THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 31, 1994 TAG: 9408310436
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS ISLAND LENGTH: Long : 194 lines
A year later, Margie Easley is still sweeping seaweed from behind her sofa.
Danny Couch keeps finding waterlogged electrical sockets rusting on his service station's back shelves.
And Barbara Gray still shares a bedroom at her 81-year-old mother's house. The Hatteras Village waitress keeps her underwear in cardboard fish-packing boxes. She has no furniture, few possessions - and nowhere else to go.
``My life, this past year, has been confusion,'' said Barbara ``Bobbie'' Gray, 61, who was born on this Outer Banks island. ``I lost my home. They took my trailer and all my stuff off in a dump truck.
``I'm bunked in with my 31-year-old daughter at Mom's. We're all just going around in circles,'' Gray said sadly. ``Sometimes there's just nothing you can do but stand there and cry. It's been a frustrating year for everybody down here.''
One year ago today, at 5:56 p.m., Hurricane Emily ripped through the southern half of Hatteras Island. Its eye came within 13 miles of Cape Hatteras. Its west wall sat over the 20-mile-long stretch of sand for an hour and a half.
President Clinton declared the Category 3 blow a national disaster. State relief workers estimated its 10-foot tides and 100-mphwinds caused more than $12.6 million in damages.
Federal aid has enabled many residents to improve their homes and businesses so that materially, they are better off than they were before the storm hit.
Natives whose ancestors have ridden out other big storms said their villages have never been hit harder.
``It wasn't Hugo. It wasn't Andrew. But for our little island, Emily was just as bad,'' said Couch, 32, whose mangled gas station near the Cape Hatteras lighthouse was shown on every television network's evening news.
``My dad lost his house, his business and both his cars. They should've bulldozed this whole place and started over. Instead, we've spent 12 months trying to recover.
``The island is just about back to normal now,'' Couch said Monday. ``But I don't know anybody who's recovered 100 percent.''
The day after the hurricane, federal disaster workers reported that 25 percent of the permanent residents of Avon, Buxton, Frisco and Hatteras Village were homeless. Chest-deep waves had torn through their living rooms. Gale-force winds had sheared off their ceilings.
Hundreds of others lost electricity and water for three days. Almost one-third of the towering pine trees in Buxton Woods snapped like toothpicks. Telephone poles tilted and tumbled into each other.
Today, forestry workers have cleared most fallen timber from the woods. Phone lines are upright. Roofs have been repaired with brighter shingles. Porches have been rebuilt with greener lumber. Even metal service station awnings, which were shorn back like sardine can lids, have been removed and replaced.
But at least a dozen families remain without permanent walls.
Some have secured low-interest loans and are trying to rebuild. Others are renting places half the size of their former residences. But most - like Gray - are rooming with relatives, hoping to move back into homes of their own some day.
``Water went up to the windowsills. The floors warped like speed bumps. The county condemned that mobile home I'd lived in for seven years,'' Gray said. ``People don't know how bad we got it down here. The money the government gave us wasn't enough to do anything with. Now I've got to take out a loan of my own from some bank and start over.
``At my age, that's kind of scary.''
Bulldozers have crushed at least 150 wind-sheared trailers since the storm, according to figures supplied by Dare County's Hatteras Island zoning office. Wreckers have towed away more than 1,700 flooded cars. At least 93 people have begun building new houses. More than 152 villagers have jacked up their water-logged homes on pilings. And at least 600 Hatteras Islanders have scraped up soaked carpets, ripped out warped wall boards and replaced buckled floors since the flooding, according to the zoning office.
In some ways, many people are better off than they were before the storm. State officials approved $3.6 million in low-interest loans for 91 businesses, $3.1 million in low-interest loans for 162 homes, and $1.8 million more in economic injury loans.
``The hurricane was the spur that shoved us all into making this place grow and modernize,'' said Couch, whose family spent $60,000 of personal savings and thousands of dollars of government grants and loans rebuilding their gas station, tackle shop and food mart, which sustained a total loss of a half-million dollars.
``We needed more room. Business is growing every year. The storm cost us a lot, and we all lost a lot,'' Couch said. ``But ultimately, it really helped us expand.''
Of course, residents have to repay the loans. But without Emily's impetus, most would not have been able to build a home, raise the one they have or expand their businesses.
