
DATE: Thursday, July 17, 1997               TAG: 9707170485

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  162 lines

FINALLY, RAIN! AREA'S FIRST SUBSTANTIAL PRECIPITATION IN WEEKS - 2 INCHES IN SOME PLACES - HELPS LAWNS AND GARDENS BUT LIGHTNING INJURES 3 AND SPARKS SEVERAL FIRES.

The rain finally came, but at a price.

Wednesday's heavy storms in Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina brought gutter-washing downpours - a blessing for parched lawns and gardens. But the cloudbursts were accompanied by a barrage of lightning strikes - several of which sparked fires - and gusty winds that felled trees and limbs.

Lightning injured three people, including a firefighter, and a Virginia Beach restaurant was heavily damaged when a bolt set it ablaze.

Another fire, caused by the failure of a power line, destroyed a Chesapeake business and charred a large area of brush and woods. It sent up a huge plume of black smoke to mix with gray storm clouds while thunderstorm winds hampered efforts to put it out.

For all that, Wednesday's rain - even the two inches that fell in some areas - will only quench the region's thirst briefly. Hampton Roads ``is in a moderate drought . . . This won't change that much in the long term,'' said Dewey Walston, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service forecast office in Sterling.

With the ground baked and hardened, much of Wednesday's first round of rain likely ran off into gutters, Walston said. A second round of rainfall about dusk may have done better at wetting the area's soil.

What's needed, however, is several days of light, steady rain that moistens slowly and is absorbed - that is if brown is to give way to green for a while.

No place needs that kind of rain more than the southern agricultural areas of Virginia Beach, which, for all the harrumph of Wednesday's storms, barely felt a rain drop.

``Crop moisture for your area is a worse situation,'' Walston said. ``You're severely lacking in water.'' On the plus side, that can be eased by a day or two of thunderstorm soakings, which can be absorbed by well-tilled farm land.

Wednesday's rains, including more than 1 1/2 inches at the National Weather Service office in Norfolk were the first substantial doses of moisture in weeks.

The last time water fell from the sky was on July 10; before that, July 5 - and it was just ``a trace,'' said meteorologist Fay Crosley of the Weather Service office in Wakefield.

Farmers and agriculture experts still fear the worst for this summer's vegetable crop.

But even a hint of rain brought cheers to those who work the soil.

``Yeeesss!'' shouted Kathy Culpeper when she heard rain was coming down by the buckets in Virginia Beach. ``Send it over. I've been praying all day for this rain. This is going to be wonderful. It would help the sweet corn so much, the butter beans and everything.''

Farmers in western sections of the region were frustrated, however, as they saw the day's first soaking pass them by.

``Right now, it's raining good in Norfolk,'' said Isle of Wight County farmer Cecil Byrum. ``And in parts of Suffolk. A good part of Chesapeake is getting a good, soaking rain. But we're not getting anything here. It usually moves west to east, so it's probably not even coming our way.''

It didn't. But the second wave did hit the county and wet its fields. There's a chance for more over the next few days as summer's hazy, hot and humid weather continues.

A weak trough of low pressure sparked Wednesday's storms. At midday, skies began to cloud up and by 3 p.m., thunder was rocking the region. But it was the lightning that caught most folks' attention.

``It was everywhere - in front of me, behind me and on either side of me,'' said Terry Haskins, a 27-year-old contractor who decided it was wise to get off the roof he was working on when the first bolt hit. ``It came down just a few miles from me and I came down right after it.''

Haskins said that as he drove home, down Military Highway near Indian River Road, he was amazed at the number of lightning strikes. ``I counted 13 just in the time I sat at a stoplight,'' he said.

Lightning struck the Matsuri Korea House Restaurant in the 4700 block of Shore Drive in Virginia Beach. It set the attic of the building on fire about 3:45 p.m.

Gabriel Taijeron, who was doing his laundry nearby, saw the lightning hit and the smoke that followed. He alerted the restaurant's owner and his wife, who were at work inside. They escaped safely, but the two-alarm blaze heavily damaged the building.

In Chesapeake, a power line that had overheated fell about 1:30 p.m. and sparked a brush fire near a Virginia Power facility between Military Highway and Interstate 64.

Firefighters had almost contained the blaze when storm winds whipped it up again and sent it off into a scrap yard, where old propane and other gas canisters began to explode. All the employees of the yard escaped, but firefighters had to keep their distance because of the uncertainty of what hazards there were in the burning yard.

In the midst of battling the fire, a bolt of lightning jolted a firefighter when it hit near him. He was taken to Chesapeake General Hospital but was not seriously hurt.

A 22-year-old woman was not as lucky when she was hit by lightning at the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. She was in critical condition late Wednesday. Her name was not released.

Lightning also hit near a man at Fort Story in Virginia Beach. He was checked at a hospital and reported to be OK.

The lightning strikes were a mere fraction of storm-related calls that poured into area fire departments - 62 in Virginia Beach alone.

Despite the downed line and fire near one of its facilities, Virginia Power said it was having no trouble meeting demand in the heat.

But about 15,000 Virginia Power customers were left in the dark by the storm, many in Virginia Beach. Utility crews hoped to have all service restored before dawn today.

Rainfall estimated by radar showed widespread patches of up to three-quarters of an inch in several areas, with localized rainfall amounts of about two inches from a few thunderstorms.

Several streets in downtown Norfolk flooded for a brief time and area police reported several accidents as traffic slowed to a crawl.

This was the first thunderstorm to hit since a new state law requiring motorists to burn their headlights when they use their windshield wipers for rain. Police said few people were complying.

``It's ridiculous to not have them on in the rain,'' said Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill. ``Common sense would tell you to do it. You shouldn't need a law.''

Pea-sized hail accompanied the rain in several areas, but no hail damage was reported.

Some folks desirous of more rain may be hoping for a tropical storm system - something nice and wet with minimal winds - to give the region a soaking. Thus far, however, that hasn't happened.

Claudette, the last of three tropical storm systems to form off the Southeast coast so far this year, moved east into the Atlantic and was dissipating Wednesday night.

And while the National Hurricane Center was tracking a new tropical depression Saturday, it was far away - in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly a threat to southern Louisiana. If it becomes a tropical storm, it would be named Danny. MEMO: Staff writers Nia Ngina Meeks and Linda McNatt contributed to this

story. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot

Orlando Hamlin, 10, and his cousin, Marvina Hamlin, also 10, frolic

near Llewellyn Avenue and 30th Street in Norfolk, one of several

low-lying spots that flooded after Wednesday's rain.

Photos

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Lightning cracks over Route 44 during Wednesday afternoon's storm.

Lightning injured three people, including a firefighter, and a

Virginia Beach restaurant was heavily damaged when a bolt set it

ablaze.

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot