THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110399
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY AND PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: 132 lines
Nathan Carter had to cut his annual Outer Banks vacation short last August because Hurricane Felix was dancing dangerously near the coast.
So this summer, the 18-year-old West Virginia resident and his friends planned their trip well before the usual storm season.
``We thought we'd come a month earlier to avoid any evacuation,'' Carter said Wednesday. ``Unfortunately, so did the hurricane.
``We were gonna stay 'til Saturday,'' Carter said while waiting in line at the Nags Head Shell station to gas up his red Camaro for the six-hour ride home. ``Now, I guess we got to go back early - again.''
At 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, officials ordered a mandatory evacuation of Ocracoke and Hatteras islands because Hurricane Bertha was poised to swirl up the Gulf Stream and aim its wide whirlwinds at the Outer Banks.
Dare County experts estimated that as many as 15,000 vacationers fled from the two islands south of Oregon Inlet. An estimated 150,000 people were on the northern barrier islands between Corolla and Roanoke Island. Thousands of those tourists left town, too.
At 6:30 a.m. today, a Dare County Emergency Control group will decide whether to evacuate the rest of the Outer Banks - from Nags Head to Duck.
Some merchants complained that Wednesday's evacuation was premature, given the storm's still far-off location. But emergency management workers defended their decision.
``You can replace buildings. You can reschedule vacations,'' Dare County spokesman Ray Sturza said. ``But you can't replace a person once they're gone.
``We can evacuate the northern beaches in 12 to 18 hours,'' said Sturza. ``We don't want to make people leave unnecessarily. But if we get within a 24-hour time period before landfall, then we're going to have to make a decision for people to leave.''
Bertha showed up on weather radar screens three weeks earlier than any other tropical storm in recent memory has threatened the mid-Atlantic seaboard.
By 6 p.m. Wednesday, traffic - which had been backed up for miles leaving the Outer Banks earlier in the afternoon - had died to a slow stream of visitors who were just getting around to leaving and locals who had not yet determined what to do.
``If we leave, we'll wait until all the tourists go first to avoid the traffic,'' said Nags Head resident Bob Sanders.
``We'll get up early and see what's happening. But we probably won't decide until Thursday night,'' said Sanders, whose plan - if he leaves - is to take his wife, two preschool children and three dogs to Virginia Beach or Kinston. ``We haven't packed a thing yet.
``We're just waiting and watching right now. But I'll probably gas up my truck before midnight in case we gotta go.''
Tami Whitehair, who was staying in Buxton, had to leave Wednesday morning. Halfway through her family's vacation, fire engines rolled past their rental cottage, and emergency officials announced that the Pennsylvania group's trip had come to an end. ``We just wanted to sit on the beach and relax,'' she said, leaning out the window of her sedan.
``It better hit. . . Not that I wish bad for the island,'' Whitehair said. ``But I hate to leave for nothing.''
At the Cape Hatteras Camping Resort in Waves, Michelle Varner said she didn't have to ask many guests to leave. ``Most people were packing up and getting ready to leave early this morning. People were ready. They were very receptive.''
Each motel and cottage rental company has its own policy about whether to refund deposits and pre-payments to people who are asked to evacuate.
Most vacationers appeared to be heading inland to the mainland, away from the ocean. Others, however, just went north up the barrier islands - and stayed. Dozens of visitors who were forced to leave Hatteras brought their bags - and business - to beaches in Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk.
Surfers stayed to wait for waves, too, anxious for the storm to stir up swells offshore. And dozens of camera crews and weather-watching reporters poured into area hotels, replacing the tourists who had just checked out and evacuated.
At the Kill Devil Hills Ramada Inn, for example, 42 people checked out ``unexpectedly,'' Assistant Manager Rex Etheridge said. ``But 33 people checked in today. We almost filled up what we lost.
``And a lot of those people were ones who came up from Ocracoke and Hatteras and wanted at least one more night on the Outer Banks.''
Whether they decided to flee or stay - or, like Bertha, were still waffling about where to go - everyone seemed anxious to stock up on something Wednesday. Souvenir shops overflowed with last-minute T-shirt purchasers. Lines of vans, trucks and kid-packed cars wrapped around service station pumps.
And grocery stores were jammed. By 5 p.m., beer shelves were getting bare. If officials declare a state of emergency for areas north of Oregon Inlet, alcohol won't be sold until the storm passes.
``Water, batteries and candles. That's what they're buying - by the basketful,'' said Nags Head Food Lion cashier Doris Bryant, busily ringing up $100-plus receipts. ``We were swamped all day.
``People've been buying water, especially, by the case. We had a horrible morning, busy-wise. Lines've been backed up all over the store.''
Renee Costabile said her Nags Head Shell station also was filled. ``It's a shame, isn't it? I hate to see all them leave.'' Costabile and her husband, however, planned to stay.
``It'll take us the next three days,'' she said, ``to count all this money we've made today.''
If officials order a mandatory evacuation of all the Outer Banks, cash flow could be cut off until Bertha backs off.
Emergency officials will keep everyone out of Dare County until danger of the storm passes and clean-up procedures have begun - including putting power lines and water supplies back in place. Year-round residents and out-of-state owners of improved property will have first priority for re-entry to the islands. But everyone else - including those who have already rented cottages or booked rooms - will have to wait until a general re-entry is authorized.
Across the Outer Banks Wednesday night, everyone - it seemed - was singing the same refrain from the Grateful Dead tune: ``Bertha, don't you come around here.'' MEMO: Staff writers Lorraine Eaton and Jennifer McMenamin contributed to
this story.
SHELTERS
These shelters are open as of 3 p.m. Wednesday:
Wilson, N.C.: Toisnot Middle School
Roanoke Rapids, N.C.: Roanoke Rapids High School
Rocky Mount: Benvenue Elementary
EVACUATION ROUTES
U.S. 158
U.S. 168
U.S. 64 ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo
Traffic streams out of Nags Head on Wednesday after officials
ordered the evacuation of Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.
Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
The Glennon family cut their weeklong Outer Banks vacation short
Wednesday, packing up to head home to Ridgefield, Conn.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE BERTHA EVACUATION by CNB