Donna 1960

DONNA - Storm of ‘60 September 13, 1960 The Beaufort News Donna Devastates Carteret County Storm Lands Sunday Punch Sunday Night Residents still dazed by devastating Donna, are today soberly digging out from under the debris. Although there were no deaths, damage in this county alone runs into the millions.

Hardly a building in the business section of Atlantic Beach escaped. Most are half or totally destroyed. Every ocean fishing pier is actually down. Fort Macon highway will be impassable until the dance floor of the Dunes Club is moved off of it.

The Dunes Club was slammed against a high dune 500 feet from where it formerly stood, the wreckage, like a heap of jackstraws, is strewn against the bank marking the east boundary of Oceanana Resort.

Emerald Island homes suffered severe to total damage. Salter Path residents report minor damage.

Metal roofs, curled in balls, lay on Arendell St., Morehead City, Monday morning. Heavy plate glass windows were shattered. Most businesses, if they opened at all, didn’t open until the afternoon.

The sound of shattered glass being swept up was heard everywhere. A poet might have symbolized it as crystallized tears of businessmen who face a task of “coming back” such as they have not faced before.

Hazel, the terrible storm of October 15, 1954, was a weak sister compared to Donna.

The Beaufort-Morehead City causeway is a shambles. Only a few cars on official business were permitted the treacherous journey across it Monday afternoon. Houses, fishing camps are ripped apart, the highway caved in, and the beautiful new roadway of the Beaufort and Morehead railroad heavily damaged. The force of wind and water turned a diesel engine over.

Tides, 5 to 7 feet above normal, rushed across Front Street, Beaufort. Store windows are smashed, signed ripped down, docks askew, water damage inside buildings heavy. Much roof damage isn’t visible to passers-by.

By 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, most boats along the waterfronts had moved to protected harbors. A few on the Beaufort waterfront rode the storm out successfully. On the Morehead City waterfront a shrimper lay high on the shore where the receding flood tides had left it.

Farm buildings were damaged in about the same proportion as other buildings. By mid-week, county agriculture officials hope to have a rough estimate of crop damage. Impassable roads and no telephones made earlier check-ups impossible.

Gusty winds and rain squalls were omens of the storm Sunday morning. Gray water was churning into foam and by 5 p.m. the first heavy, side-wise rolling rain typical of a hurricane gushed through the Morehead City area.

It subsided only to be followed shortly by another blowing rain that fell almost continuously until the worst of the storm passed at midnight. Jack Savage, director of Civil Defense, Atlantic Beach, said the barometer at the beach reached its lowest point, 28.46 at five minutes after Sunday midnight. E. Stamey Davis, official weather observer in the county, said his barometer in Morehead City registered a low of 28.55 at half past midnight but had risen by 1 a.m. Monday to 29.55.

Donna poured almost 3 inches of rain in Carteret. Mr. Davis’s official reading was 2.92 inches.

The power went off at about 8:30. Throughout the Morehead City-Jacksonville area, power poles were down.

Power was restored to sections of Newport and Morehead City at 8 Monday night, but other sections are expected to be without power until Wednesday morning.

M.G. Coyle, clerk of the Town of Atlantic Beach, estimated damage in the town alone at three quarters of a million dollars.

Mayor A.B. Cooper called a meeting at 11 a.m. Monday with high-ranking representatives of the National Guard, Coast Guard, State highway Patrol, State Highway Commission, County Sheriff’s Department and military police.

“It’s our intent to aid property owners as much as possible, clear debris as quickly as we can, have the beach patrolled night and day to prevent looting.”

The mayor said.

He especially requested that no sight-seers visit the beach. Officers at the beach bridge were checking to see that no one except property owners on the beach of other authorized personnel crossed the bridge.

“Things are bad, real bad.” Mr. Cooper said. “We’re awfully discouraged, that we’re going to try to pull out of it the best we can.” He wouldn’t attempt to estimate the damage in dollars and cents to his private enterprises on the beach, which are extensive. He surmised that his Oceanana Resort motel sustained a loss of a fourth of its full value, as did the Oceanana fishing pier.

Jim Botsford, ham radio operator, Chapel Hill, who happened to be at Atlantic Beach, maintained radio communication with the rest of the state from the Atlantic Beach town hall all during the storm.

A Civil Air Patrol mobile radio unit arrived at the beach at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Manning it were Douglas and Alton Ray Long, both of Kinston.

The storm had caused postponement of the quarterly conference of the North Carolina district Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, at Harkers Island

next Sunday. The new chapel, which was to be dedicated, lost most of its copper roof.

Gillikin Boat Works, on the island, lost half its building. Part of it fell on a boat under construction. Several houses were blown off their foundations, roofs were blown off and several trees fell on cars. Boats were badly battered all along the shore.

Dock damage and tree damage is so extensive that it will be weeks before things are anywhere back to normal.

Owen Dail, who with his wife Rachel, have the Treasure Ship on the Atlantic Beach causeway, said Monday, “This is the end. We came here in 1954 and had Hazel and it’s taken us until now to learn you can’t have anything on the water.

Everybody on the beach who goes back into business next year is going to have to borrow money.”

The roof blew off the gift shop part of the Treasure Ship. Then the wind ripped jackets from new books, leaving the books intact.

Although the ship was imbedded firmly on shore, Mr. Dail said that at one time during the storm, she was afloat.

Cherry Point Marine Air Base was again the county’s savior in many respects.

Two generators with two men each to man them were sent to Morehead City hospital Sunday afternoon. The generators kept the hospital supplied with power.

Gasoline was airlifted by helicopter to WMBI, radio station on an island between Beaufort and Morehead City. The gas was needed to keep the generator going.