Hurricanes’ full havoc yet to be felt
By Sid Perkins
Forget about a mere one-two punch. When Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene pummeled North Carolina in the fall of 1999, they delivered a three-punch combination that for years to come may disturb coastal ecosystems there and disrupt fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The three hurricanes struck the eastern United States within a 6-week period. Along their paths, they dumped a total of 1 meter of rainfall upon areas that drain into North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound. That body of water—a lagoon protected by the barrier islands rimming the state’s shore—is a major fish and shellfish nursery for the entire Atlantic coast, says Hans W. Paerl, a marine ecologist at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. These spawning grounds ultimately are the source of more than 90 percent of the fish caught by North Carolina’s commercial fishers, he notes.