THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609060748
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 131 lines
Fran's fury was unleashed on the southeastern North Carolina coast late Thursday as the hurricane took a northerly turn that could bring it west of the Outer Banks and Hampton Roads today.
``We're thinking it's going to go up through eastern Virginia,'' Jerry Jarrell, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said at 10 p.m. Thursday. But the storm should have surrendered its hurricane status by then and have sustained winds under 70 mph. ``The big worry becomes the torrential rains.''
More than 14 inches of rain fell as the storm came ashore with winds of more than 100 mph and gusts to 120 mph. Battering waves ripped small boats from their moorings and threw them ashore.
``It is pounding and pounding and pounding,'' said Mary Wasson, riding out the storm with her daughter in Wilmington, where their house narrowly missed being hit by a sycamore tree.
``The top 35 feet snapped off and did a somersault in the air over part of our house. It did a 180 in the air. It is just windy as the dickens.''
Fran threatens to dwarf the bashing delivered by Bertha to the same area in mid-July.
The storm has claimed at least one life. A woman was killed near Conway, N.C., when she lost control of the car she was driving when it hit high water and spun into a tree.
In Carolina Beach, southeast of Wilmington, a frantic group of people who stayed in The Breakers condominium called 911 saying the building was collapsing in the storm surge. It turned out that floating cars were slamming into the building, said David Paynter, a spokesman for New Hanover County.
But they were stuck; it wasn't safe for rescue officials to try to reach them, Paynter said.
Early reports indicated extensive coastal damage.
Topsail Beach Mayor Kip Oppegaard, who stayed on the beach, said the southern end of the island was under water and described damage as the worst he had ever seen. The mobile home housing the town hall and police station since Bertha damaged the original structures was itself heavily damaged.
He said it will likely be several days before people will be allowed back into the town.
The leading edge of the 25-mile-wide eye of the huge storm came ashore at Cape Fear near Wilmington about 8:45 p.m. But the hurricane's fury was felt hours earlier as winds increased steadily through the afternoon and monsoon-like rains spread over the region.
There were reports of streets flooded, trees downed, roofs ripped from buildings, signs blown away, windows shattered and widespread power outages. Winds gusted to 124 mph at Frying Pan Shoals about 50 miles southeast of Wilmington.
Fifteen foot waves were thrashing the shoreline from Myrtle Beach, S.C., through Wrightsville Beach, N.C., and there were reports of extensive beach erosion.
Wilmington last suffered a major hit from a hurricane when Hazel hit in 1954.
In the midst of all of Fran's ferocity, however, there was the calm of the eye, which moved over the Brunswick County community of Bolivia about 18 miles from the coast just before 9 p.m.
``It's hot and sticky and calm - definitely the core of this hurricane,'' said Jill Brown of the Weather Channel who was at an emergency center there.
``Earlier, you could hear that roar'' as the hurricane moved through, she said. Then, ``all of a sudden, it was so quiet.''
The calm lasted about 40 minutes and then the winds returned.
At 9 p.m., National Weather Service radar showed the eye moving north across New Hanover County with the eye wall extending from western Brunswick County north into Pender County.
The eye moved north at 15 mph and was expected to move into Pender, Duplin and Onslow counties before midnight.
It reached Wilmington at 10:15 p.m.
Officials in Brunswick and New Hanover counties were receiving reports of numerous damaged homes and buildings, and they'll begin to fully assess the storm's impact today.
There were no immediate reports about the extent of damage on the barrier islands, which were largely evacuated.
The storm hit at low tide, which was considered fortunate. But even with that, several feet of water was reported on coastal roads.
Extensive flooding was being reported in the Wrightsville Beach area, where most of the power was out Thursday night. It could be days before all service is restored.
The entire state was placed under a state of emergency by North Carolina Gov. James B. Hunt Jr., and 106 shelters were opened to help the tens of thousands of visitors and residents who fled the coast. As of 8 p.m., at least 9,000 people were in public shelters in North Carolina.
Mandatory evacuations had been ordered in Brunswick, Hyde, New Hanover and Pender counties. But not everyone heeded the calls to leave and, as Fran neared, officials made one last desperate attempt to get die-hards off Ocracoke Island.
They sent a ferry boat to the island with emergency personnel aboard to try and persuade everyone who had stayed behind to come to the mainland.
At 10 p.m., the center of Hurricane Fran was just west of Wilmington, moving due north at 16 mph. Maximum sustained winds were decreasing slightly, to 105 mph.
The hope was that the storm - like Bertha - would quickly blow apart and weaken overnight as it moved ashore. But the National Hurricane Center said the storm would likely throw hurricane-force winds in excess of 74 mph up to 100 miles inland.
In Virginia, where Gov. George F. Allen also declared a state of emergency, weather conditions were deteriorating late Thursday.
Wind gusts to 45 mph were reported in Norfolk, at Cape Henry and at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
At 8 p.m., 10- to 12-foot seas were reported at the False Cape buoy 50 miles east of Virginia Beach.
Utility companies in Virginia and North Carolina placed thousands of workers on alert to handle power outages. As a precaution, Carolina Power & Light Co. pulled the plug on its Brunswick nuclear power plant.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency had crews and emergency supplies ready to move into the states as the need for aid arises.
Fran was also making travel difficult in the Southeast. Amtrak train service along parts of the coast was curtailed; all flights to Charleston International Airport were canceled Thursday night; and most airlines canceled flights into and out of Raleigh-Durham Airport. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Graphics
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KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FRAN HURRICANES by CNB