Personal Perspective
By Lisa Beverly
I have been
fortunate throughout my life in that I have not
been affected in a major way by a disaster. While
September
11, 2001
dealt an emotional blow in terms of perceived safety, more frequently
occurring
natural disasters had a greater impact on my undergraduate college
years. At the University
of North Carolina at
Wilmington
(UNCW), a.k.a. “Hurricane Capitol of the World,” I experienced three
major
hurricanes during my 4 years as a student. Much
of what I dealt with during these events had to do
with evacuation
issues as opposed to casualties or damage; however, they were
stressful,
nonetheless. In the interest of time, I
will only describe my experience with two of the three hurricanes:
Hurricane
Fran in 1996 and Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Wilmington,
North Carolina sits at the
mouth of the Cape Fear River, about 60 miles
north of Myrtle Beach, SC. This location makes it ideal for hurricane
landings as the Cape Fear River has the
tendency to act
like a vacuum. In July of 1996, prior to
my arrival, Hurricane Bertha made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on
the
Saffir/Simpson Scale causing an estimated eight deaths and $250 million
in U.S.
damages.
As Wilmington
worked to restore the damages of Hurricane Bertha, I arrived on the
campus of
UNCW, an excited young freshman, 600 miles away from her New
Jersey home. Not
more than two weeks after arrival I encountered my
first
hurricane. Hurricane Fran was headed on
a track toward Wilmington
as a
category three hurricane. University
Administrators decided to evacuate the UNCW campus as a precaution and
thousands of students were told to move items away from the windows in
our dorm
rooms and head inland. As brand new freshmen, neither my roommate from New
York nor I had a car so our options were
limited. Thankfully, newly made friends
living across the street from the University offered us shelter. Hurricane Fran made landfall on September 6, 1996 resulting
in
significant storm surge
flooding on the North Carolina
coast, widespread wind damage over North Carolina
and Virginia, and
extensive
flooding from the Carolinas to Pennsylvania. After the storm hit, I spent the next seven
miserable days living with five other people in a two-bedroom townhouse
without
electricity until the University re-opened.
Given that I began
my college career with a hurricane, it
was only fitting that my senior year should begin with a similar event. Hurricane Floyd was a large hurricane that
neared the threshold of category five intensity on the Saffir/Simpson
Scale as
it approached the Bahamas. Its suggested track threatened Florida
but then turned north-northeast toward the NC coast.
With an initial track heading towards Florida,
the Vice Provost of the University, filling in for the Provost, made
the
decision to keep the campus open. As
Hurricane Floyd’s track was adjusted towards the North
Carolina coast, it was also downgraded to a
category
four on the Saffir/Simpson Scale. With
this information, the Vice Provost decided to keep the campus open. At the very last minute, i.e. the morning the
storm hit, the Vice Provost decided to close the campus.
Hurricane Floyd made landfall near Cape
Fear, North Carolina on September 16, 1999 a
category two
hurricane with estimated maximum winds near 90 knots.
Due to the late
notice regarding campus closing, there was a
mass evacuation out of Wilmington
on the morning of September 16. My
particular community was already flooded in some areas as my friends
and I
packed up to leave. As we reached the
main artery out of town, I-40, we saw the consequences of the Vice
Provost’s
late decision. I-40 westbound was a
parking lot as students and employees of the University evacuated. It took us more than eight hours to reach Greensboro,
NC, a normal three hour drive.
Hurricane Floyd
produced a flood disaster of immense
proportions in North Carolina. I-95 and I-40 in parts were completely shut
down due to flooding. This made returning
to Wilmington an almost
impossible
feat. After being stranded nearly a week
in western North Carolina,
I
received alternate directions from the NC Department of Transportation
for the
return trip. Taking almost all back
roads to subvert the flooded inter-states, we finally returned home to
a house
without power.
These two
particular events re-enforced the fact that
evacuation routes can pose serious difficulties during large-scale
disasters. Prior planning for
emergencies should always include analysis of these routes.