THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140037
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 174 lines
Hurricane Bertha bid a blustery farewell to Hampton Roads and North Carolina early Saturday, leaving behind sunshine and a lot of yard work for residents, but surprisingly little extensive damage.
The biggest headache was power outages, which at peak left more than a quarter million utility customers in the dark in Virginia and North Carolina.
For the most part, however, Bertha's biggest victim in the two states was foliage and tourism.
On the Carolina Outer Banks, heavy-equipment operators worked to clear roads of debris and put the sand dunes back in place while business people and officials rushed to spread the word to tourists who had fled inland: C'mon back!
Only two minor injuries were reported Saturday. A videographer for Norfolk-based WTKR-TV, Channel 3, was slightly hurt when he fell off an Outer Banks dock while covering the storm. And a pedestrian was hurt when he stepped in front of a truck during the hurricane.
At the storm's peak, about 3:40 a.m. Saturday, 115,000 Virginia Power customers - including 77,391 in Hampton Roads and 17,100 in northeastern North Carolina - were without electricity, spokesman Bill Byrd said Saturday.
By Saturday evening, power had been restored to all but about 9,000 customers in southeastern Virginia and all but about 4,700 in northeastern North Carolina.
Virginia Power called in crews from around the state to assist in repairs with a goal of restoring all service by tonight. Carolina Power & Light brought in repair crews from utilities in states as far away as Georgia and Florida.
``We've made substantial progress everywhere, and we're really down to the hard cases now,'' Virginia Power's Byrd said late Saturday afternoon.
At peak, power outages included 23,837 customers in Chesapeake; 23,297 in Virginia Beach; 3,158 in Norfolk; 7,126 in Suffolk, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight County and Smithfield; 13,539 on the Peninsula; and 6,434 in Williamsburg, Virginia Power reported late Saturday night.
Residents of much of Sandbridge in Virginia Beach were among those left without power after the storm toppled an 80-foot tree on Sandbridge Road - the only route into the area. Crews worked through the night to clear the tree, and the road was opened at 8 a.m.
Getting around was difficult at times even on roads that were not blocked by felled trees. Heavy rainfall left streets flooded in several areas, and slick roads contributed to numerous accidents.
The heaviest rainfall appeared to have come on the Eastern Shore, where the National Weather Service reported between 4 and 6 inches in 24 hours.
Everything was drying out by afternoon as skies quickly cleared. Still, Virginia Beach maintained restrictions on swimming owing to strong undertow and rip tides.
Shelters shut down as people headed back to their homes Saturday. About 500 people sought safety in schools around Hampton Roads.
And the Navy began returning its East Coast ships to their piers Saturday evening. The first homecomings were low-key affairs Saturday evening. About 75 people turned out at pierside in Norfolk as the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge tied up about 6:30 p.m. Most of the ships that sought safety at sea will return today. (For ships' returning schedules, see Page A11.)
One measure of Bertha's severity - or lack of it - was in the number of insurance claims being filed by people whose property was damaged during the storm.
``It looks like Bertha may have been nice to us,'' said Bill Ballinger, regional underwriting manager for Allstate Insurance. ``Most of what we're seeing is trees that hurt awnings or gutters.''
Richard Erickson, a spokesman for insurer USAA, said his company sent a team of adjustors to the company's regional headquarters in Norfolk to handle claims.
But they weren't too busy. By 11 a.m. Saturday, the company had received only 700 claims for storm damage from the Carolinas, Virginia and Washington.
``We dodged the bullet this time,'' Erickson said.
The storm quickly diminished after slamming ashore near Wilmington, N.C., dropping to tropical-storm strength when it reached Virginia before dawn Saturday. Winds still gusted to hurricane force at times - a gust hit 110 mph at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel - and there were some drenching downpours.
The eye of the storm - or what was left of it - passed ``just overhead or just a hair west of Elizabeth City'' about 10 p.m., said Neil Stuart, a meteorologist at the Weather Service office in Wakefield.
