By Sue Anne Pressley and Edward Walsh
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 29, 1998; Page A03

Melvin Shepard, a high-wind veteran in Jacksonville, N.C., figures Hurricane Bonnie was "God's way of pruning the trees."

He ventured this thought as he stood in his side yard yesterday, safety goggles covering his eyes, thick work gloves on his hands, a chain saw and yellow rake at his feet. In each fist he clutched a handful of branches from the pecan tree that did not survive the storm.

"Yeah, I was lucky. Everybody was lucky," said Shepard, 52. "All Bonnie did was make me work a little bit."

If Thursday was a day to weather the storm's squalls as it inched along the coast -- and to rejoice at the relatively minor damage -- then yesterday brought the nitty-gritty of cleaning up. All over eastern North Carolina, from Cape Fear near Wilmington, where the hurricane first struck, to the Virginia line, residents, power company workers and emergency officials took stock of Bonnie's impact.

State and federal officials will fan out today to begin weighing the damages with more precision. But the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group in Washington, released preliminary figures that estimate Bonnie caused $375 million in insured damages alone. The number, based on computer models used by the insurance industry to help predict losses, does not include uninsured damages or flood damages, since most homeowner policies do not cover flooding, said institute spokesman Michael Erwin.

"The flooding and the uninsured losses could bring the economic losses to close to a billion dollars," Erwin said. "But this was considered a minor hurricane. That's a lot of money, but it could've been a lot worse."

Because Bonnie lingered over many of North Carolina's coastal communities, dumping 10 to 12 inches of rain and swelling rivers and creeks to the breaking point, the costs may indeed be greater than the preliminary estimates.

Bonnie also can no longer be termed a hurricane that took no lives. A 12-year-old girl in Currituck County was killed Thursday night when a tree toppled and struck her home, said Floyd Jones of the state Division of Emergency Management. He said there were no other reports of serious injuries.

Indeed, it seemed in visits to coastal towns and in conversations with officials around the state that trees, roof shingles and power lines were the biggest casualties in the storm. About 100,000 homes still were without power, Jones said, but electrical crews were out in force to repair the damage.

Many people, weary of living in a hurricane zone without electricity, seemed to be buying their own electric generators. In Morehead City, Scott Crippen and Dewayne Umphlett set up shop under a tent in a parking lot, offering generators from $600 to $1,800 from the Greenville company they work for.

"People are tired of getting caught with their pants down," said Crippen. "And then there's Danielle to think about."

Ah, Danielle. Coastal residents and businesses are taking the second hurricane boiling in the Atlantic so seriously that most have not removed the plywood they tacked over their windows earlier this week to ward off Bonnie's high winds and heavy rains.

Danielle, with 90-mph winds, was about 510 miles east of the Bahamas yesterday, moving west-northwest at 15 mph. If the storm remains "on its current track, it will turn north and bypass the United States," said meteorologist Andrew Shashy of the National Hurricane Center near Miami -- a forecast residents were praying would prove accurate.

For now, at least, they tried to concentrate on the aftermath of Bonnie. At Wrightsville Beach, on an island just across from Wilmington, there was virtually no sign that a huge, much-feared storm had roared through only days earlier.

But at Carolina Beach, an island community 14 miles south of Wilmington, the impact was more evident, although damage to structures was minimal considering the size and strength of the hurricane. National Guard units remained on duty there.

Betty Murphrey, 58, and her husband, Harvey, also 58, said they had 23 inches of water in the lower level of the vacation home they bought only three years ago. But that was mild, they said, compared with the 52 inches that flooded the house during Hurricane Fran.

Ben Hatchett, 40, who was removing tree limbs from his front yard, said that overall, "I think this whole beach did pretty good, considering. . . . After Fran, we came down here and it was pathetic. People were breaking down. You had enough work for a year."

Not all of Bonnie's toll on the coast was visible, however. The unseen economic costs will linger after all the debris is swept up and roof shingles replaced.

Mike Britt, 54, owns a charter fishing boat, Large Time, and before Bonnie struck, he and other Carolina Beach charter-fishing boat operators took their vessels 20 miles up the Cape Fear River for protection. They only returned yesterday.

Britt estimated that the week-long distraction caused by Bonnie has cost him $10,000 in income.

"This is a major income for this whole town. It hurts everybody," he said. "It's not just the charter boats, it's the motels, the restaurants, the shops. . . . Once that income is gone, you can't get it back."

Pressley reported from the Jacksonville area, Walsh from Wrightsville and Carolina beaches.