'' ^ ----- , j -- ^ 7 " TT- 1 "" ? " ?" >?? ? - - - - W CARTERET COUNTY NEWS-TIMES ??< 42nd YEAR, NO. 66. TWO SECTIONS TEN PAGES MOREHEAD CITY AND BEAUFORT, NORTH CAROLINA TUESDAY. AUGUST 18. 1953 PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS Local , State Officials To Set Bridge Opening Good Com Crop DamagedHeavily The hurricane Thursday left the county corn crop, one of the best in years, flat on the ground, Alvin C. Newsome, assistant county farm agent, reported today. On Friday, Mr. Newsome travel ed over most of the county check ing on possible crop damage from the high winds and rain. "We fear that the corn crop is almost a total loss," he said. Until the storm's advent the prospects for the corn crop were the best in years, he commented. After the rains most of the corn was beginning to dry up but was not completely dry. The strong winds toppled the mature and top heavy stalks to the ground where in many instances it was covered with water. The agent's office reported that probably the best method for har vesting the corn now is to "hog off'' the crop by letting hogs gather arid feed on the crop. If the torn stays on the ground a total loss is certain, but hogs can convert some of the crop into a marketable prod uct, he pointed out. Other damage reported by farm ers included trees uprooted, prac tically all electric and telephone service interrupted, and a small amount of damage to farm build ings. Mr. Newsome said that some farmers thought the storm was the worst since 1933. The Carteret tobacco crop was largely harvested before the storm except for a few fields in scattered parts of the county. Some damage was done to these fields and to other fields where the priming of tobacco was incomplete. All the plants in these fields were blown down to the ground making prim ing of the leaves very slow. The only crop in the field not damaged by the storm was the per manent pastures^lthouf h auny of these were under water. ? The date for the opening of the< new bridge to Atlantic Beach will probably be decided today. R. Markham, division engineer for the aecund highway diviiion, will inspect the bridge and meet with local officials to set the date for the opening of the bridge. George W. Dill, jr., mayor of Morehead City, and Alfred B. Cooper, mayor of Atlantic Beach, are co-chairmen of a committee planning a gala celebration to mark the opening of the bridge. The decision on the bridge was to have been made last Thursday, but Mr. Markham reported he could not make the necessary in spections and tests because of the winds and rains that came in ad vance of the hurricane. Governor William B. Umstead will be invited to cut the ribbon officially opening the bridge. Many other state and national officials will be invited to participate in the ceremonies. Present plans call for the erec tion of a speaker's platform on the Morehead City approach to the bridge where the ribbon will be cut. Several brief speeches will be made by officials and dignitaries attending the celebration. The Beaufort band will play at the ceremony and tentative plans call for band concerts during the afternoon. A luncheon for all guests at the ceremony will be given at the Heart of the Beach. Beach merchants are sponsoring a free street dance that night from 8:30 to 12:30 to be interrupted by a mammoth aerial fireworks dis play at 10 o'clock which will cli max the entertainment. Committees of beach merchants have been appointed and are work ing on the preparations so that the celebration can be held whenever the hignway commission gives its notice that the bridge may be put in operation. Plans for the bridge started in 1950 with the actual construction starting in the fall of 1951. The T. A. Loving company of Golds boro was the general contractor on the bridge which cost the state more* (bio U- million in bond funds. Restoration of Telephone Service Finished Monday The Carolina Telephone and Tel--" egraph company finally completed restoration of its service in the county yesterday, four days after Thursday's storm. The area which went the longest without service was the north side ol Arcndell street in Morehead City. Telephone service in this area was disrupted shortly before noon on Thursday when under ground cables became soaked with water. Most of the service was restored in the area by 5 a.m. Sunday and the repairs were com pleted yesterday morning. L. A. Daniels local manager for the company, said that the under ground cable, containing 400 pairs of lines became soaked by the heavy rains which fell Thursday and had to be replaced witK a new cable on Bridges street. Splicers finished installing the new cable yesterday morning. Toll circuits, which had been out since the height of the storm, were restored late Friday afternoon. Tel ephone service in Beaufort, which had gone out gradually during Thursday afternoon, was also re stored late Friday. Mr. Daniels said that there was only one time Thursday