THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070189
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: 137 lines
The Duplin County Courthouse's dome came tumbling down sometime during Fran's tumultuous pass. By dawn Friday the broken shell was spirited away in a police officer's pickup truck.
It joined - as rubble - the 197-foot-tall steeple at First Baptist Church in Wilmington, which had stood straight since it was built in the Civil War. And houses along North Carolina's southeastern coast, blown over and washed away by the storm's 115 mph winds.
``It's a total disaster,'' said Kate Parker, slumped on her front stoop as giant, fallen oaks lay scattered about in her yard in the Carolina coastal community of Verona. ``I may never get over it.''
But across the street, where two other oaks had pancaked Gregg Wattier's house and left his family of five homeless, a makeshift sign amid the wreckage said, ``We're OK. Hope you all are, too.''
Fran, the worst assault from the sea on North Carolina since Hurricane Hazel in 1954, leveled homes, roads, bridges and businesses across the state and disrupted the lives of a million people left without power, phone service or water. At least 12 of the 15 deaths blamed on the storm occurred in North Carolina.
``We took the full brunt,'' said Wilmington Police Chief R. W. Simpson. ``It was by far the worst one I've ever experienced.''
The islands just east of Wilmington appeared to suffer the worst damage. From the air, it appeared Friday that about 20 percent of the buildings in these beach communities suffered major damage.
Farther north, the Outer Banks were much luckier; even Ocracoke, where an evacuation had been ordered, escaped harm.
Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Topsail Beach were completely submerged during the height of the storm, and most of their buildings were damaged.
Entire neighborhoods remained knee-deep in water Friday, and in the sound west of Topsail Beach, one home could be seen floating slowly away.
Many people had stayed in Topsail Beach for Hurricane Bertha earlier this summer, but almost everyone evacuated before Fran hit, flattening the dunes, leveling houses and leaving the main road impassable, with sand piled 5 to 6 feet high.
``Compared to this storm, Bertha was a light rainstorm,'' said Eric Peterson, the Topsail Beach town manager, who toured the area Friday and told residents it could take weeks before they would be allowed to return.
Surf City also was heavily damaged, and residents were frustrated at being held back by National Guard troops.
Marty Phelps's trailer home was on the mainland side of the bridge to Surf City.
``There's not a whole lot left,'' Phelps said. ``I found the couch and the television. We still can't find the refrigerator.''
On Holden Beach, west of Cape Fear, a ``For Sale'' sign advertised a 3-bedroom oceanfront home, but concrete blocks were all that wereleft. Randy Stanton's home, in the same neighborhood, was one of four that remained standing - 15 feet out in the surf. He wasn't giving up on it.
``If I could get out there, I'd sleep in it tonight,'' Stanton said.
At the Bridge Tender restaurant near the bridge to Wrightsville Beach, the high water had floated bottles off the bar.
``It's unreal the way this looks,'' said cook Mike Madej as he cleaned up.
Following on the heels of Hurricane Bertha, Fran was the second hurricane to strike the Cape Fear area in two months. Roland Register, who lives on an inlet off the river, said perhaps it's due to the river banks jutting into the ocean. But perhaps it's the roll of the dice.
``You folks in Tidewater have been real lucky,'' he said.
Val Bunting, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it was too early to assess the damage in North Carolina.
``We're trying to get our teams out as soon as possible,'' she said Friday from Raleigh. ``At this point, we're still looking around at the damages.''
National Guardsmen threatened to arrest anyone venturing into evacuated areas as officials tried to make contact with people who weathered the storm on fragile barrier islands. About 140 people who rode out the storm along Cape Fear on Bald Head Island were left incommunicado, and heavy surf in Fran's wake kept boaters away.
President Clinton, while speaking to the National Baptist Convention USA in Orlando, Fla., declared a major disaster in North Carolina, making the state eligible for federal emergency assistance. Victims of the storm and their families ``must be in our prayers,'' he said.
One of the North Carolinians killed in the storm was a firefighter in Durham who was struck by a falling tree while riding on a firetruck, said Tom Hegele, spokesman for the state's emergency response team. The others included a woman whose trailer was hit by a tree, a 13-year-old boy whose house was hit by a tree, another who slid off a flooded road; and two men whose truck hit a downed tree.
The damage reports came in long before the light of day Friday: A marina with 20 boats washed away in Shallotte Pointe; ocean piers that survived Hurricane Bertha earlier this summer disappeared in the surf; and in Surf City, a tornado rocked a bridge as power lines hit each other and exploded in the wind.
``It is pounding and pounding and pounding,'' said Mary Wasson as Fran passed over Wilmington, where she rode out the storm with her daughter in a house that narrowly missed being hit by a sycamore tree.
After battering the beaches, Fran cut a wide swath through North Carolina up Interstate 40, ripping roofs off buildings and snapping trees like match sticks as far north as Raleigh.
It was worse than when Bertha plowed ashore a month earlier, said Elizabeth Brinson of Kenansville, where the dome of the Duplin County Courthouse lay shattered. She thought a moment, then said, ``Actually, this is worse than anything I ever remember.''
The hurricane knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of households, leaving much of Raleigh and all of Wilmington County and Fayetteville in the dark.
With a great explosion of bricks, copper and electric wires, the 197-foot-First Baptist Church steeple in Wilmington thundered to the ground.
The First Baptist Church in Wilmington was built between 1860 and 1870. According to a book on the church's history, the steeple was used as a lookout by Union and Confederate troops, depending on who was occupying the city.
During its 130 years, the spire withstood some fierce winds that raked Wilmington. It remained standing in 1958 after a direct hit from Hurricane Helene and its 135 mph winds.
Surveying the rubble that sprawled along Market Street in an old downtown part of the city, Rev. Michael Queen said, ``God created a world that allows nature to do what it will.'' MEMO: Staff writer Paul Clancy, The Boston Globe and the Associated
Press contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by ASSOCIATED PRESS
This house at North Topsail Beach, N.C., was destroyed by Hurricane
Fran Thursday night. The storm has been called North Carolina's
worst since Hurricane Hazel swept through in 1954.
Color photo by MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
The First Baptist Church in historic downtown Wilmington, N.C., too
was a victim of Fran's winds. The church lost its 126-year-old
steeple in the storm's landfall Thursday.
Color photo by DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Dana and Candice Hebden and Lydia Harding of Washington, N.C.,
paddle along Market Street on Friday. Brad Satchel was making the
trip in a less seaworthy mode of transportation.
Color photo by DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Gerry Garner Sr. hugs his son, Gerry Garner Jr., on Friday after the
son's house burned. Rising floodwaters from Hurricane Fran sparked
the fire in Morehead City late Thursday.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FRAN STORM DAMAGE NORTH CAROLINA by CNB