``I'd say about 80 percent of the folks are better off now. For 20 percent it's worse. But there are still many people who are hurting physically and psychologically from that hurricane,'' said Methodist minister Jim Huskins, who has not yet been able to reinhabit his storm-torn Hatteras Village parsonage.
``We've gotten a lot of help from all over, though,'' he said. ``More than 1,000 people from out-of-town churches came to clean, repair and rebuild. Then there was the Coast Guard, National Guard, Department of Transportation, state corrections department workers, county employees . . .''
Although work crews were allowed to return to Hatteras Island almost immediately after Emily, police barred nonresidents from the southern villages for four days. Some vacationers had evacuated, leaving their belongings in rental cottages. Some out-of-towners who own Outer Banks homes wanted to see how bad the damage really was.
Besieged by complaints from those forced to wait, elected officials decided that during the next hurricane, residents and nonresident property owners will be allowed to re-enter the storm-beaten areas together.
Some year-round residents are furious with the plan. They need time to get their lives back in order before out-of-town owners - whose houses back home are habitable - start gawking at their misery, they said. Some natives, however, do support the new policy.
``We really need that out-of-town income if we're going to rebuild,'' said Couch, who was born in Buxton. ``We can't get back on our feet if we can't make any money. This summer was great. And that business really helped everybody recover from the hurricane.
``I think you'll see even more of that going on this fall.''
That prediction was echoed by Margie Easley, a mother of twins who is still repairing her flooded home in Hatteras Village. As coordinator of the Inter-Faith relief office, which served more than 500 families after the storm, she said there still are dozens of people who need new appliances. Lots of folks are just beginning to be able to afford to hire contractors.
And she said hundreds of Hatteras Islanders will probably take the next hurricane warning more seriously.
``Emily was a real wake-up call for a lot of people,'' agreed Frisco resident Janet O'Brien, who lost a van, a car, two motorcycles and thousands of dollars of inventory from her family's Scotch Bonnet Marina. ``I think that storm showed us the potential force of hurricanes.
``I know I'll never be able to forget that day I watched the water come up over my waist. August 31, 1993, is burned in my brain forever.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by DREW WILSON/
THEN: In the aftermath of Hurricane Emily, Janet O'Brien surveyed
the tackle shop of the Scotch Bonnet Marina in Frisco, N.C., one
year ago. O'Brien lost a van, a car and two motorcycles.
Now: O'Brien stands in the same tackle shop one year later.
``Emily was a real wake-up call for a lot of people,'' she said
recently. ``I think that storm showed us the potential force of
hurricanes.
Staff photo by PAUL AIKEN/
Residents cleaned up at the Tower Circle Motel in Buxton, N.C.,
after Emily hit one year ago. The storm caused more than $12.6
million in damages.
File Photo
1993: Damage at Scott Boatyard in Buxton.
Color staff photo by Drew Wilson.
1994: Relief-agency coordinator Margie Easley tends to her newborn
twins at her home, which is still being repaired.
The Toll
Hurricane Emily swept across the southern end of Hatteras Island
one year ago today.
President Clinton declared the Category 3 storm a national
disaster.
Federal relief workers said the storm left more than $12.6
million of damages in its watery wake.
Since Labor Day 1993, residents of Avon, Buxton, Frisco and
Hatteras villages have been working to restore their barrier island.
Federal grants, Small Business Administration low-interest loans and
other state funds have helped. Many residents emptied their savings
accounts to start over. Others have taken out conventional loans and
are now struggling with payments. At least a dozen families remain
bunked in with relatives.
So far:
$1.1 million in federal grants has been awarded for temporary
housing
$669,662 in individual family grants has been awarded for
housing
$3.1 million has been approved for 162 SBA home loans
$3.6 million has been approved for 91 SBA business loans
$1.8 million has been approved for 46 SBA economic injury loans
At least 1,700 flooded cars have been towed away
More than 150 wind-sheared trailers have been flattened and
removed
At least 152 people have jacked up their waterlogged homes
More than 93 people have begun building new homes
At least 600 people have scraped up water-soaked carpets and
ripped out warped floors and walls
Source: Dare County's Hatteras Island zoning office and N.C.
Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE EMILY by CNB