The Wilmington morning star., 1944-08-02
tensive repairs are made because

of the undermined supports.
Reports from Kure's beach were
that the pier there was demolish-
ed and several buildings in its i'm.
mediate vicinity swept away. Ac-
cording to Army authorities, dam
age at Fort Fisher was not as ex-
tensive as at Carolina or Kure's S
beaches.
Praise for the Queen City bus
company for having its buses ready
to evacuate the beach shortly aft
er the warning was sounded was
given by Patrolman Parvin.
First word of the impending
danger was spread at Carolina
Beach by the Military Police at
about o'clock, just is minutes
before high tide. Many had been
listening to their radios for a warm
ing but all went silent at about
this time because of power fail
ure.
Rushing from cottage to cottage
and shouting in the streets, the
MP's ordered the residents out and
told them to congregate at the bus
station. Many obtained rides on
Army trucks or private vehicles.
Others walked and not few ran
as the wind roared toward it's max
imum velocity.
An excellent pictue of the orderly
evacuation was given by Robert
Budd, Wilmington hairdresser who
resides in the vicinity of the lake
at Carolina Beach.
After receiving the warning,
Budd gathered his family and call
ed his neighbors. One nearby res
ident, he found, had been trapped
by the water and sand blowing
against the door. He smashed the
door down and removed a mother
and her two children. They all then
caught ride to the bus station
as the water was sweeping over
the Fort Fisher road at a depth
of about a foot.
The protective sand dunes, Budd
said, were being smashed down by
20-foot high waves. As the great
flood of water leveled them, debris
swept into the road and Budd re-
ported at least two men were in
jured by the timbers churned
around in the boiling surf.
CHANGING around as he fled with
his family and neighbors, udd
noticed that the porches of at least
two houses were being washed
away. The wind was ripping thou
sands of singles from roofs and
numerous windows in cottages on
the waterfront were smashed out
by the waves. Practically all the
cottages on the southern extension,
except those with high underpin-
ming, were flooded as the large
waves pounded into their front
porches.
Arriving at the station, the
hundreds who had gathered there
were kept in line by the Military
Police and other soldiers with wo-
men and children being placed in
five waiting buses first. Later other
vehicles, including New Hanover
school buses, arrived and every
one, Budd said, was evacuated.
1.-THE Military Police and soluiers
did an excellent job,' Budd said.
IF it had not been for them, many
people would have waited too long
and been trapped in their homes
or swept across the lake"
Everything was orderly, every
one obeyed orders. There were
some women crying, others were
laughing" he added.
Officers who went to the beach
after the general evacuation said
that the ocean had completed its
break-through on the southern ex-
tension and the water was from
two to six feet high from the beach
southwark to Kure's beach.
Other reports received here said
that the pier at Kure's beach was
swept away and several buildings
in that community demolished or
damaged.
LAS far as could be learned early
tonight, no one was killed or drown
ed in the Carolina Beach area.