North Carolina Newspapers

Down East Area Comes Through in Good Shape t '■ '' ' • 'v ■ ' ■ : Beaufort Business Section Dealt Belly Blow by Donna ■4 Donna Causes Heavy Road Damage in County Road damage alone in OartereH may run anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000, C. W. Snell, division engineer. State Highway commis sion, estimated Wednesday. Carteret was hit worse than any other county in Mr. Snell's division. The worst problems are the Beau fort-Morehead causeway, Emerald Isle road and highway 24. The ends of the bridge at Swans boro were washed out. “We lost an awful lot of fill near Swans boro,’’ commented J. L. Hum If weather continues favorable, state highway crews hope to have the Beaufort - Morehead causeway open to traffic by Fri day afternoon at the earliest and by Saturday morning at the la test. Nothing but emergency traf fice was permitted on the road after Tuesday night, so that re pairs could continue unhamper ed. phrey, Carteret road superinten dent. When the water receded, a car was in a hole so deep that the top of it was level with the asphalt highway. Mr. Snell was still trying to fig ure out Wednesday how best to go about the tremendous repair job needed on the Emerald Isle road where there were washouts. He said it may be necessary to do some dredging. Mr. Humphrey hoped that the Fort Macon road, where there was one washout, would be open to traffic yesterday. “All our routine highway work must stop until we get this emer gency situation under control,” he said. Plans to put a temporary black topping on the approaches to the Calico Creek bridge, More head City, were knocked in the head by Donna. “If Donna hadn’t come along, we would have had that done by Wednesday,” Mr. Humphrey said. Harlowe Church to Observe Homecoming This Sunday Harlowe Methodist church of' route 2 Newport will observe Homecoming and Church School Rally day Sunday. This will be the first Homecom ing service in over 25 years. The day will begin with the church school rally at 10 a.m. Dr. A. J. Hobbs, superintendent of the New Bern District, will preach at the 11 o’clock service and at 12 noon will preside at the quarterly con ference. Lunch will be in the fellowship hall at 12:30 p.m. The afternoon service will begin at 2 p.m. A re port on church history will be giv en, followed by special singing by choirs, quartets and soloists. Recent projects completed by the church are installation of a speaker system, the finishing and equipping of the kitchen and ex tensive improvements on the ceme tery. The charge consisting of Oak Grove church and Harlowe have begun construction on a new par sonage. Harlowe church is located nine miles east of Cherry Point on high way 101. The pastor, Rev. Jack Hunter, invites all former pastors and friends of members to attend. The program for the day: 10 a.m.—church school rally, ll a.m. —worship service, noon—quarterly conference, 12:30 p.m.—lunch in fellowship hall. 2 p.m.—historical report of Har lowe church, 2:10 p.m. — special singing, 2:30 p.m.—recognition of guests, 2:40 p.m.—special singing, 3:lt p.m.—benediction. Bogu* Clubwomen Hoar Report on Recent Event A report on the Aug. 27 family fish fry was given at the Septem ber meeting of the Bogue Home Demonstration dob recently. The club met at the home of Mrs. O. B. Arthur. The fish fry was held on the shore at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Guthrie and was attended by 41 persons. It was termed a big success. Mrs. Floy Garner, home agent, -showed slides and gave a talk on how to stretch the food dollar at the club meeting. The president conducted devotions. Mrs. Arthur served chocolate cake and lemonade. Wall Buckles A wall in the new gym at Queen Street school budded under the im pact of Sunday night’s hurricane, but did not collapse. i Five Carteret Towns Receive Street Funds Five Carteret towns will receive by the first of October their share of $7,015,112.19 to be distributed to North Carolina towns qualifying for street funds under the Powell law. This law requires that one-half cent oi the state gasoline tax be returned to the towns for upkeep of local streets not maintained by the state. Payment to a town is based on that town’s street mileage and pop ulation. The rate this year came to about $2 30 per person, based on the 1950 census, and $446.88 per mile. Bayshore Park and Cape Car terett, in this county, received funds last year, but not this year. The state points out that some le gally incorporated towns in the state did not qualify for the pay ments. Carteret’s total cut of the Pow ell fund this year is $43,577.18, Morehead City receiving the larg est share. Last year’s payment to Carteret towns totaled $46,216.08, of which $3,889.91 Went to Bay shore Park and Cape Carterett. Allocations this year are as fol lows: Atlantic Beach, $2,945.88, Beaufort $10,951.54, Emerald Isle $5,148.04, Morehead City $20,336.32, and Newport $4,195.40. Site Offered Mayor W. H. Potter, Beaufort, announces that Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Merrill, Beaufort, have offered a 20-acre site on highway 101 near Tuttle’s Grove church for a county hospital. Cool Weather Follows Storm Cooler temperatures followed Donna, and as usual after a big storm, the sun shone brightly on scenes of the wreckage. E. Stamey Davis, Morehead City, official weather observer, reported the following temperatures and wind directions for Sept. 1 through Sunday, when Donna arrived: Max. Min. Wind Sept. 1 . 