Danny Storms Into Atlantic Coast States Several People Killed When Floodwaters, High Winds Sweep Through Cities During Rush Hour
Surprisingly spry five days after landfall, Hurricane Danny’s remnants swamped Raleigh-area roads and knocked out power to 173,000 people Thursday before lurching out to sea.
The storm dumped 4 inches of rain on the Raleigh-Durham area and produced wind gusts up to 60 mph before swirling off to the northeast in a wash of flash flood warnings. Late Thursday afternoon, it moved over the Atlantic at the North Carolina-Virginia border and again became a tropical storm.
It spared Charlotte, saturated by up to 13 inches of rain over 36 hours Tuesday and Wednesday from storms spawned by Danny. The ensuing floodwaters trapped and drowned a 59-year-old woman in her car; wiped out a railroad bridge, causing a 150-ton locomotive to plunge into a creek, and swept away a 5-year-old girl. The search for the child continued Thursday.
Storm damage in Charlotte was “well over several million dollars,” said Wayne Broome, director of emergency management services for Mecklenburg County. Damage to the city waste treatment plant alone was $1 million.
Four people in Georgia, including two children, died in storm-related traffic accidents Wednesday.
In South Carolina, a woman was killed when a tornado with winds of about 150 mph - one of at least three tornadoes in the state - tore apart her duplex house. Her body was found about 150 feet away.
Danny, which reached land on Alabama’s Gulf Coast on Saturday, moved into the Raleigh-Durham area in time for the morning rush hour.
“We had fifty-zillion accidents,” said Dawn Gentile of the Durham County Sheriff’s office. “This was horrendous this morning.”
At its peak around 10 a.m., the powerful storm knocked out power to about 173,000 Carolina Power & Light Co. customers in the state’s midsection, said CP&L spokeswoman Sally Ramey.
In Virginia, winds reaching 51 mph ripped the roofs off houses, toppled a trailer home and knocked down power lines in the Tidewater area on Thursday.
In Charlotte, firefighters searched for Ariel Linton, swept away while playing near swollen Stewart Creek. Four companions were found safe.
Barbara White Freeman of Gastonia drowned on a downtown Charlotte street, trapped by floodwaters after her car flipped over.
CSX railroad officials said it will take a couple of days to remove a locomotive that splashed into Little Sugar Creek when floodwaters washed away a bridge. The three-person crew got out before the trestle collapsed.