Newspapers / The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, … / Sept. 23, 1999, edition 1 / Page 1
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tNE ONLY NEWSPAPER FOR AND ABOUT PERQUOMANS COUNTY AND ITS Hope Clinic opens pages Hertford Grammar celebrates Grandparents' Day page 6 ALS golf tourney set for Nov. pages September 23,1999 Mol 67, Na M Mnhnl Monk tenlM 27M4 The PWTH A M PERQUIMANS COUNTY , rpn.. -'f,/'°STAL CUSTOMER H^TFurd_nc 27944 il! Tornado hits Durants Neck Twister rips through homes JEREMY DESPOSITO The Daily Advance At least three homes in the Durants Neck community were hit by a tornado during Hurricane Floyd’s approach last Wednesday night. According to Emergency Management Coordinator Ray CuUipher, the tornado flew off the Albemarle Sound, hitting two homes on Soimdside Drive aroimd 11:30 p.m. before rip ping into another on New Hope Road. The twister took a garage door off a waterfront home, crossed the street and destroyed another, then ripped the end off a doublewide mobile home on New Hope Road- Luckily, neither of the homeowners of the severely damaged properties were at home at the time. No injuries were reported. Jeff and RoseAnn White were at their current home in Hampton, Va. They had left their doublewide home on New Hope Road last Sunday. It’s a part-time residence to which they were waiting to retire. The Whites didn’t see the damage until they arrived Thursday afternoon. Their first priority was salvaging family photos and anything else they could find. From outside the home, clothes could be seen still hanging in a bedroom closet. Toothbrushes still hung in their place by the bathroom A tornado touched down in the Durants Neck area of Perquimans County late last Wednesday night, damag ing three houses. Among those damaged properties was the doublewide mobile home of Jeff and RoseAnn White. The right front wall was ripped from the home, exposing clothes hanging in the closet. sink, but the roof was on top of a mattress on the floor. The right quarter of the home was pulled wide open and waUs were sitting on top of the roof. In addition, parts of the bro ken brick foimdation lay 20 feet from the house in the grass. Other items from teh mobile home were scattered up to 50 yards away, ina a rough line pointing in the direction of the tornado’s path. Neighbor Laurie Zeiner heard the tornado touch down. She’s thankful her neighbor sweren’t home. “When you see the house, nobody could survive it,” she said. Zeiner and her husband ran to the front of their house when they heard the sound. “I want to say (it sounded like) a freight train,” she said. “I hope I never hear that sound in my life again. “My husband literally saw the back wall come in two inch es. (The tornado) lasted five seconds.” The frightening part of watching the tornado hit, Zeiner said, wasn’t the wind howling so much as it was the uncertainty. “When you see how destruc tive they are... I hope it never happens again. I felt sick (for our neighbros). Everybody feels bad for them.” When they saw the damage, the Whites also were sick at heart. “I’m depressed,” said Rose Ann White. “The stuff I brought down here I collected ... pictures of my son from first to sixth grade. It’s just depress ing.” “We’ll wait to see what hap pens with insurance,” Jeff White said. “That’s the road we have to follow.” Ironically, the Whites ahd stayed in New Hope during Hurricane Dennis. They felt fortunate to be elsewhere Wednesday night. “We come down here every other week,” he said. “I was hoping to retire and come here.” A wood-frame house on Soundside Road, just around the- corner, received the worst damage- The owners’ son, a volunteer fireman with the Newbold Fire Department in Pasquotank County, notified his parents of the damage Thursday afternoon- “We’re just picking up the pieces,” Keith Yezdanian said. “(The house) is gone. There’s Adult day services week proclaimed in state Governor Jim Hunt has pro claimed Sept. 19-25 as “Adult Day Services Week: Honoring Our Past, Creating Our Future.” The week honors the over 100 adult day service programs in 68 North Carolina counties, such as Day Break Adult Day Health Care Center in Elizabeth City As part of long-term continuing care for older and disabled adults, the Adult Day Health Care Services of the N.C. Division of Aging offer the opportunity for an impaired adult to become involved, sharing the day with others, in a safe, super vised environment. There is an opportunity for group involvement and individually planned services and activities director toward stabi lization or improvement of the dis abled and older Adults. The primary caregivers have the opportunity to remain employed while their loved one is cared for in a secure and healthy environment. Adult Day Health Care Services have grown in North Carolina from two programs in 1973 to over 100 today. On any given weekdays, more than 2,500 people attend an adult day care program in the state. At Day Break, participants enjoy a person alized plan or care and a program of physical, social, cultural, and craft activities, specializing in a nurtur ing environment for those adults who might otherwise be unable to participate in the community due to frailty or disability. Together with the participant, the family and the Day Break staff manage chronic ill nesses and prevent or postpone nm*sing home placement/ Recognizing the value of adult day care services, the 1999 session of the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $250,000 for start-up grants for up to ten new adult day service programs. Chowan Coxmty has received start-up fund ing through the N.C. Division of Aging and through the generous support 0 the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, plans are being