DATE: Wednesday, May 21, 1997               TAG: 9705210507

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CURRITUCK                         LENGTH:   54 lines

KNOTTS ISLAND RESIDENT VOICES HURRICANE WORRIES NOTING BERTHA, HE TELLS CURRITUCK OFFICIALS THAT WEATHER UPDATES ARE SCARCE.

When Hurricane Bertha blew through last summer, Gary Montalbine of Knotts Island went looking for local information.

``There virtually was none,'' he told the Currituck County Board of Commissioners on Monday night.

Montalbine said the Knotts Island Volunteer Fire Station, which traditionally has been Communications Central, was closed. The Knotts Island school was open, but there didn't appear to be much organization or provisions. And the school had no backup generator in case of a power outage.

Hurricane updates on a cable access station's message board were not changed frequently enough to be useful, Montalbine added.

With the hurricane season officially starting June 1, Currituck County officials are updating emergency management plans for natural disasters.

Montalbine, a retiree who operates the cable access station KITV, wants to be sure Knotts Island is included.

``We need to know ahead of time what's going on, so we can react,'' Montalbine said.

The commissioners emphasized that Knotts Island is not alone.

``You sort of depicted Knotts Island as being in a void, but they're not in a void any more than a lot of people'' in isolated sections of Currituck County, said Eldon Miller Jr. of Moyock.

Currently, when the county is evacuated, Knotts Island residents head to a shelter in Virginia Beach. All other Currituck County mainland and Outer Banks residents are directed toward Rocky Mount.

Normally, Rocky Mount is a two-hour drive. But during hurricane evacuations, the trip can last six to eight hours.

Public schools in the county are not approved as American Red Cross shelters because of the potential for flooding, said Donnie Beacham, the Currituck County director of emergency management services.

But Knotts Island Elementary School has been opened for the past five years at the request of Commissioner Ernie Bowden, who represents the area.

While Knotts Island and the rest of Currituck has been spared of severe damage by hurricanes this century, Bowden said he always is reminded of an 1846 hurricane where ocean waves normally a few miles away broke off the eastern shore of the island.

Montalbine said plans are under way to staff the fire station during disasters and to install four separate phone lines for emergency calls.

Residents hope to persuade Cox Cable Communications to upgrade its message board so that new notices can be placed almost instantly, as it is with Cablevision customers on the mainland.

Montalbine said 82 percent of Knotts Island households are hooked up to cable. ``That is probably one of the most critical pieces to get information to the people,'' he said.

A comprehensive county natural disaster plan is expected to be unveiled within weeks, Beacham said.

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