afternoon when the entire county was without telephone service. He said that there was service on the south side of Arcndell street during most of the period. With the exception of the north side of Arendell street, most local service was restored Fri day. The manager said that there may be some scattered trouble which has not yet been reported. Mr. Daniels said that damage to company lines and equipment waa heavy but he has not yet been able to make an accurate estimate of the amount of the damage. When the storm struck, Mr. Daniels called for help from other company offices and extra men and equipment were sent in to asiat with the restoration of service. Not all of the extra men were working at any one time, but a total of 90 extra men and ten extra trucks supplemented the six men and three trucks stationed in Morehead City. The extra men and equip ment came from Fayetteville, Rocky Mount, New Bern and Wash ington . Equipment shipped in included I water pumps, blowers and extra I cable which were uaed in restoring l,?nrk* in the oortbera part W Uorebead City. - > Rotarians to Hear District Governor Charles McCullers of Hinston, district governor of Rotary Inter national, will make his visit to the Beaufort Rotary club tonight. He is visiting each of the 40 clubs in the 22 counties of southeastern North Carolina which nuke up his district. While in Beaufort he will con fer with President Gene Smith and Secretary W. L. Woodard and other local officers on club administra tion and service. The annual club assembly of of ficers, directors and committee chairmen will be held at 5:45 p.m. immediately before the regular meeting at 6:45 at the Inlet Inn. Mr. McCullers is the manager of the Kinston chamber of commerce and is a member and past president of the Kinston Rotary club. He was elected district governor at the an nual Rotary convention in May in Paris, France. CP&L Action Clears Damage To meet the storm threat and clean up damage in its wake, the Carolina Power and Light company sent nearly 100 men to Carteret county Thursday, Friday and Satur day. "I've never seen anything like it," said George Stovall, district manager (or the utility. "We had line crews running out of our ears." The major trouble was near Cherry Point. Two poles just out side Cherry Point were pushed over during the storm shorting the line and cutting off all power to Morehead City at 7:22 Thursday night. Trees falling across the line to Beaufort put it out of commis sion at 5:32 but Beaufort was then tied to the Morehead City line. Two trees also caused breaks on the Morehead City line. Mr. Stovall said that the pole trouble at Cher ry Point was largely caused by the fact that the rain in rccent weeks had softened the earth and the an chors on the poles did not hold. Four crews were dispatched to Morehead City before the storm struck and three crews and two radio cars were sent soon after the storm struck. Ten more crews and two radio cars came in Friday morning, four crews late Friday afternoon. Approximately 300 miles of line were affected by the storm. The company used airplanes to pa trol much of the line looking for breaks. Two broken poles on the Beaufort line were discovered from the air. Cars and crews came from points as far distant as Southern Pines. Dunn, Clinton, Kinston, Wilmington, and Wallace. Mr. Stovall reported that damage to the company's property in the storm was very slight. The line break at Cherry Point prevented short circuits which might have ned transformers throughout county lauY in die storm, he pointed out. Pcwer was restored to Morehead City at 5:17 Friday morning and the line to Beaufort was cleared at 7:35 Friday night. Prior to that time Beaufort was fed from the Morehead City line. By Saturday morning, Mr. Stovall said that al most all of the damage in the county had been repaired. Repairs were hampered by the failure of telephone communica tions, he said, which meant that consumers could not report breaks to the Morehead City office. Many of the line crews worked a full day Thursday, then were call ed out and worked all night and through Friday until 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Mr. Stovall express ed great satisfaction with the work and the fact that no men suffered injuries during the hazardous work. On Friday 11. B. Robinson and Joseph Richards, vice-presidents of the company, and W. R. Doar, dis tribution engineer, all of Raleigh, came to Morehead City to help in the operation. Other company of ficials were T. H. Hall, division su perirttendnt. Roger Stuart, division line superviser, Bill Hayes, division engineer, and N. E. Everson, di vision right of way inspector, all of Wilmington. In the absence of telephone com munications the line crews were directed by radio from the More head City office. Storm Confuses State Papers By Clare M. Cotton Considering the damage that was done, Carteret county was for tunate that Barbara, the shy hur