formulated to construct an adult day health care center in Edenton based on the Day Break Model. For additional information, Julia Morse, RN, Day Break Adult Day Health Care Coordinator, can be reached at 338-4375. Day Break is located in Edgewood Center, 1407 Parkview Drive, Elizabeth City ALS softball tournament moves to Winfall fields A softball tournament to raise ftmds for the Jim “Catfish” Hunter ALS Foundation will move to Perquimans County. Originally set to be played in Gates, the tournament was moved early this week because of the extensive flooding in parts of that coimty. Joan Riddick, one of the tournament organizers, said Monday that the hurricane may also change the num ber of teams entering the men’s tourna ment. Teams from Hertford County may not be able to play because of the devas tating losses in that area. StiU, Rountree is hopeful that the event wiU be a success. “I’m trying to get everything donated so that every penny we make can go to ALS,” Rouintree said. “Even if we don’t make a whole lot of money, everything will help.” The tournament is set to begin Friday evening at 6:30. Play will resume on Saturday at 10 a.m. A highlight of the tournament will be an exhibitition game between members of the Hunter family and WVEC TV on Saturday at 2 p.m. The entry fee is $200 per team, with the first eight teams to contact Rountree to Jeff Winslow accepted. In addition to team fees, organizers are accepting business and individual dona tions. Concessions will be sold to raise more funds. For information on the tournament, call Rountree at 357-0597 or Winslow at 357-0534. not much we can do.” In his eight months with the fire department, he’s never seen any fire damage close wo what his parents’ house looked like after the tornado, he said. It was lifted off its foimda tion. The front deck was intact, but the house was pushed back about 10 feet. One shed was detached from its foundation, and parts of another shed were everywhere. Pieces of the roof could be found as far as 500 feet into a cornfield behind the house. Inside, only two framed pictures and some furniture were salvageable under the broken glass. “I’ve never seen anything liek this,” said Yezdanian, who lived in the house a year ago with his wife, Joelene, and his daughter, Jessika, 2. “The wind got so bad it actually beat hole sin the wall. We just got a con crete driveway put in; this is what my parents get to come home to.” Yezdanian’s parents were to retire here in two months. They saw the damage on Saturday. “Everything that meant anything to them, they brought down here,” he said. “We were able to savage some photo albums of me ahd my brother growing up. Dad had a lot of NASCAR race collectibles. Mom had procelain Vcduables.” His father, a private investi gator in New York, has owned the property for about 10 years, building the house slowly until its completion a year ago. “They’ll most likely stay with us (for now),” Yezdanian said. “Dad put his heart into it. He was reaUy into his house. He gets choked up every once in a while, but he’s holding his own.” Property spared, crops in question SUSAN R. HARRIS Editor Unlike some counties in eastern North Carolina, Perquimans went about its business Friday Emergency Management Coordinator Ray CuUipher said the tornado damages in the Durants Neck area and three Ferry Road houses with water in the them were the only major damages to homes reported to him last Friday. In addition, Larry’s Drive-In at the foot of the causeway reported 6-8 inches of water inside. CuUipher said the cause way, the street through Cedar Wood Cemetery, and Edenton Road Street by the high school were closed most of Wednesday night and into Thursday due to high water. There were other flooded roads scattered throughout the county, but most were pass able. Only Perry’s Bridge in Belvidere remained closed into this week. There were also a few trees down, and electric service was interrupted temporarily in some areas. CuUipher and other emer gency officials met Wednesday to discuss the approaching Hurricane Floyd. He said Perquimans was facing the possibUity of hurricane force winds and a high probabUity of tornadoes along with storm surges and heavy rain. Not wanting to take any chances, emergency manage ment officials declared a state of emergency Wednesday at 2 p.m. and began evacuation of low-lying areas and mobUe homes. A shelter opened at Perquimans Middle School at 4 p.m. A curfew of 9 p.m. was established to get residents off of roads. Fire departments in each area patroUed Wednesday night, checking for flooded roads and other problems. About 70 people went to the shelter. WhUe the county escaped the devastating property dam age that hit much of eastern North Carolina, farmers wiU likely be hit hard by the water left behind by both Dennis and Floyd. North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service-Perquimans Center Director Lewis Smith said Tuesday that it is hard to determine at this point exactly what to expect from the water, but losses could be in the mU- lions of doUars. Corn already had ear dis ease problems before the storms, and the water and delay in harvesting wiU cause reduced quality. Smith said. Problems had also been dis covered with boU rot prior to the storms. Cotton needs sun to mature and the rain is delaying maturity The longer the crop stays undefoliated and in the field, the more prob lems boU rot could cause, he said. The soggy soil wiU affect peanuts, but how much is unknown at this time. Smith said. Soybeans are not as criti cal at this point as are the other three crops, he added.
The Perquimans Weekly (Hertford, N.C.)
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Sept. 23, 1999, edition 1
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