THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607140044
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 51 lines
Brag to relatives out of town and thump your chest at having bested Bertha, but don't believe you have survived a major hurricane.
In storm terms, Bertha was a baby.
``This was nothing compared to a serious hurricane,'' Neil Stuart, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Wakefield, said Saturday. ``I don't want them to think it was.''
Local emergency planners - who have long worried that too many coastal residents lack respect for hurricanes - are now concerned that having experienced Bertha, folks may become more complacent.
``I think people still underestimate the threat,'' said Jim Talbot, Norfolk's deputy director of emergency services and one of the region's leading disaster planning experts. ``I'm afraid now they will say, `I've been through a hurricane and I know what to expect.' ''
If they say that, they don't really know the threat, said Mark Marchbank, Talbot's counterpart in Virginia Beach.
``We just had some tropical storm force winds go over the top of us. It was not like a hurricane,'' Marchbank said. ``It was another good learning experience, and we'll continue to build on it.''
Marchbank said coastal residents and people who live in low-lying areas need to remember that there are different types of hurricanes - and Bertha was one of the weakest.
``That's one problem,'' said Matt Crowther, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel in Atlanta. ``A hurricane is a hurricane whether it's a category 1 or 5. But when they hear there is a hurricane warning, they need to know whether it's a 1 or a 3 or a 5 and understand the difference.''
Crowther noted that Hurricane Andrew, which ripped apart South Florida in 1992, wasn't even a category 5 storm. ``It was close, but it was still just a high 4 when it came ashore,'' leveling Homestead and Florida City.
Hurricane Bertha was a category 2 storm when it came ashore near Wilmington, N.C., on Friday afternoon and was quickly reduced to category 1. It was downgraded to a tropical storm as it passed over Hampton Roads early Saturday morning.
``If Bertha had been a category 3 or 4, this would have been a news story for months,'' because that's how long it would have taken to pick up the pieces, Crowther said.
It also made a big difference that the eye of the storm went as far inland as it did. Had Bertha tracked directly northeast along the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds and along the Virginia coast, the impact would likely have been far greater for both the Outer Banks and Hampton Roads.
``Norfolk was lucky it went inland,'' Crowther said. ``It could have been a lot worse.''
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE BERTHA AFTERMATH by CNB