ricane, couldn't read her press no tices or follow the radio broadcasts on her performance. As one man put it after reading a Raleigh newspaper Friday morn ing, "Somebody's been destroyed. Is there a Morehead City, South Carolina?" Unlike many ladies, Barbara eon fused all the gentlemen recording her actions for posterity by arriv ing several hours ahead of sched ule. This was, however, not the only bit of confusion centered about "our Barbara." How fast did the wind get? This is a good question and there seem to be as many answers as there are newspapers. One report up state Included the suspiciously ac curate figure of 103 miles per hour at Cherry Point. This figure be comes even more suspicious when you read a release from the Cherry Point public information office which states the air station's wind meter blew down in an 80-mile gust and that was the highest re corded on the base. Storms in general are pretty freakish things, but some people in Morehead City had a few very bad nmnaaft when they looked out their windows and saw frogs ? it was raining frogs. According to reliable but unofficial sources, the area around 24th and Bridges streets was covered with thousands of frogs at the height of the storm. Included in those damage , fig ure* was a boat in Lije Piner's ship yard which was almost finished. The waterspout which hit Marshall berg Thursday morning, a little ad vance notice of Barbara's visit, lifted this boat into the air, trans ported it several hundred feet, and dropped it very much the worse for travel. Rumor has it that the boat was being built for Dan Walker, Beau fort's peripatetic philosopher, town clerk, tax collector, manager of the Tide Table Tides it Beafart Bar HIGH LOW Tuesday, Aug- 1* 1:18 a.m. 2:07 p.m. 8:47 p.m. 7:31 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19 2:22 a.m. 1:10 p.m. 8:39 a.m. 8:53 p.m. Tfcaraday, Aug. M 3:32 a a. 8:42 a m. 10:94 p.m. 4:1* p.m. Friday, Aug. 21 4:38 la ?OiM. 10:40 ajn. 11:4B PA. Chamber of Commerce, clerk of the recorder's court, and booster. After Barbara passed us, she flirted with the idea of improving the fair city of New Bern by re moving the Trent river bridge, which must rank high in any "worst bridge" contest. She dropped this irfea throwing that inelegant piece of steel *? ck to the highway com mission. ? When telegi service was re stored, a national press association wired Dan Wade, Morehead pho tographer. asking for "disaster" pictures. Hard pressed for just a minute. Dan wired back "few tree limbs down." Finally, to show that she appre ciates the appropriate and the dra matic, Barbara blew down the screen at the East Drive-In. The movie for Thursday night was "Trouble Along the Way." SUrn Ruins Flaking Fishermen who tried their luck in waters around Morehead City and Beaufort over the weekend re ported almost no luck. Most of them attributed the poor fishing to fresh water left by Thursday's storm. The U. S. Fish and Wild life service laboratory at Piver's Island reported that the salinity of the water was about half or ooraiaL First Hurricane of Season Causes Little Serious Damage in County 1 Carolina Beach Youth Saved By Officers Seeking Boats Engineers Office Move Opposed by Sfate Board The state Board of Conservation and Development meeting in Ra leigh Friday voiced protest against a proposal to abolish the Army en gineers office in Wilmington and consolidated with others in Nor folk. The district office of the corps of engineers has been in Wilming ton for 69 years. Governor Wil liam R. Umstead joined the board in passing a resolution asking that the office be kept in Wilmington. It is the only agency of the fed eral government interested in North Carolina's extensive water resources, it was pointed out. Closing the office would be detrimental to the state, the reso lution said. Eric Rodgers, a mem ber of the board, emphasized that North Carolina has a greater mile age of inland waterways than any other state with more inlets and navigable rivers with which the en gineers are particularly concerned. At the special meeting of the board conditional approval was also given to the terms of a con tract with the New York engineer ing firm of Carson, Brickerhoff, Hall and MacDonald for a survey of eastern counties to inaugurate a program of development of the state's inland ports. The approval was given after the proposal was broadened to include industrial po tential. This survey of small, inland ports is being made under the di rection of the board's water re sources committee. The North Carolina Marine council with head quarters in New Bern has been spearheading the drive for inland port development. Under present plans the small ports would be un der the direction of the C&D board to work cooperatively with the State Ports Authority. The SPA manages the state's two deep water ports at Morchead City and Wilmington. At the special meeting, Gov. Um stead, who is acting as its chair man. told the members he