U.S. National - AP
N.C. Town Still Recovering From Hurricane
Mon Nov 10, 9:14 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!
By AARON BEARD
HATTERAS, N.C. - The sunny skies and breezy, warm weather practically begged Wayne Miller to take his boat out on the Pamlico Sound.
AP Photo
But the commercial fisherman knew it was no use. He gave up two weeks ago when his nets — intended to snare flounder — kept snagging televisions, refrigerators and other junk tossed into the water by Hurricane Isabel.
"The last thing I caught was a three-legged chair," he said.
The signs of Isabel's fury are everywhere here. Trash piles line the shoulders of state Highway 12 through the town, and the road itself was cut to pieces just to the north. Buildings ripped from their foundations still lie in crumpled piles.
Two months after the storm, Hatteras Village is still digging out.
"People don't understand the devastation," said Steve Evans, a pharmacist who hopes to reopen his battered drug store by Christmas. "It's just mind-boggling. You can't explain it except to say it looks like it hit last week."
The storm arrived Sept. 18, leaving an imprint on the Outer Banks in the shape of a new inlet across Hatteras Island.
The breach, which took a 1,700-foot section of N.C. 12 with it, isolated the town's 300 residents on the southern end of the island. Crews eventually installed water and power lines to reach them, but they still are relying on ferry service for travel and supplies until the road is rebuilt.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filled in the channel last week, which means the state Department of Transportation can begin rebuilding the road Monday. The state estimates it will take two weeks to restore the road, allowing more machinery to get to the island to speed clean-up and recovery efforts.
Until then, residents will have to continue their ritual of adaptation. That includes taking the 30-minute ferry ride from Hatteras Village to Frisco, just north of the cut.
JoAnne Hale, 59, and her husband, Fred, have come up with a creative way to do most of their grocery shopping. She takes the ferry to Frisco, then drives one of the couple's cars to a supermarket in nearby Avon.
Once there, she calls her husband to take their boat to Frisco and pick her up, leaving the car behind.
"You feel like a caged animal," she said. "You've got such a small place that you can go to. After a while, you begin to realize that you can't get away.
"It's not front-page news anymore to anyone except us."
Evans, 52, who opened the Beach Pharmacy of Hatteras 13 years ago, lost his entire inventory of medicine. What wasn't submerged in Isabel's floodwaters was damaged by heat and humidity in the days following the storm.
He arranges to have prescriptions filled by an Avon pharmacy and sent by ferry to Hatteras Village. He then picks them up and distributes them to his customers. Asked when he will start filling prescriptions again, he says, "We've got to get the building fixed first."
Travel a mile or so down N.C. 12, and volunteers are still preparing meals at the town's community center. Hassell Oakley, 68, of Leasburg, estimates they serve about 300 meals a day, though the number is declining.
Miller, 53, is ready for better times.
In the weeks after the storm, he brought in 100 to 150 pounds of flounder a day. A normal day's haul would be about 400 pounds.
His three decades of experience as a fisherman tell him that the waters will eventually clear. For now, Miller — a single parent with two teenage sons — will set crab traps and try to wait it out.
"Psychologically it's been devastating even now," he said. "People make a good season on sport fishing and tourism. ... It's a right big chunk of money to have to lose.
"You're always disappointed when you can't make a living for your family, but we'll get through it."
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