Persistent Storm Loosens Grip on North Carolina

Demoted to a tropical depression, Dennis turned its back Sunday on North Carolina after pounding the coast for a week and finally coming ashore to flood lowland towns with half a foot of rain.

“I think we’re finally going to get rid of it for a change,” Clay Benton of the state emergency management division said Sunday.

Residents of Cedar Island, sideswiped by Dennis on its way up the coast Aug. 30 and clobbered again Saturday when its eye passed directly overhead, weren’t sorry to see Dennis go, as flood waters receded Sunday.

“This is the first time that I remember that a hurricane hit us directly and then turned around and came back and hit us again,” said Henry “Farmer” Styron. “It was a double whammy.”

Dennis appeared to be leaving for good. At midday, it was drifting northwest toward southwestern Virginia amid a flurry of flash flood warnings and watches after spinning off a tornado Saturday night in Hampton, Va., that injured more than a dozen people. Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore asked President Clinton to provide federal disaster assistance to people displaced by the tornado.

A tornado and storm watch was in effect for much of Maryland and Virginia on Sunday as rain and wind from Dennis swept across the region.

The storm wasn’t all bad news, considering the drought that has troubled much of the region.

The rain “certainly helps,” said Virginia emergency spokeswoman Janet Clements. “In many parts of the state, ground water levels were so low, this will be good in starting to refill some reservoirs. But there’s also the threat of more tornadoes. It’s kind of a mixed blessing, really.”

In New York, heavy rain delayed the start of the program at the U.S. Open tennis championships, with intermittent showers forecast throughout the day.

Patrols along Maryland and Delaware beaches warned people to stay in shallow water because the surf remained rough. Sporadic power failures were also reported.

Dennis came ashore at Cedar Island, N.C., northeast of Morehead City, late Saturday afternoon. Overnight it flooded 100 to 150 homes in Harlow, near New Bern, and forced 150 Pamlico County residents to spend Saturday night in shelters. The Pamlico River community of Lowland remained cut off by flood waters Sunday.

Formed Aug. 24, Dennis skirted North Carolina’s coast Aug. 30, went seaward 165 miles, stalled and then backtracked. For a week, it has assailed North Carolina’s coast with 14-foot waves and gale-force winds as forecasters have tried to guess where it would go next.