90 77 SW Sept. 2 .87 73 NW Sept. 3 .85 69 NE Sept. 4 ......87 68 NE Sept. 5 .. 88 70 SW Sept. 6 .87 71 Var. Sept. 7 .84 73 NE Sept. 8 ..92 75 SE Sept. 9 . 91 75 S Sept. 10 .a.80 74 S St t. 11 ..85 72 SE Total rainfall for the month, through Donna, was 3.53 inches. Banks Expect To Merge Soon He boards of directors of Com mercial National Bank and Wa chovia Bank k Trust Co. have recommended merger of the two banking institutions to their stock holders. The stockholders are expected to give their approval at a meeting Oct. 14. Following that, both the State Banking commission, meet ing on Oct. 19, and the Federal Re serve System must give approval. Commercial National bank, with its headquarters in Kinston, has two branches in Kinston, one in Morehead City and one in Sea Level. Wachovia is the 41st bank in size in the nation, the largest in the southeast and a member of the Federal Reserve System. License Returned Virgil Lee Brinkley, 2900 Aren dell St., Itorehead City, has been informed of the reinstatement of his driving privileges by the North Candida Department of Motor Ve hicles. ' The damage in Beaufort’s husM ness section, as a result of Donna, is the worst it has been in any storm, businessmen say. In the residential areas no home escap ed damage. Shingles were off roofs, tv antennas down, screens ripped off, chimneys toppled and windows broken. In the business block the Fashion Shoppe estimates its loss is total— $28,000 to $35,000. City Grocery places its loss in the? thousands. Water was 2 feet high in Bell’s! Drug store. The back part of Paul Motor Co. fell in. The southwest side of the building was a freight depot be fore BeAufort had a train. It has been standing at least 80 years and this was the first time the tide had risen in it, Halsey Paul said. Floor boards were buckled. Way’s fish house suffered loss of the roof and dock. All of the businesses mentioned thus far are on the water side of Front Street. On the other side, the Bob ’n Sue shop was damaged by tide and rain. There were 19 inches wa ter in Biggs’ Shoe shop. James Biggs lost two motors and leather and estimated damage at $2,300. The loss at Western Auto was 75 per cent. Most folks were reluctant to esti mate damage in dollars and cents. They said they’ll find out over the ■coming weeks what has been ruin ed by water. Parts of a dock were found back of the Fashion Shoppe. The store’s doors had been boarded and barri caded, but Leslie Moore, owner, said doors were found wide open after the storm. It is believed the pilings battered the doors down. Davis fish house lost its dock, electric motors and roof. The Sea shore Packing Co., on Gallants channel, owned by the Davis’s and others, suffered $10,000 damage. The roof was blown off, motors and equipment damaged, the dock swept away and a boat sunk. Twelve inches of water flowed into Beaufort Hardware. The AAP reopened Monday after re stock ing with merchandise that replac ed damaged goods. Colonial store had to restock all its perishable foods which went bad because of lack of power—as did other gro cery stores. There was a small amount of looting in the downtown section until the National Guard came in Monday morning. The Museum of the Sea proved to be a sturdy craft. A bit of wa ter went in, but otherwise her cap tain, Grayden Paul, said it wasn’t damaged at all. Machine and Supply Co., just west of Gallants channel is prac tically wiped out. A. T. Leary, lessee of the BAM railroad said the railroad will re pair the tracks and go back in business. The track will be re built on a sand bed and they hope to atari using it next week. About two weeks’ work Will be required on the railroad bridge across Gal lants channel, he said. The BAM had borrowed $76,000 this summer to rebuild all its track, put in stone ballast and make it a first rate railroad. Now most of that is scattered some where in the marshes. Hal Potter, one of Beaufort's eldest citizens, says in his lifetime he had not seen a storm to equal Donna. Others claim that the storm of 1933 was just as bad, if not worse. Power Restored To Emerald Isle Carteret - Crave* Electric Mem bership Corp., which supplies pow er to Emerald Isle, hoped to have power to the area by yesterday. To supply emergency