THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120320
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY SCOTT MOONEYHAM, ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: GOLDSBORO LENGTH: 85 lines
After Hurricane Fran dumped torrents of rain on the state Thursday and Friday, clouds were the last thing anyone wanted to see. But clouds, rain and flooding were what people got.
Hugh Pate Jr. watched the Neuse River rise ever closer to his business, Wayne Implement Co., just outside of Goldsboro. Already, the river covered dozens of plows, corn snappers and other farm equipment in a field near the business.
``I don't think it will get much higher, but who knows,'' Pate said. ``It's supposed to peak today, but there's no way with this rain.''
By noon Wednesday, officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had changed that prediction. The river is now supposed to crest at Goldsboro today, at 27 feet, 13 feet above flood stage. The record is 27.3 feet, set in 1929.
In and around Goldsboro, officials had told more than 1,000 people living in 425 homes that they would need to leave because of the rising water.
Across the eastern half of the state, the story was the same.
People were trying recover from Hurricane Fran, only to be hindered by heavy rains and threatening flood waters. As much as five inches of rain fell Tuesday night in some parts of the state, and forecasters were calling for one to three inches Wednesday.
The rains brought by Fran last week already had left many homes standing in water. The storm also downed thousands of trees across the eastern part of the state and left more than a million homes and businesses without power.
The hurricane was blamed for 34 deaths, including 21 in North Carolina.
On Wednesday evening, 141,390 homes and businesses remained without power, a state emergency management spokesman said.
But emergency officials' main concern shifted from power to flooding Wednesday.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch for the entire eastern part of the state because of the rains. From Pender County in the southeast to Halifax County in the northeast to Raleigh in the central part of the state, swollen creeks and rivers threatened homes.
A flash flood warning was in effect Wednesday evening for Raleigh and northern Wake County Wednesday night, as heavy rain from a cluster of slow-moving thunderstorms flooded city streets and streams in the area. Some roads were down to one lane.
Dozens of homes were evacuated in Nash, Edgecombe, Wilson and Pender counties. Caledonia Prison Farm in Halifax County was threatened by the rising Roanoke River.
Major rivers that left their banks included the Neuse, Roanoke, Northeast Cape Fear and the Tar River. In Rocky Mount, which sits on the Tar River, downtown city streets were flooded, according to the weather service.
Roads across the state were also closed because of the high waters. They included several stretches of North Carolina Route 53 in the southeastern part of the state, a two-mile stretch of N.C. Route 411 in Sampson County and N.C. Route 22 in Wayne and Wilson counties.
Because so many people were still without power, county emergency officials said they went door-to-door to warn people of flood waters.
Outside Goldsboro, the Neuse threatened to cover U.S. Route 117 Wednesday afternoon. Several businesses along the highway were already inundated with water. The flooding river had also unearthed coffins in the Elmwood Cemetery just off the highway. Several came floating to the surface Wednesday morning.
Nearby, Leonard Downes covered the crack of the door leading to his auto parts store with a silicone sealer. The river had already risen to within 15 feet of his business.
``I don't think the water will come in the door, but I think all the trucks coming through the parking lot will splash water,'' Downes said. ``At least, I hope it will stay out.''
Just down the street, the river had engulfed a trailer park. Water had risen at least a foot above the doors of most of the homes. Just across from Downes' business, a dozen brick homes were flooded out.
Mark Lutze, who had lived in one of the homes for 17 years, had never been forced to leave before because of the rising river.
``At 5:30 (a.m.), it was still in the ditch. I'm telling you it came up fast,'' Lutze said about noon. The water was above his steps, seeping into his living room.
Officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were trying to stop the water rising along the Neuse by Wednesday.
Corps spokeswoman Diane Hood said the flow from Falls of the Neuse Lake dam in Wake County had been reduced by one-third because of concerns about the flooding downstream. On Tuesday, the corps had opened the dam's flow because of worries that it could reach the spillway.
Lake waters were within three feet of the spillway Tuesday and had risen to within two feet just after the hurricane. If water reaches the spillway, the flow from the lake cannot be controlled, corps engineers said. by CNB