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Hurricane Repairs Still Needed in Duplin Even as New Season Begins

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KENANSVILLE — You only have to look up in this DuplinCounty town to see why some residents are keeping a close eye onthe hurricane season.

The silver cupola ripped from atop the 1911 courthouse towerhasyet to be repaired months after Hurricane Fran and earlier Berthasocked this county to the tune of more than $30 million in damagedbuildings and crops.

``It looks naked without the cupola atop the dome,'' countymanager Jim Barnhardt said. ``I think about it every day.''

Hardly a day goes by that people in Duplin and other inlandcounties aren't reminded of the hurricane destruction more typicalin coastal areas.

With the hurricane season under way, residents are buyinggenerators and batteries before the next storm hits. Prison inmatesare being used to unclog debris-ridden creeks.

And everyone's brushing up on weather terminology.

``Last year they didn't know the difference between a hurricanewatch and a hurricane warning,'' said Doriss Barnette, a countyemergency management worker, stamping hundreds of preparednessbrochures to be handed out throughout Duplin this summer. ``But Ibet they know now.''

Last year's hurricane season gave an unexpected one-two punchtoDuplin's 40,000 mostly rural residents. Many of them don't rememberback to 1954, when Hurricane Hazel became the benchmark storm tothe inland county and eastern North Carolina.

Fran knocked out power for a week. Some towns didn't havewater.Hundreds of homes suffered damage from fallen trees. A woman waskilled when a tree collapsed on her home.

Today, the repairs continue. Tarps still dot a few roofs ofhomes along N.C. 24. Wooded areas are still littered with fallenlimbs.

Frank Williams, a 58-year-old farmer from Wallace, lost 25percent of his 400-acre corn crop to Bertha. ``We're not over ityet. It took all winter to clean up. It was just one big mess.''

At The Murray House, a 144-year-old bed-and-breakfast outsideKenansville, owner Lynn Davis still has hurricane debris piled in anearby field that must be removed. She expects to have to cut downtwo more trees damaged by Fran. And there's a leak in her roof.

``We've had it fixed on three different occasions and theystillhaven't been able to find the leak,'' Davis said. ``... Hopefullywe'll be ready if the next storm comes.''

Dozens of the most damaged homes were in the Pinecrest Acressubdivision in Kenansville, the county seat of about 900 residents.Driving along the street in his Jeep wagon, emergency managementdirector Hiram Brinson recalls the damage: a crushed roof at thishome; 25 pine trees lost to that home.

``We were saying it should have been called Pineless AcresafterFran,'' Brinson said.

Norma Guy looks out over stumps and cut firewood under what'sleft of a small grove of pines damaged by Fran. She says it wouldhave been impossible to get ready for such a storm.

``I'm not prepared for the trauma of a storm again,'' said Mrs.Guy. ``I don't care how much you have ... I just don't believe youcan ever be completely prepared for a hurricane.''

Brinson agrees, but he believes too many people were notprepared to be without power, water and food for so long.

He's been encouraging people to buy flashlights, extrabatteriesand enough nonperishable food to last 72 hours now, not wait untilthe next storm is churning along the Atlantic coast.

``Everybody should also try to have a generator,'' he said.

The suggestions are in the hurricane brochures being given outto state employees and workers at the county's turkey plants.

Some people already are getting ready for the next big storm tocome. Judy Marshburn's hardware stores in nearby Warsaw and Wallacereport a 25 percent increase in battery sales in June compared tothe same month in 1996. She usually sells about one generator amonth. She sold three of them during the first three weeks of June.

``When the first storms are spotted out in the Atlantic,they'llbe more people buying things,'' she said. ``After going withoutpower for a week last year, they're being a little more cautious.''

Brinson, the emergency management director for the past 27years, says he also wants the county to buy generators for each ofthe four schools where shelters were set up during Fran. But thatwould cost upwards of $20,000 - a lot of money for a departmentwith a $90,000 budget.

Meanwhile, the county is working to replace the courthousetowerto its pre-hurricane luster. An architect and a Kentucky companyhave been hired to build a new cupola and use a crane to place atopthe courthouse at a cost of $29,000. They hope it will be fixed inthe next few months.

``It's a unique item, a one of a kind,'' Barnhardt said. ``Youjust don't go to The Home Depot, get some plywood and replace it.''

Emergency officials are optimistic that residents will also begetting ready for the next storm.

``It'd been so long since a hurricane came through here,''Barnette said. ``Now it suddenly occurred to people ... a hurricanecan hurt you.''

By GARY D. ROBERTSON,Associated Press WriterCopyright ©1997 AssociatedPress. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,rewritten, or distributed.

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