power, a Marine transport helicopter flew a generator to Emerald Isle Tues day. George Thompson, owner of the steel pier there, suffered a broken leg that day, reportedly while making storm repairs, and was taken to the Morebead City hospital by the State Highway pa trol. W. C. Carlton, manager of Car teret-Craven REA, said their radio tower, taken down by Donna, had to be replaced Monday before line crews could go to work. 5 Monday night powdr was on in the Havelock and New port areas; by Tuesday night in the Maysville section, Merrimon and South River, highway 101, Ce dar Island, Straits, Otway and Sal ter Path. Throe crews from Wadesbero, in the Pee Doe Electric Membership Corp. area, arc assisting Carteret Craven crews, as well as a private contractor. Mr. Carlton eaid that their greatest cost will bo in labor. Mdienel-wise, only about two doz en poles add a half dozen trans formers were lost. 'Take Heart' J. A. DuBois, manager of the Morehead City chamber of com merce, admonished folks to take heart yesterday. “If we make as much progress after this storm as we did after Hazel, we are in for good days ahead,” he declared. “We can come back better than ever be fore.” Rufus Butner, president of the chamber, joined Mr. DuBois in his message of encouragement. “This is a good time to reap praise plans for the bridge across the Newport river and reaffirm our objectives to restore and pre serve the outer banks.” Phone Crews Hard af Work Telephone service between Beau fort and Morehead City was re- j stored at 12:30 p.m. yesterday. L. A. Daniels, manager of Caro lina Telephone and Telegraph Co., I said his crews had hoped to work on the causeway cable Wednesday night under lights, but they were unable to get the cable overhead I by nightfall. The major trouble on the cause way, Mr. Daniels said, was that everybody was getting in everyone else’s way. Highway crews had to wait ’til telephone crews got j out of the way; power crews had j to wait ’til other crews moved— j and so it went. Telephone poles on the north side of the B&M railroad went down on the causeway. The phone company is setting poles by Jones Barbecue and will run its lines on power poles on the south side of the causeway to by-pass the wash outs on the north. When the phone company will get the causeway back to pre-Don na status was anyone’s guess. “We’ll have to work with the State Highway commission,” Mr. Dan iels said. “It may be several months.” Many local calls could be made in Beaufort, Morehead City and Newport Monday, but the phone company was still clearing troubles there by mid-week. “We’ve got a bad situation at Atlantic Beach,” Mr. Daniels re marked. “There several houses have washed back against the ca bles.” There were also minor troubles down east. Four extra telephone crews were moved in by the phone company to repair damages. Mayor Praises Public Utilities Mayor George Dill, Morehead City, had nothing but praise this week for the public utilities. “I’m continually amazed,” he remarked, “at the way the utilities bounce back. The situation looks hopeless, all is chaos, but then those fellows in the yellow tin hats pull wires here and yonder and in less than a third of the time you’d think it would take, they got us back in business. “You can’t even eat without the services these people give us,” the mayor observed. He added that folks are criticiz ing Gov. Luther Hodges unjustly for his comments that Donna was not as bad as Hazel. “Governor Hodges said,” the mayor reported, “that damage to PUBLIC property was not as bad as in Hazel, and he’s right.” “In Hazel we had debris piled up in the north-south streets in Morehead City and there was none of that this time. Town-owned buildings, streets, other town prop erty had very little damage. Pub lic utilities are privately-owned, so is the B&M railroad. They are not public property.” After Hazel, Congress passed a law requiring that an area have at least a million and a half dol lars damage to public property be fore it could become eligible for federal disaster funds. Untfcr that law, mayor Dill said he doubted that this county would qualify for such funds. Bank Announces 20th Anniversary Winners Rufus Butner, manager of Com mercial National bank, Morehead City, yesterday announced winners in the bank’s 20th anniversary give-away Saturday. They are Frank Morning, Beau fort, first prize of $90; Thomas H. Salter, Stacy, second prize of a radio; John Griffith, route 1 New port, third prize, luggage, and Ar nold E. Gray, Morehead City, fourth (mo, $io. J ► The Down East area, in general,* escaped heavy damage in Donna. There were spots of severe dam age at Harpers Island, Wiiliston and Gloucester, but otherwise it whs confined to wihdows being blown out, trees down or limbs off, chimneys toppled, and shingles off roofs. Most of the folks from North River eastward consider them