WILMINGTON - North and South Carolina residents ventured outside yesterday for the first time since Hurricane Fran stormed in, killing at least 12 people, and found that damage was not as bad as feared.
Fran was downgraded to a tropical storm before dawn yesterday, about 10 hours after its centre landed near Wilmington, spreading fierce winds, pounding waves and heavy rains over hundreds of miles of coastline and well inland.
The storm snapped power lines, tossed signs and billboards like confetti and hurled trees into houses. At least three million people are without electricity.