Cleaning up Isabel’s mess could take months

KITTY HAWK, N.C. — Piles of smashed deck steps, refrigerators, soggy carpeting and furniture had already reached prodigious heights at homes along the beach road where John Tice lives.

As fast as he could work in a scorching sun, Tice added to a massive pile on the Outer Banks, tossing out large pieces of lumber and about a dozen window screens that couldn’t hold up to Hurricane Isabel’s 100 mph winds.

The cleanup effort began in nearby areas soon after Isabel hit Sept. 18, but it was just getting under way at the end of this week in Kitty Hawk.

It will take about six months to pick up some of the storm debris, such as electrical appliances with potential environmental hazards, from Hatteras Island, said Edward Mann, Dare County’s director of public works.

Mann’s first priority is to move materials such as soaked carpets and furniture away from population centers. Those items can become a breeding ground for mold and mosquitoes, he said.

"We’re going to take all the wet, smelly stuff and load it in 40-yard roll-off boxes and take it off the island," he said.

Once they are filled, the boxes will be loaded onto ferries for the four-hour trip to the Dare County mainland.

County officials are setting up a temporary burn site in Hatteras Village for natural storm debris such as tree limbs, and similar burn sites will be set up at other locations along the Outer Banks, Mann said.

Other items, such as roofs and other parts of homes, will be reduced to smaller pieces and trucked off the island when the island’s highway is driveable, Mann said.

At the Dare County Construction Landfill, Danny Cooke, 37, dumped a load of wet carpeting and other material from the Sea Ranch Motel in Kill Devil Hills. "I’ve been dumping about eight or nine loads a day," Cooke said. "They’re working the life out of me."