was "deeply grateful" for the serious approach they had taken to their duties. He commented that the members would probably find it necessary to do extensive work be tween the quarterly sessions of the board. The schedule for industrial de velopment forums was released by the board's industrial development committee. The first will be held tonight in Zebu Ion with Gov. Um stead making the keynote address. The others will be Marion, Sept. 1; Bryson City, Sept. 2; Statesville, Sept. 14; Burlington. Sept. 24; Scotland Neck. Oct. 6; Burgaw, Oct. 13; Elizabeth City, Oct. 27; Elizabethtown, Nov. 10; and South ern Pines, Nov. 17. Thirteen-Man REA Crew Resides 390-Mile Line Working around the clock, a 13-4 man crew from the Carteret-Craven Electric Membership corporation restored service to most of the 390 miles of power lines by 8 p.m. Sat urday. The REA crews, working without any outside help, began work at 6 a.m. Friday and worked steadily until 2 a.m. Saturday. After a few hours of sleep, the crew began work again and worked until 8 p.m. The crews went out again Sunday to make scattered repairs and went out yesterday morning to patrol the lines. W. C. Carlton, manager of the coop, said that most of the trouble was caused by falling trees which broke lines, ye said that there were very few instances of wires being blown down. The damage to the coop's lines was found in Merrimon, South River, Harlowe, Mill Creek, Crab Point, Newport and the various communities along Bogue sound. The most extensive damage was in the Cherry Point-Havelock area where there were more trees down than in any other spot in the coop's service area. Mr. Carlton said that there were six trees down across See REA, Page 3 Atlantic Postal Job Still Open Due to an insufficient number of applications, the Civil Service commission has extended the dead line for applying for the post of Atlantic postmaster until Aug. 25. All applicants must have resided for one year in Atlantic. The of fice is a third class post office and the pay is $3,400 per year. Postmasters at third class of fices have personal custody and care of the stamp stock and all funds, they personally keep and submit all accounts, supervise one or more employees, and must be familiar with all the work of the office. A written test will be held in New Bern to screen applicants. The background of applicants must show that they can meet and deal with the public effectively and that they are reliable citizens who would command the respect and confidence of the patrons of the post office. Applicants must also show that their experience and training have provided them with the ability to maintain simple records of ac counts or records of comparable difficulty or have provided them with a knowledge of postal pro cedures. The written examination will consist of two parts. The first part of the test will include 80 ques tions of a general nature covering verbal abilities, practical judg ment. and arithmetic applied to practical problems. The second part of the test will consist of 45 questions on post office manage ment. These questions call for ap plication of official instructions to common problems arising under them. Applications should be sent to the Civil Service Commission, Washington 25, D. C. Old Patrol Boat Hatteras Sinks After Hurrican* The only boat reported sunk as a result of Thursday's storm was the old state patrol boat Hatteras which went down Saturday after noon at its dock on Piver's Island. Vance Fulford, jr., of Beaufort, caretaker of the boat said that it began to leak after the storm and began shipping water faster than it could be pumped out. It ia now resting on the bottom in about ten feet of water. The cabin and part of the deck and aid* are show iag above watar. ? ? LeRoy Paite, 17-ycar-old Caro lina Bead) youth, was rescued Sun day afternoon by two marine cap tains looking for rowboats after being lost and presumed dead as a results of Thursday's hurricane. The boy's ordeal included more than 18 hours floating in the wa ter, followed by two days' exposure as he waited on a bombing target near the Point of Marsh for possi ble rescue. "I kept telling myself, 'I'll make if it's the last thing I do,' " Paite told his rescuers. Young Paite's near miraculous rescue came long after the search for him had been given up. Dur ing that search, Capt. Joseph R. Bolen, Cherry Point air-sea rescue helicopter pilot, spotted some aban doned rowboats near a target and Sunday afternoon, he and Capt. Walter S. Catlow took a Cher ry Point boat to see if they were salvageable. By accident they stumbled onto Paite and took him back to the air station. The rescuc came none too soon, since Marine Corps reservists at Cherry Point have been prac ticing their bombing since yester day morning. Thursday afternoon when the hurricane struck, Paite was aboard a powerless 42-foot boat being towed from Norfolk to Carolina Beach by Carl Winner, party boat operator. The