selves lucky. At Atlantic, L. C. Mann lost his porch. Part of the roof was blown off the old building at Clayton Ful cher Seafood Co. and a few pilings went down, but otherwise there was no heavy damage. The Atlantic-Ocracoke ferry stay ed at Ocracoke Sunday and did not return to Atlantic until Tues day. Damage at Ocracoke was reported to be severe. Boats were torn up and houses seriously dam aged. Folks at Atlantic saved the food in their freezers by carrying it to the Fulcher fish house where Mr. Fulcher’s emergency generators were keeping electricity flowing. The power was restored early Tuesday afternoon. Between Sea Level and Atlantic, the Frank Gaskili home was mov ed off its concrete block supports. The whole house shifted just far, enough so that when it came down again the blocks went up through the floor. Two boats, the 36-foot trawler owned by Joe Lina, and the 45 foot trawler owned by Charles Alli good, both of Davis, went ashore between Davis and Stacy. The boats were anchored at Fishing Point and broke their moorings. Men were busy getting them afloat again Tuesday. Eighty feet of the end of the boat shed next to Willis Seafood Co., Wiiliston, blew off. This was, per haps, the heaviest damage to a business place east of Beaufort. The heavy metal roofing flew across highway 70 and damaged several houses. Although the tim bers collapsed, they fell in such a way that a cabin cruiser in the shed was not damaged. The boat shed was being rented to Julian Guthrie of Harkers Island. Tide at that point on highway 70 was up to the center of the road at the height of the storm. The storage area in the Willis clam house was damaged; one sec tion of wall was gone. Flying tim bers from the boat shed went through a window in the clam house office and into the store. The boat shed section disintegrated sometime prior to midnight Sun day. ^’he roof went off the kitchen at the Ben Taylor home, Willistori, and the porch of the Preston Wil lis home was taken away. Wind curled up the metal roof on Smyrna school building and there was also damage to the roof of the Harkers Island school. Schools throughout the county re opened Wednesday. The Oliver Chadwicks, Glouces ter, believe a tornado hit their home. Between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday the roof was lifted off the upper story of the 100-year-old home and the porch roof on the back section of the house was lift ed and carried into a field owned by R. J. Chadwick. Mrs. Chadwick said she had just been to the second floor to check on whether rain was coming in the windows. She had started downstairs when she said it felt “as though the house was all wrap ped up,” then she heard a tremen dous noise and timbers started fall ing around her. She called her husband for help. He helped her get out but her left leg was severely bruised from the flying debris. With the roof gone, the rain poured in. The Chadwicks spent that night in a neighbor’s home where they had moved much of their furniture. Mr. Chadwick, who is M, was making attempts to repair his home Tuesday, but the elderly couple said the future looked bleak because they didn’t know where the money would come from to meet the cost of repairs. Other evidence that small tor nadoes probably hit this area prior to the height of Donna was pre sented by A. C. Hodges of Ho-Ho Village on Bogue Bound. Mr. Hodges found on his property parts of signs from Fleming*s restaurant on the Atlantic Beach causeway. The signs were found in woods several hundred feet above the high water mark and could have been carried there only by the wind—about 10 miles away from where they once stood. Maxwell Willis, manager of the Harkers Island Electric Member ship Corp., said power on the is land was restored at 1:30 Tues day. The Barkley summer home, a concrete block structure, was completely blown apart. At Gillikin boat works, 245 feet Of the roof blew off the boat (died. James Gillikin estimated damage St $6,000, which was not insured. Boats being built inside the shed were not damaged. The second story of the concrete block motel, being built at Shell Point on the island, collapsed. The motel is being put up by Carl Lew is. There was also extensive dam age at Harkers Lodge. Beaufort experienced extremely high water. On Bird Shoal some of the new ranges erected this summer wont down. The ponies on the shod swam to Pivers Island Sunday and returned to their heme Monday. Washouts at the ends of the North River bridge mpde the •bed formerly extended from the left builds boats on Markers Island, stands by the only James Gillikin, right, estimates his boat of the picture 245 feet to the right. Mr. Gillikin, section of the shed left standing. This is a scene of some of the severest damage at Atlantic Beach, looking east toward the Atlantic Beach hotel. Three cottages washed together at an intersection. The