under the sun
|H^ INSIDE THIS SECTION:
THE BRUNSWlCKft?ACON Q TV schedules, 6-7
~ |B a Sports, Pages 8- 1 1
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 1 993
Storm Survivor Recalls Hazel's
BY SUSAN USHER
October 1954. The latest in a series of
strong tropical waves moves off Cape
Verde, on the west coast of Africa, and be
gins to slowly cruise across the Caribbean.
Off the coast of Venezuela the wave in
tensifies to become a tropical depression,
and on Oct. 5, reaches hurricane strength.
A killer is born.
For three days it travels slowly in a
steady, westerly direction along the coast
of South America. Then, on Oct. 9 it slows,
shifts sharply northward On Oct. 10, it
turns again, toward Cuba. The narrow is
land barely slows the growing she-devil.
Doubling her forward speed, Hazel churns
in a gentle, wobbling S-curve toward the
East Coast of the United States.
Along the coast of the Carolinas, local
officials were on the alert. Hurricane
Carol had swept by the Outer Banks
wust, followed by Edna in September.
Would this storm spare the Tar Heel state
major damage as well?
The eighth named storm of the hurricane
season. Hazel was poised to strike.
"It was expected to come in somewhere
between Charleston and Pamlico Sound,"
recalls Johnny Browning of Shallotte, one of
the last people to leave Ocean Isle Beach be
fore the ferry was shut down sometime after
dark the night of Friday, Oct. 14.
He had crossed over to the island from
Shallotte to warn Sherman Register and his
family that the U.S. Coast Guard had said
everybody should leave the island.
Browning visited until "about 9 or 9:30," he
recalls, and left.
Register had recently built a second-row
cottage on the eastern half of the island. He
was living there with his wife, Madeline, 10
year-old son Buddy, and daughter Sonya R.
Bellamy. Sonya's husband, Robert "Bunky"
Bellamy, who had just turned 21, happened
to be there that night. He had just finished
basic training with the U.S. Army and was
home on leave.
At the time there were about 33 homes
on the island, only a few of them permanent
residences. Dunes as high as 20 feet to 30
feet weren't uncommon on the island and its
strand was wide.
"As far as I was concerned no one had
the beaches we had," recalled Bellamy.
Sometime in the night, the storm began
pounding the coastline.
"The winds and the tides were up," re
called Browning. "It was really getting bad
here way before day."
The only people still on the island were
the Registers, the Bellamys and, in a cottage
on down the beach, three couples from High
Point ? Mr. and Mrs. J. Elwood Cox, Mr.
and Mrs. Frank Armfield Jr. and Mr. and
Mrs. J.H. Hart.
i c
STAFF FHOTO BY SUSAN USHE*
ROBERT "BUNKY" BELLAMY considers himself a lucky man. He floated from
Ocean Isle Beach to the mainland on a piece of roof during Hurricane Hazel. He
hasn 't forgotten the devastating winds and deadly storm surge of Oct. 15, 1954.
"We decided to stay the night. We said
we'd get up in the morning and go across,"
recalled Bellamy. "You remember, this was
really the first hurricane where there were
any homes on the beach, anyone living
there. Nobody had ever seen anything go
over the island."
After sunrise, around 6:30 a.m. or a little
after, they drove to the ferry landing. They
were too late.
"The ferry was sunk," said Bellamy.
By now the tide was beginning to come
in fast. Waves were crashing higher and
higher, closer and closer to the house.
The two families piled into Register's
old Dodge pickup and, battling the wind,
torrential rainfall and a waist-deep tide,
headed toward high ground.
"We went as far as we could, to a little
hill on the beach. It was as high a point as
Devastating Wall Of Water
we could drive to, just past the cottage
where the High Point couples were staying.
"We parked on it and put the women and
children inside the cab. We (men) stood
around it. each of us facing a different direc
tion.
"That's when everything broke loose."
Bellamy was facing east.
"I had no warning from the others that
much water Was coming."
Hazel made landfall in Brunswick County
at 10:42 a.m. under the worst possible con
ditions. The storm came in during daylight
on a dead high tide and full moon.
Accompanied by pummeling winds of up to
1 40 mph. the great dome of water ? Bellamy
estimated it was 20 to 22 feet high ? swept
everything in its path like a giant bulldozer.
"It scattered everybody. I held onto the
truck. When I saw the water wasn't going to
recede, I let go. It turned the truck part-way
over.
"I saw a house break up and I got on that.
I saw one of the couples from High Point on
a piece of the same house."
The water picked up a Chrysler and an
other car and slung them 300 feet across the
beach "like you'd spin a top."
Sonya and the Registers were nowhere in
sight as the storm tide carried Bellamy
away.
? ? ?
Back on the mainland Friday morning.
Browning and Maitland Bellamy, Robert's
brother, had plans to rescue the family
stranded on Ocean Isle Beach. Browning
was living at White's Landing at the time,
on the Shallotte River.
"We tried to put a sea dory in; we were
going to try and rescue Sherman," recalled
Browning. "But we couldn't even hold the
dory up in the wind and the tide."
Abandoning that effort, Browning went
on to the Brick Landing area, to the point
known as "the Brickyard," where the ferry
crossed to Ocean Isle Beach.
"I was standing there when I saw the big
sea come in. It went up over the light pole.
That's one time I seen Odell Williamson cry.
He was sitting at the top of the hill in his car,
crying."
Williamson's sister ? Madeline W.
