BERTHA SLAMS N.C. SHORE.

Byline: Paul Nowell Associated Press 

Hurricane Bertha slapped Cape Fear and then battered a string of coastal towns Friday, ripping off roofs, washing away piers, flooding roads and toppling a Ferris wheel.

More than 250,000 people fled the beaches before the storm, which crashed ashore with top winds of 105 mph, drenching the coastline and spinning off tornadoes hundreds of miles inland.

The storm's top winds weakened to 85 mph when it stalled over land late Friday. By then, more than 186,000 customers had lost power in the Carolinas and a storm surge of 7 to 9 feet washed out dunes on fragile barrier islands, imperiling some beachfront communities.

``Everything's just torn apart,'' said Allen Sipe, who ventured out of his house to survey damage in his neighborhood in Kure Beach, a narrow island between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic.

Sipe said at least three piers were damaged, and one neighbor's house ``looks like you hit it with a wrecking ball.'' His own house, which he had boarded up, lost only a few shingles.

Bertha's 35-mile-wide eye passed over Bald Head Island at the mouth of the Cape Fear River at midday, then marched up the coast with winds gusting up to 115 mph.

``They're taking a battering,'' said Tom Ditt of North Carolina's Emergency Management Division. ``We don't know what the damages are yet, but they're considerable.''

Friday afternoon, the eye passed over Camp LeJeune, and the most punishing winds hit barrier islands just to the east near Morehead City, snapping telephone poles, washing out dunes and flooding roads.

Six people were injured on the huge Marine base, two of whom remained hospitalized late Friday. About 60 miles further north, a man was briefly trapped by a tree that fell through his house, and the Pamlico Queen, a dinner-pleasure boat, broke loose and struck a major bridge over the Pamlico river, shutting it down, Washington City police said.

At 6 p.m. PDT, Bertha's center was about 60 miles west of the Pamlico Sound, which separates the Outer Banks from the North Carolina mainland.

Bertha's top sustained winds later dropped to 85 mph as the storm moved over land, on a path would put it in center of Virginia's southern Chesapeake Bay after daylight Saturday.

Earlier Friday, the storm's center brushed past Cape Fear and slammed ashore about 5 p.m. in Wrightsville Beach, a thin strip of condos, motels and beach cottages about 5 miles east of Wilmington, a city of 60,000.

New Hanover County officials said Wilmington escaped serious damage, but the nearby beachfront communities were swamped with water and had scattered damage to homes, piers and businesses. At Jubilee Park in Carolina Beach south of Wilmington, a Ferris wheel toppled onto a carousel, smashing several of the ride's horses. A train ride nearby fell onto its side.

A woman who ignored warnings to stay inside was killed Friday in a traffic accident in Kitty Hawk, the ninth death blamed on the storm.

The eye of the hurricane first hit land at Cape Fear, the same site where Hurricane Hazel, North Carolina's most damaging storm in recent times, came ashore in 1954. Hazel barreled over Wilmington with 150-mph winds, killing 19 people and causing $136 million in damage.

Bertha was much less powerful, but emergency management officials were glad they aggressively evacuated beach areas well in advance of the storm.

``Wouldn't it be wonderful if all this turned out to be just an exercise?'' Bill Nichols, a spokesman for South Carolina's Georgetown County emergency agency, said just before Bertha turned away from his area.

The greatest damage from the storm might be to the area's tourist-hungry economy. The 175,000 tourists who left South Carolina's Grand Strand usually generate $14 million a day, officials said, and Bertha blew away $4.5 million a day in sales along the Outer Banks alone.

``Losing one day in July is an economic disaster,'' said John Bone, executive vice president of the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce.

Nearly 14,500 people woke up in Red Cross shelters Friday after giving up on clogged highways and packed hotels. About 6,800 people stayed in more than 100 shelters, and the agency was preparing to open more in Virginia and Maryland if necessary.

BERTHA AT A GLANCE A look at Hurricane Bertha:

LOCATION: Bertha's 35-mile-wide eye made landfall Friday at the tip of Cape Fear, N.C., with top winds of 105 mph. The storm's winds ranged from 80 mph to 115 mph before it made landfall. Rip tides and beach erosion were reported from Florida to Massachusetts.

CASUALTIES: Nine deaths - six in the Caribbean, two in Florida, one in North Carolina.

POWER OUTAGES: 40,000 without electricity in North Carolina, 35,000 in South Carolina.

Evacuations: More than 250,000 residents and vacationers. More than 7,000 people stayed in about 50 Red Cross shelters Friday.

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Box: BERTHA AT A GLANCE(see text)