Bertha Spins Chaos, Winds Down

Hurricane Bertha wheezed out Saturday and shrank into a tropical storm that raked the Northeast with wind and pounding rain while emergency crews dealt with a tangle of death and damage that lay in its wake.

A surfer was killed off New Jersey on Friday as the upper Atlantic reacted in angry anticipation of Bertha’s arrival. It brought the storm toll to 10: Two other deaths were reported in Florida, one in North Carolina and six in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Martin.

Estimates of total damage were unavailable, but one of Bertha’s biggest offenses seemed to be to the North Carolina tourist economy. As a hurricane, Bertha blew away about $4.5 million a day in sales and services to vacationers along the Outer Banks alone, according to state tourism officials.

By midafternoon on the East Coast, the storm had swept across Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey and was slowing traffic on bridges linking Manhattan to the rest of New York City. Forecasters said as much as 7 inches of rain would fall in parts of Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts before Bertha dissipated into a tropical depression overnight.

In its wake, the storm scattered blackouts, tornadoes and severe flooding. One tornado ripped open a mobile home near Edwardsville, Va., and hurled Chanta Adams, 22, and her sons about 50 feet into some woods. She held onto a mattress and her 1-year-old, Javante Davis. But the wind tore away her 2-year-old, Trevaughn Davis.

“I was praying to God, ‘Please, just let us drop down, get us back on the ground,’ ” Adams told the Associated Press. She and Javante were not hurt. Trevaughn was treated for a broken collarbone, cuts and bruises. The tornado destroyed two other mobile homes and damaged seven.

Another tornado hit Smithfield and Isle of Wight, small communities west of Norfolk, Va. Ten homes were damaged.

The blackouts were scattered from North Carolina to New York. More than 55,000 homes were without power across Virginia. At least 3,300 were affected in New Jersey, and 8,000 were darkened on Long Island. Severe weather and blackouts delayed flights at several small airports.

Flooding and beach erosion were problems throughout the Outer Banks. The storm isolated Ocracoke Island, which was without power or ferry service for hours. An 8-foot storm surge washed away much of its beach sand.

Just west, at Swansboro, businesses were under 5 to 6 feet of water. Not far north, at Cedar Point, homes were one-third to one-half submerged.

In Kill Devil Hills, toward the northern end of the Outer Banks, roads were partly covered with water and sand. The hurricane had knocked away signs at some stores. A number of buildings had roof damage.

But vacationers started to return, bringing smiles to local business people.

“We were full, and now we’re empty,” said Bob Becker, manager of the See Sea Motel. “This is our biggest money time, but hurricanes are part of what the Outer Banks are about. We get hurricanes. We know that.”

Just then his telephone rang. “Yes, we have vacancies,” Becker said, and a large grin crossed his face.

It was much the same at the Outer Banks Motor Lodge, the Ebb Tide Motel, the Ocean Veranda and other establishments that typically have their “No Vacancy” signs up throughout July.

Michael Burch, a former lifeguard, stayed put during the storm. During the calm afterward, he relaxed on the sand with a beach chair and a Walkman. There was not another beach-goer anywhere in sight.

“It really humbles you to live along the water like this,” he said. “You see how powerful this ocean can become.”

Burch said he inspected his home late Friday and was surprised to see how well it had withstood the storm. His biggest problem was roof tiles that had blown into his yard from neighboring houses.

Although red flags on the shore warned of dangerous waves, more surfers than usual showed up near Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.

The waves there were 8 feet high.

“It’s a killer out there,” said Jeff Meyers, 20, his blond, shoulder-length hair dripping. He was heading back to his Jeep.

His father needed help at home cleaning up after the storm.

In Miami, Jerry Jarrell, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, noted that he and his forecasters had been wrong when they said Thursday that Bertha was likely to hit land with sustained winds of 80 mph.

Instead, the storm grew Thursday night and made landfall near Cape Fear, N.C., with sustained winds of 105 mph and gusts of up to 115 mph. “We never thought it would come up that much,” Jarrell said.

He said Bertha gained strength because shearing winds, which blew apart the western edge of the storm on Thursday, subsided during the early morning hours on Friday--and by dawn Bertha had become more symmetrical, tightly wound and fierce.

“It far outdid any expectation we had,” Jarrell said.

Evacuations, however, especially by 500,000 people in Florida who left their homes needlessly, were ordered well in advance of the inaccurate predictions, Jarrell said. So, he added, he and his forecasters should not be blamed for all of those unnecessary trips inland.

In any case, Jarrell said, forecasters routinely instruct state and community emergency managers to prepare for a storm that is stronger than predicted--as a safety margin.

Jarrell noted that Bertha was a rare storm for July--forming as it did in the far eastern Atlantic off the coast of Africa, rather than in the Gulf of Mexico or in the Caribbean.

Storms born off the African coast, he said, hit more commonly in August or September--at the heart of hurricane season.

Times correspondent Mike Clary in Miami and staff writer Richard E. Meyer in Los Angeles contributed to this story.