Register ? was among those who chose to
stay on the island that later became synony
mous with the name of its developer.
Williamson and his brother-in-law were co
owners of the hardware store Register oper
ated in downtown Shallotte.
"We didn't think it would be that bad,"
Browning recollected.
While area residents had experienced
hurricanes before, he said, "It had been a
while since we had had a bad one. We had
just about forgotten."
Browning, Maitland Bellamy and
Hubert Bellamy were just three of the large
group that gathered to search for the victims
of the storm.
Bellamy floated with the wind and the
tide.
"I had no idea what direction. Ten feet
was about as far as you could see between
the rain and the wind blown by the sea. The
light poles had grass hanging from the wires
where the lights had been."
"I came ashore when the eye hit," he re
called, near Brick Landing on front of Dr.
M.H. Rourk's cabin. "Then the storm hit
again with even greater force."
Afterward friends brought Bellamy to
Shallotte for a change of clothes."That's
when they told me had found Sonya and one
of the couples from High Point alive."
Sonya Bellamy was one of two women
who washed up at the old Spencer place, on
the loop road that runs along the back side
of what is now Brick Landing Plantation.
She was unconscious, but alive. Rescuers
took her limp frame to the Spencer house
and began slowly reviving her.
It was too late for the other woman, who
was found still clinging to a "myrkle" or
wax myrtle bush. She had drowned.
The bodies of Sherman Register and
Buddy Register were found almost together.
Bodies of the other two High Point couples
were found.
Even after extending their efforts once
the tide receded, searchers never found any
trace of Madeline Register.
The other couple to survive was the
Harts, who had also clung to a floating sec
tion of cottage.
Hazel's death toll at Ocean Isle Beach
seven ? was the highest of anywhere in the
Carolinas.
A Category 4 storm. Hazel remains the
most intense hurricane to ever strike the
coast of North Carolina, according to the
National Weather Service, though it is nei
ther the deadliest nor the costliest. It also set
the record for the highest recorded storm
tide ? 18 feet at Calabash.
"It's scary if you look back," reflects
Bellamy, who describes himself as the kind
of person who doesn't allow himself to get
excited when things happen. "But at the
time things were happening so fast."
Bellamy's leave was first extended.
Then, when he returned to active duty, he
found the Army already processing his dis
charge for reasons of family hardship so that
he could return to his wife, who had lost her
entire immediate family in the hurricane.
His and Sonya 's marriage ended less
than a year later. In 1956, Bellamy was
drafted for a second time.
Today Bellamy works for a dredge com
pany, is happily remarried and living on the
mainland at Boone's Neck, across from
Holden Beach.
ZeNQ'S qxp.t>eN
CTV>i r?csc [Lcsraurcuir
LUNCH BUFFET
Monday-Friday
11-2:30 PM
FAMILY NIGHT BUFFET
Monday-Saturday
Sunday-Friday 1 1 AM-3, 4:30-9PM(
" Saturday-4:30-9:30 PM
For take-out call
754-5280
East Gate Square, Holden
Beach Road ? Shallotte
p ANNOUNCING
NEW OWNERSHIP
SEASIDE
ANIMAL CARE
by
DR. ERNEST E. WARD, JR.
Now Offering Full Service Veterinary Care
24-Hour Emergency Service
Boarding and Grooming
OFFICE HOURS Monday thru Friday
8:30 am-5:30 pm
Saturday 9:00 am- 12:00 noon
579-5550
925 Carter Drive, Calabash
" The most advanced and
compassionate In pet health care" w
?1 9S3 THE BflUNSWrtCK BEACON ? I
.vOFAC Uj . DR. EDWARD F. ECKERT, JR.
s
Our Little River office Is located at
303 Highway 90, Nixon's Crossroads
Little River, SC 29566. 803-249-7810
Wednesday. 9 AM- 12:30 PM
Thursday, 1:30 PM-4:30 PM
For an appointment,
call our Myrtle Beach ojjlce
803-448-1621
We specialize In wisdom teeth removal. Implants, T.M.J.
Surgery, Orthognathic Surgery and Cosmetic Facial Surgery.
SOUTH BRUNSWICK
MEDICAL GROUP
Gary D. Ross, M.D. (Internal Medicine)
Samuel W. Kirtley, M.D. (Family Practice)
For Complete Outpatient Medical Care
Routine Health Maintenance
Adult Medical Concerns /Pediatrics
Women's Concerns
(Pap Smears /Contraception)
Laboratory & X-Ray Facilities
For Complete Minor Emergency Care
Located off Hwy. 1 7 at Union School Road
Open Mon.-Frl., 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., Sat. 10 A.M. to 2 P.M.
579-9955 or 579-0800
and
DR. BRIAN C. HARSHA
of
Coastal Carolina Oral
and Maxillofacial Surgery
Associates, P.A.
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THE
FURNITURE DOCTOR
BRUNSWICK
WOODCRAFTER
"Quality Furniture Restoration"
Repairs ? Staining ? Refinishing
Custom Pieces ? Mirror Resilvering
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Saturday
& Sunday
EVERYDAY
FIDDLER'S _
Includes fish, shrimp, deviled crab, dam strli
cole slaw and hush pupriifel r?
? || to B
get
~IA|_
fries,
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Sunday Lunch Buffet
Served 1 1:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Open Sunday evenings, too!
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SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
1 tWY. 13Q EAST ? SHALLOTTE ? 754-8168