``It tracked, basically, right over Hampton Roads and into the southern Chesapeake Bay,'' Stuart said. But by the time the storm's center crossed the state line into Suffolk, about 4 a.m., it had dropped to sustained winds of 60 mph.
Bertha also spawned several reported tornadoes before emerging over the Chesapeake Bay on Saturday morning.
In Smithfield, there were no injuries, but about 20 homes in the Isle of Wight County town were damaged when a twister hit about 10:35 p.m. It cut a half-mile path 100 yards wide, felling numerous 60-foot trees, destroying some sheds and damaging several vehicles. No one was reported hurt.
In Gloucester County, near Woods Crossroads, a tornado was reported at 11:25 p.m. Friday.
Another tornado was reported near Langley Air Force Base in Hampton about 11 p.m. At least a dozen homes in the Langley Village Mobile Homes park were damaged.
And in the community of Edwardsville in Northumberland County, where Chesapeake Bay meets the Potomac River, nine people were hurt as a tornado destroyed seven homes about 1:15 a.m., said Sheriff Wayne Middleton. The tornado ripped open one mobile home, flinging Chanta Adams and her two small sons into the woods about 50 feet away.
``I was praying to God, `Please, just let us drop down, get us back on the ground,' '' said Adams, 22, who said she clung to her mattress along with her 1-year-old son during the frightful flight. The twister tore her 2-year-old son away from her and threw him him in another direction. He was treated at a hospital for a broken collar bone, cuts and bruises.
In the meantime, Bertha raced northeast past New York City on Saturday afternoon. By evening, it had overspread New England, bringing widespread urban flooding from heavy rains and still packing some gusty winds of up to 71 mph.
``We had over 23 counties under flood warnings at one time in New York, Long Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts,'' said DeClann Cannon, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta.
``It was fairly typical'' of the types of hurricanes that threaten Hampton Roads, the Weather Service's Stuart said. With one exception: It was a month early.
``I've tracked over 300 hurricanes in 35 years,'' said Neil Frank, former director of the National Hurricane Center. ``Never have I tracked a hurricane that developed in July in the Lesser Antilles, through the islands of the Eastern Caribbean and into the Carolinas.''
Frank, now a meteorologist in Houston, said he was amazed. ``This has never happened before.''
And while Bertha is now history, emergency planners said coastal residents should not rest easy. The busiest part of the hurricane season, according to the historical record, is more than a month away.
``It used to be we only saw a hurricane every few years,'' said Mark Marchbank, deputy coordinator of emergency management in Virginia Beach. ``Now it seems like, every year, we're getting threatened.'' MEMO: Staff writers Karen Weintraub and Marc Davis contributed to this
story, as did The Associated Press. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
CANDICE C. CUSIC/The Virginian-Pilot
HAMPTON ROADS: Ronnie Loyd wasn't too put out by a tree that
knocked a hole in the Chesapeake house he shares with Dianne Hodges.
Loyd called his employees at Loyd's Tree Service to remove the tree
Saturday morning.
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
OUTER BANKS: As daughter Lori heads inside in Salvo, Ronna Frank
waves to neighbors. The Franks, who evacuated Thursday to Nags Head,
returned Saturday to find their home untouched.
Map
VP
BERTHA'S PATH & WIND SPEED
Photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Elizabeth Hooker, 22, of Virginia Beach watches the surf at
Sandbridge on an otherwise bright Saturday morning. Hampton Roads
calmed quickly after Bertha, leaving tattered trees and big waves as
the most common signs of its passage. In Sandbridge, power was
knocked out when a tree fell across the only road into the area, but
most of the damage was minor.
Graphics
STEVE STONE/The Virginian-Pilot
BERTHA'S TRACK THROUGH THE EAST
BERTHA'S TOP GUSTS
SOURCE: National Hurricane Center, National Weather Service and The
Weather Channel
[For complete graphics, please see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE BERTHA AFTERMATH by CNB