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On Thursday afternoon July 11, Bill Boyes (KB1G) and I prepared to depart for Wilmington to intercept Hurricane Bertha as she made landfall. The forecast did not look good though as Bertha weakened to a Category 1 storm and headed toward Myrtle Beach. We decided to wait for additional advisories from the National Hurricane Center before making our decision on when to leave. By late Thursday night, Bertha had been torn apart by wind shear and we decided to make the final decision Friday morning.
Bill called me just after the 8:00 am advisory was issued. Bertha had regained some strength and had taken a turn to the north, setting her sights once again on the Wilmington area. We were off by 9:00 am, hoping to beat the clock so we could arrive safely before Bertha's winds took hold of the coast. Around 11:30 am as we drove down Interstate 40 near Wallace, we learned that Bertha had been upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane as she approached Wilmington. We were already experiencing heavy rain and gusty winds.
Within 30 minutes conditions deteriorated rapidly. As we pulled into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn Express in Wilmington, we were experiencing near hurricane conditions. Bill shuttled our gear into the hotel and I parked the car. We were both soaked to the bone from the wind driven rain when we made it up to our room on the fifth floor. We dryed off and turned on the Weather Channel. We anxiously awaited news on the progress of Hurricane Bertha.
Our good fortune eroded quickly. The lights flickered twice and then the power was gone! Along with the power went the phones and the ability to receive information on our alphanumeric pagers. All we had was our portable ham radios as near 100 mph winds drove the rain into our room through the air conditioning unit in the window. We stared out the windows of the hotel as the storm pounded the coast and listened to weather reports from Wilmington Skywarn. Ricky Tharrington (KD4JRX) and the local Skywarn Spotters did a tremendous job providing the National Weather Service with up to the minute reports of weather conditions and damage throughout the entire event!
Conditions began to improve around 3:00 pm, so Bill and I decided to venture out. There were a few other folks also driving through the debris ridden streets of Wilmington as the winds and rain began to subside. We made it down to Carolina Beach as the eye of Hurricane Bertha made landfall. What an experience! Although the sun never broke through the overcast, there was an eerie calm as we surveyed the damage. Winds and rain were nonexistent as unusually warm air overtook us. We could hear waves crashing along the shore in the quiet of the moment We photographed a couple of homes without roofs and some power lines and trees down in the street, then we went in search of food!
On our way back to the hotel we passed by the Ogden Volunteer Fire Department. I just had to stop and see what the firefighters were doing as part of the public service response during Hurricane Bertha. Several of their units were out in the district performing damage assessment. As we were talking with some of the firefighters at the station, information was conveyed by Wilmington Skywarn that the eye was soon to pass and conditions would again deteriorate rapidly. Heavy rain and hurricane force winds were not far behind us, but we made it back safely and finally found some much needed food.
Hurricane Bertha began to weaken as she moved over the coast of North Carolina. Winds on the back side of the storm subsided to 50 mph but Bertha continued to pound eastern North Carolina as she moved north up the coast. With nothing to do and our bellies full, Bill and I contacted the Amateur Radio Operators at the North Carolina Emergency Management Area C Emergency Operations Center, located in Burgaw. We asked if it would be appropriate to stop by for a visit since the damaging portion of the storm had moved north of our immediate area. They invited us to come by.
We arrived at the Area C EOC around 6:30 pm and were met by Jim MacLeod (W4NHV). Jim gave us a tour of the facility, introduced us to the Emergency Management staff and invited us to stay and operate. We accepted and remained at the EOC until 11:00 pm, assisting Jim with EOC operations so that other hams could get some rest. Jim and the Emergency Management folks even helped locate a nearby gas station with emergency power so that I could fuel up my car! It was an honor and a privilege to work with Jim MacLeod.
We arrived back at the hotel only to find that the power was still out. We called it a night and were grateful for all that we had seen and done that day. Saturday morning brought bright sunshine but still no power. Public service and utility crews were out early assessing the damage and removing debris. We stopped by the Area C EOC on the way home to thank Jim again for all he had done for us. As we passed through Raleigh, we stopped by to visit with Bill Leach (KB7LX), the Raleigh Skywarn Emergency Coordinator. Bill gave us a tour of the State EOC and then we toured several locations of possible tornado damage (as a result of Bertha) in the Cary area along with Reed Whitten (AB4W).
As members of Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Skywarn, Bill and I had the opportunity to participate in a once in a lifetime experience. We learned several important lessons about preparedness and gained valuable experience during this event. Ham radio played an important part of the Emergency Management response to Hurricane Bertha. Governor Jim Hunt even commented on the role of ham radio in this message:
ALL RADIO AMATEURS
AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE
NORTH CAROLINA
THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING YOUR TIME, EQUIPMENT AND EXPERTISE HELPING IN THE BERTHA EMERGENCY. YOUR DEVOTION TO PUBLIC SERVICE EXEMPLIFIES THE IDEALS THAT MAKE THIS STATE GREAT!
JAMES B. HUNT, JR.
GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA
I would like to thank all of the Amateur Radio Operators and Emergency Management folks who made this adventure a successful one for us. (Special thanks to Don Heard, EM Area D Coordinator, who suggested we stop by the Area C Office.) Please feel free to share part or all of this account as you see fit. Questions and/or comments can be addressed to Bill (bboyes@nr.infi.net) or me.
73
Steve
************************************************************************ Steve Marks Training & Operations Officer Amateur Radio Operator KE4FCW Guilford College Fire Dept Triad Skywarn Coordinator Guilford County HazMat Team ARES Asst Distric EC Greensboro, North Carolina Packet: KE4FCW @ KE4YVL.#GSO.NC.USA.NOAM Carolinas Fire Page Disp 599 Internet: smarks@nr.infi.net ************************************************************************
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