THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 11, 1996 TAG: 9607110397
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER MCMENAMIN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 104 lines
While thousands of motorists streamed off the Oregon Inlet bridge in the season's first mandatory hurricane evacuation, Harry Baum spent Wednesday morning on the Atlantic Ocean in his 53-foot sport fishing boat.
``There ain't no storm nowhere. Look at it,'' said the 65-year-old Wanchese native, waving a tanned arm across the afternoon's blue skies and calm waters off the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. ``It's beautiful out there.''
Baum is among a number of longtime fishermen, year-round residents and die-hard visitors who scoffed at Wednesday's Hurricane Bertha watch and the evacuation orders issued for Ocracoke and Hatteras islands.
``I've never left. It's overrated. I've been on the ocean in a lot smaller boat than this in up to 65 mph winds,'' Baum said, nodding to his boat, ``Jo-Boy.''
``That was real bad. And that weren't in no storm. It was just a little bad weather that brewed here.''
Baum and the Jo-Boy were doing maintenance work - unrelated to Hurricane Bertha's stirring off the Florida coast - on some government towers.
In the afternoon, Baum was planning to move his boat into safer waters, while cars from a multitude of states made their way across Oregon Inlet, headed north on Route N.C. 12 - the only road off Hatteras Island.
Four-wheel-drive vehicles pulled mobile homes and trailers.
Children pressed their noses against car windows, straining to see the few cars headed south toward the island.
And those leaving stacked everything - from kayaks and canoes, bikes and beach chairs, luggage and surfboards - on top of their vehicles.
Dare County officials estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people had abandoned the Outer Banks by 6 p.m. Wednesday.
But Duke Spencer, who can trace his family roots to the north end of Roanoke Island four generations back, was not among them.
``I've been through many hurricanes over the years,'' the 49-year-old said. ``I look at all of them with concern and respect. But we have yet to leave during a storm.''
``We have been packed before,'' his wife, Cathy, chimed in, affectionately chiding her husband, ``but some of us did not want to leave.''
Cathy Spencer said the only ``storm damage'' her family ever has incurred was flooding when she let the bathtub run over. She had been filling it with drinking water to prepare for a storm.
The Spencers and their two children were at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center on Wednesday afternoon to relocate their commercial fishing boat - the life blood of their livelihood.
As they prepared to sit out yet another hurricane, the Spencers stocked up on food, fueled their car, started thinking about movies they want to rent, and boarded up a few windows.
``The greatest benefit of being through so many storms is that during one storm, we'll think of something we wish we had,'' said 22-year-old Sam Spencer. ``The next year, it's there.''
Some vacationers compromised between ignoring the evacuation orders and packing up to head home.
Stopping at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center to make a phone call, Terry Welchans - a 54-year-old vacationing with his family on Hatteras Island - explained his master plan. ``We have friends who have a house up in Duck,'' the Pennsylvania man said. ``We're going to see if we can stay with them tonight and then come back down.''
With three days left of his vacation, Welchans - wearing a ``Life's short. Fish hard'' T-shirt - was hoping to continue catching the bluefish and flounder he and his son Erik had reeled in earlier in the week.
Two familes visiting from Michigan decided to delay their departure.
``We're just hangin' and hoping,'' Pat Deacon said as he and his friend left Marilyn and Joseph ``Mac'' Midgett's Island Convenience Store. ``We're going to do an anti-hurricane dance on the beach tonight.''
Deacon also said he planned to head down to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse to ``take pictures of it before it falls in the ocean.''
The Lighthouse Preservation Society had reported on America Online that the famed candy-striped lighthouse could not withstand many more hurricanes, Deacon said.
``Today they're urging us to leave. Tomorrow they'll be dragging us away from the house.''
And while reservations for hotels on the northern beaches were canceled by evacuees and people scheduled to arrive this weekend, those fleeing Hatteras Island were filling some of those empty rooms.
``Phones have been very busy with questions,'' said Sue Hogan, the general manager of the Nags Head Inn on the Beach Road.
She and desk employees had been reading ``North Carolina Hurricane History'' to better prepare themselves for guests' inquiries.
Josie Wilson, whose Hatteras Island vacation came to an end Wednesday morning with Dare County's evacuation order, planned to spend the night at the inn.
Describing this trip as a ``much-needed vacation,'' Wilson explained her hesitation to pack up and return to Pennsylvania.
``My husband and I both work 60 hours-plus every week. In the last six weeks we've had a daughter in the hospital, my mother had open-heart surgery, my mother-in-law was in the hospital with a broken hip, and then three days before we were supposed to leave on vacation, my 18-year-old son was in an automobile accident and fractured his jaw.
``We really needed this vacation,'' she said. ``Never have we needed a vacation more, and now we have this black cloud over top our heads. On top of all that, Bertha decides to show up.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
DREW C. WILSON/The Virginian-Pilot
Henry Riddick of Washington, N.C., and Dr. W.M. Spence of Elizabeth
City board up their family cottage in Kitty Hawk on Wednesday.
Mandatory evacuations for Ocracoke and Hatteras Islands forced
visitors and locals on the Outer Banks to scramble for safer ground.
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE BERTHA PREPARATIONS by CNB