hawser between the large craft and winner's smaller towing boat snapped during the storm and the youth's ordeal be gan. Soon after the rope parted, Paite told rescuers Sunday his boat sank and he was in the water floating on a hatch cover. About noon Friday he spotted the target area and was able to work his way to it. During the three day period, Paite ate raw crabs and a tin of K-ration jelly. When he was checked at the air station his gen eral condition was reported as good except for the inevitable effects of exposure. His mother, Mrs. Exie Paite, was hospitalized in Wilmington soon af ter she had been informed that her son was missing and presumed lost. Paite was taken to Wilmington Sunday night. He told Marine Corps officers that he saw the helicopters search ing for him Friday but was unable to attract the attention of any pilot. ? Old-Time Residents Say Storm Only Mullet Blow' By Bob Gately Residents of Carteret eounty who had taken elaborate precautions against Thursday's first storm of the season were wondering Friday morning what had happened to the promised hurricane. Most of them saw little damage from the high winds which had been expected to cause extensive damage Thursday night. For most people of the Morehead City-Beaufort area, recovering Second Clinic Attended by 44 G. T. Windell has reported that 44 persons attended the second or thopedic clinic held Saturday at the Morehead City hospital annex. Mr. Windell said that the clinic was attended by 26 adults and 18 children. Of the 44 who attended, 29 were new cases. The clinic was directed by Dr. Lennox Baker, chief orthopedist at Duke hospital in Durham and president of the North Carolina Orthopedic association. Dr. Baker was assigned to the clinic by the state board of health. Other* state representatives at the clinic were Miss Lily Fentress of the department for crippled chil dren and H. A. Hendricks of Greenville, rehabilitation special ist. Dr. F. E. Hyde, acting health officer, and Mrs. Leonard Lewis represented the county health de partment. Volunteer workers at the clinic were Mrs. W. C. Carlton. Miss Eliz abeth Lambeth. Mrs. Alvah Hamil ton, jr., Mrs. Frank Exum, Mrs. Mattie Glancy and Mrs. Madge Nelson. They handled the regis trations at the clinic and assisted the nurses in the examining room. The clinic is sponsored by the Morehead City RoUry club in co operation with the county health department and the state health department. The clinic was set up to provide diagnostic service and some treatment for persons in the county with various orthopedic ail ments. Mr. Windell, chairman of the Rotary club committee in charge of the clinic, said that he wishes to commend H. L. Greene, hospital superintendent, and his entire staff for their cooperation during the clinic. Mr. Windell has also issued an appeal for chairs which can be used in the waiting room at the clinic. At the . first two clinics, chairs were obtained from the recreation center and had to be returned after each session. Mr. Windell said that he hopes that people who have serviceable chairs will donate them to the clinic. Fire Department Pumps Flooded Beaufort Streets The large pool of water on the 700 block of Ann street. Beaufort, was finally drained Sunday morn ing after Beaufort firemen had pumped the water through storm sewers to Taylor's creek. Mayor Clifford T. Lewis ordered the fire department to begin pump ing Saturday morning after receiv ing requests from residents of the block. Ann street was closed to traffic from Pollock to Marsh and a fire truck began pumping opera tions at about 9 a.m. By mid-afternoon, much of the water had been pumped down Marsh street and into sewer lines at Marsh and Front streets. Early in the night, however, It became apparent that the clogged drains could not handle the water and it began to back up into the street almost as fast as it was pumped out. When the firemen finally ceased pumping operations at about 9:30 p.m., the pool was rapidly reaching its original size. Within an hour, the street was again flooded and water was reaching almost to the front steps of houses in the neigh borhood. The fire department returned at about 9 a.m. Sunday and resumed pumping operations. By this time the drains had cleared enough to handle the water, and the street was cleared in about two hours. Thr firemen then began pumping out some of the streets and flood ed yards in the northern part of town. The pump on the truck was op erating at about 290 gallons per minute, and more than 200.000 gal lons of water were pumped from the street during the approximate ly 14 hours of operations. The street had been flooded since Thursday morning when the heavy rain which accompanied the Sm ANN STUET, Pag* 3 Morehead Calls Zoning Hearing The Morehead City board of com missioners has called a public hear ing for Thursday night, Aug. 27, to hear opinions on the zoning of the area recently annexed to the city. Before the annexed areas