street was filled with tons of sand. Shelby Freeman plans to rebuild his Iron Steamer pier. Meat ocean pier owners say they're too deep in the business to abandon their piers. The parking lot in the foreground is now a parking lot for pilings and debris. bridge impassable until highway crews got there Monday morning, although motorists eager to get to their destination put boards across the washouts. The eye of the storm is reported to have crossed the Jacksonville Morehead City-New Bern section. Refugees from Salter Path, At lantic Beach and parts of More head City took shelter at the mu nicipal building, i .rst Baptist church and the Morehead City school. It had not been planned to use the school as a shelter, but someone gained entry to the school by knocking out a window and refugees were found in the build ing by the principal Monday morn ing. James Has, Red Cross disaster chairman for the county, estimated the nupiber of refugees at 100. Two families, both by the name of Nixon, whose homes were de stroyed at Salter Path, were hous ed this week in the old Leary home owned by the First Presbyterian church, Morehead City. The fam ilies were evacuated by the Na tional Guard. There were 12 in one family and four in the other. The Leary home has two bath rooms, but no cooking facilities. A range was loaned by Carteret Gas and Appliance and the Red Cross supplied the gas, food and cooking utensils. Because the home cannot be used after today, Mr. Hux said other housing will have to be found for the Nixons. Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Jones lost their home and oyster house at Mill Creek, but wore being cared for by neighbors, Mr. Hux said. Although there was damage at tea mJr —.n» — — .A Ci|iM Iflv BXVvv pWi In JW^g^PHVesx* vst j I pert officials feel lucky that it was not extensive. A roof was Mown off part of the new warehouse, but tobacco in the warehouse had been covered by tarpaulins and was protected. There are Washouts through the port area, and the grain elevators are slightly askew, but otherwise Donna spared the port. Two large feel tanks owned by the Carteret Towing Co., Radio Is land, were washed over to the Beaufort-MoreHead causeway and one of the company’s dredges went aground at Spooner’s creek. Hawsers holding the hopper dredge, Gerig, at Morehead City port, parted and the Geflg went aground on a marsh. Rut she dug her way out and was back at work in the channel Monday. Southern Railway officials re ported that 42 ears of gasoline would move over the B6M rail road tracks Wednesday afternoon from Radio Island into Morehead City. Major damage to the BfcM track is east of the switch to the island where Aviation Fuel Termi nal is located. Mail for Beaufort and east, dur ing the time the causeway was closed, was handled by Morehead City's making contact with mall trucks at Havelock at Newport, then mail to Beaufort was sent in by highway Ml. Twenty state highway patrolmen from Greensboro east have been on duty in Carteret ever since Sun day night. Both Capt. 8. H. Mitch ell, Greenville, and Sgt. Ernest Guthrie, New Bern, have bean here with them. ® Sergeant Guthrie expressed his tito public thanks Wednesday to the p« for their cooperation with the trel and asked aautlauoti coop tion until tile ettlePjethfy is We re trying to dn everything pos sible not to inconvenience folks top much,” he said. Safrit sawmill, Beaufort, Was heavily damaged in the storm. Robert and Leonard Safrit said operation will be seriously ham pered until the B&M Railroad gets back in operation. At Camp Glenn the home occu pied by James L. Busby, Coast Guardsman stationed at Fort Ma con, was moved off its foundation. In the home at the time were Mrs. Busby, and her three children. Mr. Busby was on duty at the station. The incident occurred about three hours pribr to the height of the storm and is believed to have been caused by a small twister, two of the children had to be tak en out a window because the house settled and jammed the door to the room where they were. the Busbys are now living in a home at 1804 Arendell St. They were able to save their furniture and other belongings. At Newport the Primitive Bap tist church lost a section of roof. Jim KeMy. Newport, lost the roof off his tobacoo pack house. His tobacco loss is estimated at sev eral thousand dollars. Meaes Howard’s garage at his home collapsed and a tree fell on the kitchen of the home of the Misses Carrie and Alice Mason at Masoutown, smashing all their dishes and a kitchen table. Several trailers in the area were damaged and a shed roof at New SHt Tractor and Equipment Ca ew off. Otherwise, damage in the Newport area was minor. Mayor Leon Maun, Newport, commended Carolina Power and Light for fast restoration of serv ice. Auxiliary motors at the wa ter plant and the fire station op erated until the power came on again.