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Weakened Bertha Wreaks HavocAlthough Downgraded, Storm Spawns Twisters, Flooding in RegionBy Peter Finn and Lisa FrazierWashington Post Staff Writers Sunday, July 14 1996; Page A01 © The Washington Post
By afternoon, the area was bathed in welcome sunlight as crews worked to restore power to thousands of homes, localities mopped up and residents of a mobile home park in the Northern Neck of Virginia reflected on a vicious twister that scattered debris from 18 homes over a half-mile. At the mobile home park about 12:30 a.m., a mother, gripping her 1-year-old daughter in one arm and her 2-year-old son in the other, was flung 30 feet into a cornfield by the tornado as it tore her home apart. Remarkably, none of the three was seriously injured. As the storm traveled a northeasterly path, it crossed the Potomac, spawned a tornado in Charles County that damaged 11 homes and then damaged trees near the Chesapeake Bay in southern Anne Arundel County before it raced out of the area. No one was injured in the damage on the Maryland side of the Potomac. By yesterday afternoon, Bertha, downgraded to a tropical storm, was dumping up to five inches of rain from Delaware Bay to Massachusetts, having spared much of the mid-Atlantic region from a predicted battering. "We're very, very fortunate. This storm could have been a lot worse," Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt said yesterday. As yesterday turned into a beautiful sunny day in North Carolina, officials lifted most of the evacuation orders that forced about 250,000 people from the beaches, although only residents were being allowed into some beach towns with widespread damage or power outages. More than 250,000 customers were without power in the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware yesterday. Carolina Power & Light was bringing in repair crews from as far away as Georgia and Florida. Officials in most areas predicted power would be restored last night. Police confirmed that the storm also claimed another life, its 10th since it swept out of the Caribbean last week. A man who ignored warnings to stay out of the ocean died while surfing Friday in Ocean Beach, N.J. Police identified him as James Bianrosa, 41, of New Egypt, N.J. A North Carolina woman also died Friday in a traffic accident that occurred in hurricane conditions. Two other people died in the surf in Florida, and six others died on Caribbean islands. In Edwardsville, Va., a tiny fishing community on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay, nine people were injured when a tornado destroyed two trailer homes and damaged 16 other homes, seven severely, about 12:30 a.m., officials said. "I was in my bedroom standing up, and I heard this boom, and I said something is coming," said Kalif Middleton, 16, who was tossed 30 feet into the air when his family's trailer home was blown apart. "The next thing I know, I hit a tree, and the whole house was gone." Middleton suffered cuts to his back. His cousin, Chanta Adams, 22, with a child in each arm, was hurled into a cornfield. She received 26 stitches to her head and the 2-year-old broke his collar bone, but the 1-year-old suffered no injuries. "Chanta described it as like out of the `Wizard of Oz,'" said Annette Adams, her mother, of Burgess, Va., who came to look at the remains of the trailer home yesterday afternoon. Another trailer home was ripped through its chassis and tossed 100 feet. Still another was shifted six feet off its foundation. A pickup truck was thrown on its side, parts of a picnic table were embedded in a tree, and metal roofing was wrapped around utility poles. Furniture, clothes and household goods were spread over hundreds of yards. "Nature was mad at us," said Edwardsville resident Vaugh Lewis, 32, whose front porch was destroyed. "It lasted about 30 seconds, but it felt like an hour. . . . I was dying to see [the movie] `Twister.' Now I don't feel like it anymore." All but one of the 18 destroyed or damaged homes were believed occupied when the tornado hit. The injured from Edwardsville were treated at Rappahannock General Hospital and released. "It's an absolute miracle that no one died or got seriously injured," said Gov. George Allen, who flew by helicopter from Richmond to survey the damage. "Except for this isolated mess, everything else looked fine. We were lucky." Tornadoes also touched down in Smithfield in Southside Virginia and in Southern Maryland, causing damage to homes and flattening trees. A tornado damaged 11 homes, three severely, and downed several trees when it touched down about 2:05 a.m. in Charles County near Charlotte Hall, said Don McGuire, the county's emergency preparedness director. Sandra Caywood, 50, who lives on Kent Drive, had just gone to bed when she heard the wind roaring through her neighborhood. It blew her front door open, but the storm door didn't budge, she said. "All of a sudden, my bed was shaking, and I heard a terrific noise," Caywood said. "It sounded like a train whistle." Becky Humbert, 39, who also lives on Kent Drive, said the sky was so yellow when the tornado struck that outside looked nearly as bright as during daylight. She said she yelled for her family to get to the basement. "She pushed me out of bed," said Trey, Humbert's 9-year-old son. "We have a piano in the basement. She put me under there until it passed." And just like that, within 15 to 30 seconds, the tornado was gone, Humbert said. Hurricane Bertha, after pummeling the Carolinas, became a tropical storm as it crossed into Virginia early yesterday. The storm was downgraded at 3 a.m. when its sustained winds dropped below 74 mph. Hurricanes, which draw their strength from warm water, lose power over land or cold water, and as the storm moved north, it gradually lost energy. Still, tens of thousands of households throughout the area lost power when the combination of wind and pounding rain drove trees and tree limbs onto power lines. Officials hoped to have power restored to nearly all homes last night. Some areas, such as Old Town Alexandria, experienced minor flooding. The immediate Washington area fared better than outlying counties, with 1.84 inches of rain measured at National Airport in the 24 hours to 8 a.m yesterday morning, and wind gusts topping out at 33 mph. In Virginia Beach, tourists and shopkeepers flocked to the beach by noon and refilled most of the city's 11,000 hotel rooms. On the beach, Edna V. Wragg, 52, said she had a few anxious moments when high winds struck at 3 a.m. But yesterday dawned bright and balmy for her touring group of candy factory workers. "We came down on a bus. We didn't know where the driver was, so we couldn't have gotten away if we wanted to," Wragg said with a laugh. "I'm glad we're here." When Bertha turned up on Maryland's shore, it was with more bluster than bullishness, driving gusts of wind up to 70 mph and waves up to six feet but causing only minor damage to Ocean City. The eye of the tropical storm missed the resort town and instead passed over Salisbury, some 30 miles west. There were minor power outages in the region and no injuries, and officials said they found no beach erosion. Though vacancy signs abounded at Ocean City hotels yesterday morning, by afternoon lines of tourists were forming in some hotel lobbies. Vacationers donned shorts and sweat shirts, and largely stuck to the sand-strewn boardwalk in search of french fries and ice cream. Though beaches were open, swimming was prohibited because the storm had created riptides that could carry even strong swimmers swiftly out to sea. All told, Bertha "aint that bad," said Welford Shifflett, 38, who packed his extended family of five into the car and drove to Ocean City from Dundalk, Md., Thursday, despite the formidable forecast. "I think it was more hype than anything. Staff writers Cecile Betancourt, Spencer Hsu, Ann O'Hanlon, Peter Pae, Steve Vogel and Kathryn Wexler contributed to this report.
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