were taken into the city the property was not restricted as to zoning regulations. The commissioners are asking that resident* and inter ested citizens attend the hearing so that all sides may be heard. The area annexed is west and north of the old city limits between highway 70 and the sound west ward to the Camp Glenn state prop erty line. During the annexation cam paigns residents of the city south of Arendell street and west of 28th street were particularly anxious that restrictions be placed on the property north of the railroad which was at that time not in the city. They pointed out that prop erty values would plummet if low grade commercial buildings were constructed directly across the street and railroad from their homes. The zoning question has assumed importance largely because of the relocation of highway 70 to come down Arendell street. Before the annexation one side of the high way would have been in town and the other side out of town. The annexation now gives the city con trol of both sides. The city may zone the property to be used exclusively for residen tial dwellings, business buildings w inriviftrUl ?from the effects of the hurricane meant only clearing away a few fallen trees and limbs which litter ed some streets and yards or mop ping up water which had collected during the driving rain. Few people suffered any exten sive damage to property during the storm and there were no casualties in the county. Most of the damage consisted of shingles torn from roofs and only a few scattered places reported any heavy dam age. The greatest annoyance for most people was the interruption of utilities services during and after the storm. The reaction of many residents was that the threatened hurricane had not turned out to t>e much of a storm. Several old-timers, when asked what they thought ibout the | storm, said, "What storm? We've had more wind than that in mullet blows." The worst of the storm struck in Morehead City and Beaufort be tween 5 and ti p.m. about three hours before it was expected. The storm reached its peak at about 5:30 when high winds swept through both towns. Driving rains which aceompanied the wind ob scured vision and made travel al most impossible. There are no instruments in the Morehead City area for measuring wind velocity, but it was estimated that the wind at the height of the storm never exceeded 80 miles per hour and was probably less than that. Winds at Cherry Point reached 80 miles per hour when the indicator blew down. It had been predicted that winds at the center of the storm would reach about 120 miles per hour. Many Leave After the worst part of the storm had passed Morehead City, it was still believed that even more severe winds would strike at about 8 p.m. Many people who had weath ered the early blow left and head ed inland in an effort to escape the rest of the storm. Winds increased in velocity at about 8 but did not reach the in tensity of those at 5:30. Strong winds continued, however, until early Friday morning. Those who left to go inland said that they ran into the storm again in the vicinity of Cherry Point and Havelock. After passing over the Morehead City-Beaufort area the storm con tinued inland to Newport, Cherry Point and Havelock. At New Bern the storm headed north along the coast of North Carolina and Vir ginia. Heavy damage, especially to crops, was reported in several eastern Carolina counties. High winds and heavy seas ac companied the storm as it passed over the Virginia coast and Chesa peake bay. Gale winds were also reported in Maryland and Virginia. As the storm continued up the coast it turned more out to sea. It passed the eastern tip of I.ong Is land Friday night and continued along the New England coast. Southeastern New England was buffeted by gales and abnormally high tides from the fringe of the storm. The heaviest damage in More head City was at the Yacht Basin where two cement block walls were blown out of the side and back of a boat storage shed. The roof sup ports and the roof of the structure were left standing. Car Demolished One of the falling walls demol ished a car which had been parked beside the building. The car was almost completely buried under the pile of cement blocks and shattered glau. A trailer owned by Warren Sty ron, dock master at the basin, was also damaged by one of the fal ling walls. One end of the trailer was crushed when the wall fell on it. Mrs. Styron, who was in the trailer at the time, escaped unin jured. Television antennas and signs were also blown down by the north east winds which struck the Yacht Basin at about 5:30. None of the expensive boats moored at the basin dock or in the damaged shed were damaged during the storm. The most extensive damage in Morehead City was confined to the area around the Yacht Basin In the northeast end of the city. Tree* and light and telephone lines were down on several blocks of Bay, Fisher and Bridges streets tnm, See STORM, rag* 2 j