
DATE: Saturday, May 3, 1997                 TAG: 9705030453

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  137 lines

HAIL-STRUCK RESIDENTS BEGIN CLEANUP SOME CHESAPEAKE HOMEOWNERS SUFFERED THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN DAMAGES.

Thursday's hailstorm bombarded historic Fort Norfolk in a way that British, Confederate and Union combatants never did.

The hail blasted through windows in two buildings, creating the impression of a battle scene.

In Ghent, hundreds of hailstones punctured a library roof.

Hail bored through the leaves of farmers' pea plants in western Chesapeake, shredding the newly ripened pods.

And the storm left scores of winged victims strewn across the shoreline, where Virginia Beach residents searched for survivors among the many gulls and sandpipers felled by golf-ball size hail.

In neighborhoods across Hampton Roads, folks were still cleaning up Friday after the violent storm that swept through the region Thursday.

In Virginia Beach, Nanette Johnson, who lives in a townhouse a few doors from the beach, tried to save an injured seagull she found early Friday morning near the Cape Henry beach bulkhead.

It was the only survivor she located.

Johnson placed the bird gingerly in a shoe box before taking it to a wildfowl rehabilitator or the SPCA.

``I cried, because they just couldn't find shelter,'' she said. ``Plovers and sandpipers didn't make it either.''

In Virginia Beach's Bay Lake Pines subdivision, Lloyd Keefe used a mechanical blower to remove leaves and pine needles that blanketed his yard and walkway.

``It sounded like a train coming through here,'' Keefe said.

At Fort Norfolk, hail broke all five sets of windows on the front of one restored building and 13 of 14 sets of windows on the front of a building under renovation.

``Fort Norfolk finally came under hostile fire. It took a few hits, but it still stands free,'' said retired Army Corps Col. Richard F. Sliwoski, vice president of the Norfolk Historical Society, which operates the compound.

The whitewashed brick walls and most buildings date from 1810.

The fort never came under attack, except for seashells dropped by scavenging seagulls. ``Not even the damn Yankees did this much damage,'' Sliwoski said of the hail.

Some of the broken glass may date back to 1810, when the fort was originally constructed.

``In those windows, your reflection would be like that in a fun house,'' Sliwoski said, noting the uneven and bubbly surfaces of the older pieces of glass. ``It was nice to have a touch of the old artisans.''

In nearby Ghent, the storm destroyed the roof of the Van Wyck Branch Library. The city has closed the library until the public works department can install a temporary roof sometime in the next week.

The small library's roof is ``shredded'' with large and small holes torn by hailstones, branch coordinator Yvonne Hilliard-Bradley said. At least two glass windows were shattered.

The entire ceiling is brown from water stains. Several ceiling tiles bulge downward, as if supporting enormous quantities of water above.

``If we get anymore rain, this roof is just going to leak like a sieve,'' Hilliard-Bradley said.

Library employees and public works worked frantically Friday to protect the library's collection and computer equipment. The library's collection escaped damage.

In Chesapeake's Western Branch, John Henry Clarke's pea crop was not so lucky. Hail destroyed roughly one-third of his peas, some of which had only ripened this week.

``The hail stripped the leaves,'' Clarke said. ``It looks like they were just shot.''

Some Western Branch homeowners suffered thousands of dollars in damage when hail dented or ripped through their siding.

Insurance companies were inundated with damage claims. By early Friday afternoon, Nationwide Insurance had received about 140 auto claims and approximately 75 homeowner claims. And the calls keep coming. Most of the damage was concentrated in Suffolk, Newport News, Portsmouth and Ghent, said Cindy Powers, claims market manager at Nationwide in Chesapeake's Greenbrier area.

While insurance companies were busy filing claims, auto body shops and home-building contractors were busy taking work orders as the storm created a small boom.

Beach Ford Collision Repair Center plans to extend its hours for the next week to meet the demand.

``It's going to be a crazy, crazy next two weeks,'' said John White, Beach Ford manager. ``We've had probably about 50 calls'' by lunchtime Friday. ``Some people came in at 7:30 this morning.''

Business had doubled at Three Rivers Glass Co. as 40 people called about broken windshields and windows by early afternoon, assistant manager Kelly Simms said.

The storm kept public safety workers busy, as well.

Hail set off dozens of burglar alarms, keeping Chesapeake police officers scurrying from house to house, police spokesman Dave Hughes said.

In Portsmouth, windows crashed into Victorian living rooms. Shutters were ripped apart, and siding was peppered as if hit by machine-gun fire. Hanging pots seemed to explode. Plants were shredded.

``Our pond looked like a bubbling hot tub with steam coming out of it,'' Jim Huffmaster said. His garden on Maryland Avenue was devastated by Thursday's hailstorm, as were half a dozen others that were part of an unusual garden tour scheduled for May 18 in Historic Port Norfolk.

The tour has been canceled.

``There's no way people could have gotten their gardens back in shape,'' tour co-chairman Debbie Foytik of Broad Street said Friday. ``Everybody has enough problems worrying about their houses.''

The damage will take weeks or months to repair. MEMO: Staff writers Melissa Gundel, Ida Kay Jordan, Mike Knepler and

Bill Reed contributed to this story. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

WILDLIFE/CROP DAMAGE

DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH

The Virginian-Pilot

Virginia Beach

Gulls, plovers and sandpipers killed. Nanette Johnson, left, found

an injured seagull.

Chesapeake One-third of pea crop destroyed.

COMMERCIAL DAMAGE

BILL TIERNAN

The Virginian-Pilot