DATE: Monday, October 20, 1997              TAG: 9710200063

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITERS 

                                            LENGTH:  132 lines

IT WAS A BIG WEEKEND WASHOUT SANDBRIDGE HOME PULLED APART; OTHER AREAS DISRUPTED BY THE HIGH WATER.

A Sandbridge home was pulled apart by the ocean Sunday as an early season northeaster took a swing at Hampton Roads, pushing Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic waters over land in several places.

And, after several days of intensifying winds and drizzle, the skies opened at the same time, dumping heavy rainfall over much of the area.

That only added to the problems in areas where storm drains were overwhelmed by tidal flooding, but the soaking also was welcome given the region's low rainfall this year.

Matt Mosley of Richmond arrived in Sandbridge with his wife and three children Tuesday for a 10-day stay.

``My partner owns a house here and had been telling me for months how great October is here. So we came down,'' he said. ``I've been calling him every day asking him when it will stop raining.''

Today, probably, the National Weather Service said. The northeaster that brought misery Sunday was expected to move rapidly away from the mid-Atlantic overnight.

It leaves behind a mess for many residents in addition to the long process of filing insurance claims.

Water seeped into garages and homes throughout the region at high tide, and numerous cars were swamped as motorists overestimated their ability and underestimated water depths.

The most dramatic damage came at Sandbridge, however, when the heavy surf ate away just enough sand around a home in the 2800 block of Sandfiddler Road that part of it collapsed. The contents spilled in the foamy surf along with broken wood, glass and plaster.

Earlier, the owner - apparently anticipating what lay ahead - had removed some appliances, neighbors said.

``This is the worst it's been, the most erosion we've ever had,'' said M.J. O'Connell, a Sandbridge resident who has been watching the sea's relentless incursions for several years while hoping planned beach replenishment might soften nature's onslaught.

Pounding surf overwashed the road in several places, undermining it in some, and leaving it cluttered with boards, trash, signs, branches, sand and other debris. Police closed Sandfiddler Road to traffic and all of Sandbridge was placed off-limits to all but residents and registered visitors.

Porches, decks, walkways and beach stairs were destroyed or damaged, some ripped apart entirely, others twisted and bent by heavy waves. Along the beach, a drop of two to five feet in some places marked where tides had swallowed up sand.

City officials will be surveying the damage in Sandbridge today while highway crews and public works teams begin cleaning up the roads and making repairs.

On Sunday, utility crews were busy cutting services to several homes that, while not threatened with imminent collapse, did have water pipes and other utility lines exposed by strong waves. Virginia Power teams worked through the night to restore power lost for many hours in parts of Sandbridge.

Mark C. Marchbank, deputy coordinator of emergency services for Virginia Beach, said it appeared, however, that most of the damage was ``pretty usual'' for a northeaster. But this storm came in October, with the worst of winter and its usual train of such storms yet to come.

``The so-called little northeasters that hang around for two or three days along with the full moon seem to do more damage than one big storm,'' O'Connell said.

Sandbridge residents were not alone in their misery.

Minor to moderate flooding of coastal and low-lying areas was extensive through midday Sunday, with flooding in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach and Newport News.

Several sections of Norfolk's Ocean View, Larchmont and The Hague area were inundated for a second straight day. But Sunday's flooding in low-lying areas was worse than Saturday's, reaching knee- to waist-deep in some places.

Police and street crews put up detour signs, although some people ignored them - and paid the price. Many cars were abandoned by drivers after they stalled in high water.

In Larchmont, the Lafayette River spilled into the streets just before noon. Police started closing portions of Hampton Boulevard, rerouting north-south traffic through rain-soaked side streets.

Residents along Surry Crescent witnessed rising waters that nearly swallowed a car parked along the street. Ducks and swans swam across front lawns.

Up the block, at the slightly drier Larchmont Crescent, Barbara Fulp was holding an open house. Not surprisingly, no one showed. ``What a day for an open house,'' said her husband.

Fulp has lived in the community for 14 years and said she could only remember the water getting so high once or twice.

Still, she seemed to take the flooding in stride, noting that the area drains fast and that there simply is little to stop Mother Nature when she's in full gear.

``If you live on the water - and a lot of people want to - you're going to get some flooding from time to time,'' she said. ``I mean, this is Tidewater; you're going to get some water.''

Fulp checked on a friend who lives on Surry Crescent, a 90-year-old woman who has never left her home in the face of rising waters.

``We couldn't reach her on foot, but we called her,'' Fulp said. ``She was just fine.''

The foul weather forced the cancellation of the second day of the Stockley Gardens Arts Festival, and while the Town Point Wine Festival went on, attendance was way down and the mood dampened even if the spirits weren't watered down.

In Chesapeake, police closed off sections of Bainbridge and Dominion boulevards about 2:30 p.m. after it became too hazardous to pass, said spokesman Dave Hughes.

Bainbridge was shut from Freeman Avenue to Dominion Boulevard, while Dominion was closed from Cedar Road to Great Bridge Boulevard, Hughes said.

He could not say when they might be reopened, only that motorists should plan for alternative routes.

The northeaster developed early Sunday off the South Carolina coast. Its winds pushed ocean waters up against the beaches while piling up the waters of the Chesapeake Bay along the north-facing beaches of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.

``Tides were between two and three feet above normal,'' said Bill Sammler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Wakefield. The storm's center was 175 miles east of the Virginia Capes by late afternoon, moving rapidly northeast. A coastal flood warning was lifted at 4 p.m.

Rainfall by 5 p.m. was just under an inch for the day at the weather service office at Norfolk International Airport. And since the first showers moved in on Wednesday, just over 2 1/2 inches of rain has fallen locally.

And it was served up in perfect proportions for an area parched by a long dry spell.

Sudden, heavy rains would have been of little benefit, running off the hardened dry soil before it could soak in. But this storm built slowly, with showers and drizzle slowly dampening the ground until late Saturday and Sunday, when steady, heavy rains arrived - and were swallowed up by yards and gardens.

Thus far this year, just over 28 inches of rain has fallen in Norfolk, about 9 inches below normal.

Today should be mostly sunny and warmer with a high of 65 to 70 and northwest winds of 15 to 20 mph. Tonight should be fair and cool with a low in the upper 40s.

Tuesday is expected to be mostly sunny and a little cooler, with a high of 60 to 65 and a low in the 40s or 50s. KEYWORDS: WEATHER STORM NORTHEASTER FLOODING

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