FROM THE EDITOR 



Memories of Hazel 



I his fall, we'll be marking anniversaries: one month since Hurricane 

 Alex, one year since Isabel, five years since Floyd, and eight years since Fran. 



And come Oct. 15, it will be 50 years since Hurricane Hazel — a bench- 

 mark by which recent storms still are measured. Hazel left 19 people dead in 

 North Carolina. More than 600 lives were lost from Haiti to Canada. 



Thirty North Carolina counties were devastated — 1 5,000 homes and 

 structures were destroyed and nearly 40,000 damaged, with total losses set at 

 $136 million in 1954 dollars. Hazel affected inland towns, such as Wallace, 

 Wilson, Raleigh and Henderson. 



But those who survived the storm's landfall in Brunswick County have 

 stories that became legend. Veteran Coastwatch readers will recall the story of 

 then 17-year-old Connie Ledgett of Southport, but it is one worth repeating. 



Connie had married Jerry Helms on Oct. 9, 1954. The couple honey- 

 mooned at her family's beach cottage in Long Beach, which had only 500 or 

 so dwellings on the entire island. 



During a midweek trip back to Whiteville, they heard news reports of a 

 storm in the Bahamas but thought nothing of going back to the beach on Oct. 

 14. "We didn't have TV and the Weather Channel and satellites," she explains. 



Overnight, the wind picked up. Rain pelted the cottage's tin roof. By 

 dawn, the couple began battening things down. While packing her precious 

 45s and record player, she looked out. Normally, high dunes blocked views of 

 the ocean from her third-row cottage. "I could see the ocean billowing above 

 the sand dunes. This was the first time that I knew we were in trouble," she 

 recalls. 



By the time they got the car to the access road, the water was already up 

 to the fenders. And the family's Army surplus jeep wouldn't crank. "The only 

 thing for us to do was to start walking to higher ground." 



The water was waist high as they reached a comer house with an upstairs 

 apartment. They climbed the outside stairs, broke in, and found towels to dry off. 

 Chaos surrounded them. "Smaller frame houses would float like boats. Cement 

 block houses were the first to go — the mortar melted." 



Twice, breakers shifted oncoming structures, sending them parallel to 

 — rather than into — the couple's enclave. But they could feel the water under 

 their floor. "We tried to come up with some lifesaving measures," she recalls. 



They noted that furniture was floating, but their first choice, a chest of 

 drawers, blew out the window. Next, they pulled a mattress off a bed and rolled 

 it to fit through the window. A flannel blanket became a rope to link the couple. 

 She climbed aboard the mattress, and Jerry hung on, swimming beside it. 



A breaker broke off a piece of siding that became his raft as he held a 

 comer of the mattress in his lap. "We were at the mercy of the storm," she says. 



They rode toward Davis Creek, where they spent the remainder of the 

 storm in the branches of oak trees. Finally the sun broke through. As water 

 receded, they climbed down. But they still had to cross the creek to get to the 

 mainland — with Jerry swimming and pulling Connie behind with a 2x4. 



The beach had been flattened and the road pulled out in chunks, but she 

 was most amazed at the sight of her mother and step-dad who had come through 

 the storm from Whiteville. "When she saw us, she fainted," Connie recalls. 



In the ensuing days, the couple talked with many reporters. Connie even 

 was interviewed on Wilmington's Channel 6, which was in its first year on the air. 



With the 50th anniversary approaching, she is again telling her story, with 

 this moral: Property has limited value. Get yourself out of the storm. 



Watch for Connie 's story in documentaries this fall on WRAL and The 

 Weatlier Channel. 



Katie Mosher, Managing Editor 



I N 



THIS ISSUE 



Contributing Writers: 

 Kathleen Angione ° Ann Green ° Lilly Loughner 

 Katie Mosher ° Pam Smith 



Contributing Photographers: 

 KenBlevins a Ellen B.Cosby a Ann Green □ Michael Halminski 

 Daniel Kim a Hugh Morton □ Pam Smith □ Sandy Smith 

 Jason Talley o Scott Taylor a Erin Wall ° Roger W.Winstead 



North Carolina's diverse coast offers countless interestingsubjects. 

 The large dots on the locator map indicate story settings in this issue — 

 indud'mg Tyrrell and New Hanover counties. 



Durham 4 Wake,, 

 Chatham 



; Raleigh 



l Edgecombe 

 Rocky Mount Mm " 



Pitt 



Washington ( 



Greene 



Monrgome^ 



Fayetteirtlle "V New Bern cCV ; 



Richmond f Sampson j Duplin Jones i 



Jacksonville 



