Online NewsHour: Aftermath -- September 16, 1996

AFTERMATH

SEPTEMBER 16, 1996

TRANSCRIPT

It has been more than a week since Hurricane Fran blew its way through North Carolina, but conditions are still a long way from getting back to normal. Betty Ann Bowser reports from amid the wreckage.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Federal and state officials are still assessing the damage from Hurricane Fran, but they do know that never before in North Carolina has any storm cut such a wide path of destruction from the coast all the way inland and North 100 miles to the state capital in Raleigh. The latest estimate exceeds $4 billion, and as people begin to repair their homes as the National Guard helps clear debris, the numbers keep growing. Up and down a 25-mile stretch of coast line there is such massive destruction it looks like a war zone. At North Topsail Beach, 90 percent of the homes are either heavily damaged, or are a complete loss. Some of those who suffered the most lived in mobile homes and were uninsured. Michelle Peele paid cash for her trailer less than a week before Fran struck.
MICHELLE PEELE: I'm out everything. We own this house clean--clear and free. We don't owe nobody, and now I have nothing, not even furniture, no clothes. I'm livin' in a motel. My money's running out. No jobs. I've been real depressed. I even thought about suicide. You know, I'm tired.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Peele was one of hundreds of residents allowed on the barrier island this weekend for the first time since the hurricane. Seventy-five-year-old Victoria Wilkocz, who retired here 15 years ago, could barely believe what was left of her beach front dream home--115 mile an hour winds and water had tossed it 200 feet from its oceanfront pilings.
VICTORIA WILKOCZ: See where that pole is there?
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Yes, ma'am.
VICTORIA WILKOCZ: Well, that's where the beginning of our property was. That's the beginning of our property. Our house was sitting back that way.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Are you surprised by all of this devastation?
VICTORIA WILKOCZ: Very, very surprised, very surprised. I never expected it. As soon as I come up off the road, I broke down. I really never expected this. For what reason I don't know, but this is not what I expected.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: James Reddin brought a video camera to take pictures of his vacation home, but there was nothing left to photograph.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: This was a two bedroom?
JAMES REDDIN: Uh, huh. One bath house. And totally furnished. It had a refrigerator, heat pump, stove. Where it is, I haven't the foggiest idea.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: You have no idea where the house is?
JAMES REDDIN: No. There's the septic tank right there. But--
BETTY ANN BOWSER: One would assume it would have just washed out to the sea.
JAMES REDDIN: Don't know. Have no clue.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Because Reddin's house and property are washed away, his neighbor, Gerard Taylor, is now on the beach front. He is also one of the lucky homeowners because his vacation home can be repaired. But if there is ever another hurricane like Fran, he could wind up like his neighbor.
GERARD TAYLOR: I'm very fortunate to have what I do have left here because there are so many over here, as you can see, that have nothing, that have absolutely nothing.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Do you ever worry that maybe you shouldn't have built here in the first place?
GERARD TAYLOR: Well, not really. I've enjoyed it, as I told my wife. We've owned this property now five years and five months, and we've enjoyed it for five years and five months. If we lose the house, we'll just lose the house.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: For years, coastal geologists and state officials have warned against building on Topsail Beach, citing the barrier island's lack of vegetation, sand dunes, and elevation; they've been predicting a major storm would literally wash homes away. Experts say other barrier islands North of Topsail, like Emerald Isle, are better suited for home building because Mother Nature has provided vegetation and elevation for protection in a big storm. Current North Carolina state regulations require any new construction to take place 65 feet from wherever erosion on the beach ends, so at North Topsail, hundreds of people will be unable to rebuild. Practically the entire infrastructure on North Topsail was destroyed in the hurricane. Replacing it will be costly. And now in the hurricane's aftermath, some North Carolina legislators are suggesting the island's damaged roads and broken water lines be abandoned. What's left, they say, should be turned into a park. North Topsail's mayor pro tem, Peter Hillyer, opposes abandonment.
PETER HILLYER, North Topsail City Council: The reason I think that you can't just close this and make it a park is because North Topsail Beach is a community. Perhaps in the beginning it was unwise for people to build in such profusion on a barrier island, but that's the past. And that's what was, and now we're dealing with what is. And what is, is a community, and most of the people want to come back, and they want to live here.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: The man who manages coastal policy for the states says what to do about North Topsail doesn't have any easy answers.
JONATHAN HOWES, Secretary, North Carolina Department of Environment. We have to take into account that we're dealing here with real people, and they're not simply wealthy, second homeowners. The popular image is that these are rich people, and they'll do without their second homes. All of us who are taxpayers in the state of North Carolina have, have a certain interest in the extent to which state resources will be applied to rebuilding in this case, so, so it is a very complex and difficult question. The first time we've ever faced it, and it's going to take us a while to sort it all out.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: President Clinton flew over the damaged area this weekend, and like many officials was surprised to see how far North and West Fran left her mark. In Raleigh, trees are down on almost every street. Officials say the amount of debris about equals a year and a half of the city's normal garbage collection. Statewide, Public Safety Secretary Richard Moore says 58 percent of all North Carolinians have been affected by the hurricane.
RICHARD MOORE, Secretary, North Carolina Public Safety: Our emergency management folks are compiling the numbers. They continue to go up every day. It's going to be in the billions. By the time you take the crop damage, the tree damage, you know, Loblolly pines are a huge industry here in this state. Most of the building materials are made out of it. We've lost some forests, have lost 50, 60 percent of their forest. By the time you take the infrastructure damage, the private home damage, it is easily going to be the costliest storm of all time for North Carolina.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: At least $500 million of damage was sustained by agriculture. Especially hard hit are the state's tobacco growers. Many had their harvest in curing barns powered by electricity that was knocked out by Hurricane Fran. Kenny Brown is a farmer in Kenansville, about 50 miles from the coast.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: What happens during that period of time when the tobacco is not exposed to this curing process?
KENNY BROWN: It rots. It just takes the natural--it just takes heat and it just literally rots.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: How much of this do you think you've lost?
KENNY BROWN: I would say probably just about this whole barn.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: How much of a loss in income do you suppose this will be?
KENNY BROWN: That barn of tobacco would have brought back $5,000.
BETTY ANN BOWSER: Ten days after Hurricane Fran, thousands of homes are still without power and water. Near Goldsboro, flooding continues along the Neuse River. Days of rain after the storm have left the river swollen nine feet above flood stage. North Carolinians still have a long way to go before they recover from Fran, and hurricane season doesn't end until November the 30th.

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