured onto the still slushy side streets seemed to be having an easier time driving. Police, however, were advising only necessary travel.
Most people seemed happy to comply.
``This is the coldest I've seen it in many a day,'' said Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr., an Outer Banks native. ``I feel like I'm 100 years old. And I haven't seen it this cold down here - for this long - in a long, long time.''
Bernie Campbell agreed. A construction worker for McKenzie Contractors of Virginia Beach, Campbell left his Hampton Roads home at daybreak Monday morning and headed for Nags Head, where he's helping build the new town hall. Wearing three layers of shirts and sweatshirts, a thick coat and gloves, he nailed boards together beneath a tall water tower. Every few minutes, a chunk of ice slid off the tower and crashed near his feet.
``We're cold. Of course we're cold,'' a red-cheeked Campbell said, smiling. ``We just keep moving around. Can't take too many breaks. You just get inside and get warm, and when you have to come back out again, it feels that muchcolder. Makes it even worse. So we're trying to keep working.''
Although precipitation had stopped by late Sunday, up to six inches of snow remained stuck to the frozen ground along most of the northern barrier islands Monday night. Kitty Hawk Bay, Roanoke and Croatan sounds, and even Wanchese Harbor were iced in with thick sheets and shifting blocks. One Wanchese waterman tried to pry his boat loose from its ice hold with a crowbar. About a half-dozen others finally managed to break through the frozen blockade about 3:30 p.m. when the sounds became slushy. They headed for Hatteras so they could go fishing today even if Wanchese is still frozen solid.
``A handful of them wanted to be down there so they could be sure and get out,'' Etheridge Fishing Supply Co. spokesman Butch Midgette said. ``When that ice breaks loose, and the wind is westward, it blows the blocks back into the sound and it all freezes up even worse. Two years ago, some guys were locked in the ice for three or four days.''
Area sounds haven't frozen completely, longtime residents say, since 1989.
Besides frozen waterways, scores of Outer Banks residents had to put up with frozen pipes Monday morning. Unshowered and unable to cook, brush their teeth or even flush their toilets, dozens of people called plumbers for help. Patrick O'Neal, who has been a plumber for more than 20 years, said that until the freeze thaws, there's really not much hope of getting water to run in those homes.
``All I can do is shut off the water meter so there won't be more pressure flowing into the house,'' O'Neal said from his Kill Devil Hills office Monday after fielding 15 frozen-pipe calls. ``As long as it's still frozen, I can't fix those pipes. I can just help keep them from breaking by turning off the water to the house.''
Some people had luck heating pipes just below their homes with hairdryers to melt the ice slowly. Others left small streams of water running from their faucets overnight so the water wouldn't freeze in the pipes. Plumbers advise against heating outdoor pipes with blow torches.
Heat pumps, too, froze overnight. Many Outer Banks residents woke up Monday freezing. They called heating repairmen - who said Monday was the busiest day this winter.
``One family was all in the bedroom around one little space heater when we got there,'' said Doug Wakeley of R.A. Hoy Heating. ``Another one was huddled in the kitchen, with their oven on and the oven door open. If your heat pump freezes up outside, switch to the emergency heat on your thermostat and that probably will take care of the problem.''
Power company officials said that by late Monday afternoon, only one household was without electricity on the Outer Banks; one in Elizabeth City; and one in the Albemarle area. More than 100 workers from Maryland and Virginia arrived in the area over the weekend to assist North Carolina Power crews. Linemen worked round the clock in minus-10 degree wind chill temperatures to help restore electricity and heat.
``Trees are breaking off in the wind. Ice is freezing on the lines and falling in big chunks. It's been a real struggle,'' North Carolina Power spokesman Dave Shelton said.
``Mother Nature hasn't hit us this hard around here for at least six years. But now, thank goodness, it's coming to an end.''
Police said that despite the road hazards over the weekend, only a couple of serious accidents occurred. Hundreds of other vehicles throughout northeastern North Carolina, however, were stranded in ditches; flipped over on slick curves; or smashed into the backs, sides and fronts of other automobiles.
At least two people were flown by helicopter off the Outer Banks to Norfolk and Chesapeake hospitals Saturday after smashing their cars in weather-related accidents. Law enforcement officials said none of the injuries appeared life-threatening. But drivers and passengers were cut and badly bruised.
``We've been fortunate,'' Nags Head Deputy Police Chief Wayne Byrum said Monday afternoon. ``I've been surprised.''
Nags Head Police Chief Charles Cameron agreed. ``Most of the citizens of Dare County have been using good judgment,'' said Cameron. ``They're staying off the roads - and inside where it's warm.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Danny Barile, 12, right, gets the best of Zeke Simpson, 13, during a
snowball fight in Wanchese on Monday. Below, John Neal, 43, of Nags
Head scrapes ice off the windshield of his commercial fishing boat,
which is lodged in ice in Wanchese Harbor.
DARE CLOSINGS
Dare County schools are closed today because of the weather. Dare
County courts also are closed today. Dare County offices will open
at 9:30 a.m., one hour late.
KEYWORDS: WINTER STORM by CNB