But by the spring, the sound was still 

 fairly fresh and chlorophyll levels were 

 elevated in the nutrient-rich waters. "What 

 normally happens in the Neuse in late 

 February has moved into the sound," says 

 Paerl, who is monitoring algal growth. 

 "There is potential for freshwater species to 

 move into the sound." 



Burkholder's team also is monitoring 

 the river, estuary and sound with the 

 placement of automated platforms that will 

 offer a stream of data rather than sporadic 

 sampling. "It's the difference between a 

 snapshot and a movie," she says. 



Unlike the fish kills that came with 

 Hurricane Fran, the sound had oxygen levels 

 on the rebound eight weeks after Floyd, 

 Burkholder says. But, Floyd's legacy may 

 be a "flanking effect" of nutrients deposited 

 in the estuary. 



"We will continue to track water and 

 biological quality in the Neuse and western 



FLOYD'S ECONOMIC 

 IMPACT TALLIED 



East Carolina University researchers 

 estimate businesses in the coastal plain 

 suffered $4 billion lost revenue and 

 another $1 billion in physical damage. In 

 spite of their losses, most businesses 

 participated in community relief and 

 recovery efforts, contributing an average 

 of $5,800 to those programs. 



The ECU team, with funding from 

 North Carolina Sea Grant, is studying the 

 socioeconomic impact of Hurricane Floyd 

 on businesses in the 44 hardest-hit 

 counties. They report three-fourths of the 

 businesses in those counties shut down 

 because of the storms and floods. The 

 shutdowns varied from five to eight days 

 depending upon the locale. 



Months after the floodwaters 

 receded, ripples of loss are still being felt 

 on the economy. Almost 1 percent of 

 the businesses that experienced some 

 storm damage reduced their labor force. 

 Projected across the region, that adds up 

 to about 31 ,000 lost jobs. 



sound during the coming year, with major 

 focus on the estuary in evaluating the extent 

 of delayed impacts that may be sustained 

 from the hurricane," she says. 



CAPE FEAR QUESTIONS 



While the Pamilco Sound has a long 

 retention rate, the Cape Fear River moves 

 quickly toward the coastal ocean. University 

 of North Carolina at Wilmington researchers 

 Martin Posey and Troy Alphin study the 

 effect of storms and hurricanes on bottom 

 communities in the Cape Fear River. 



"The passage of hurricanes Fran and 

 Bonnie were associated with dramatic 

 declines in bottom communities," says 

 Posey, a professor at the University of North 

 Carolina at Wilmington. 



"The animals did not recover until 

 the following summer. Preliminary data 

 suggest that an abundance of bottom 

 animals seemed to recover more quickly 



after Hurricane Floyd." 



Meanwhile Larry Cahoon, who heads 

 an interdisciplinary coastal ocean program at 

 UNC-W, investigated the effects of Hurri- 

 cane Floyd flooding on ocean water quality. 



The flood caused the highest single 

 daily discharge of the Cape Fear River in the 

 last 50 years. After sampling the river and its 

 plume, Cahoon found that nutrient concentra- 

 tions weren't any higher than the same period 

 the year before. 



"Although large quantities of animal 

 and human waste were likely washed into 

 the Cape Fear by hurricane flooding, the 

 large rainfall volume diluted these contami- 

 nants, preventing more serious water impacts 

 on the coastal ocean," says Cahoon. □ 



For statistics on Hurricane Floyd, 

 check the National Climatic Data Center's 

 site on the Web: www.ncdc.noaa.gov and 

 follow the links to the climate extremes and 

 satellite images. 



The study, conducted by faculty 

 members from sociology, economics and 

 the university's Survey Research Labora- 

 tory, reflects telephone interviews with 

 more than 2,400 businesses. Construc- 

 tion, manufacturing, transportation and 

 utilities, wholesale, retail, tourism, 

 agricultural and service sectors were 

 sampled. 



Most businesses survived the storm, 

 and are back in operation. However, small 

 businesses in the most severely impacted 

 region have not resumed operation. 



Road closures had the longest 

 impacts on businesses that identified 

 infrastructure problems. Road problems 

 were especially hard on medium and small 

 businesses in severe- to moderate- impacted 

 counties. Loss of water and power had the 

 second and third greatest impact. 



Most businesses reported having 

 some insurance, but one out of every six 

 small businesses had none. While most 

 had liability, property and casualty and fire 

 insurance, most were not insured for loss 

 of revenue or floods. Less than half of the 



businesses reported having insurance that 

 covers the replacement cost of their losses. 



For 375 firms reporting physical 

 damage, the average cost was nearly 

 $40,000. 



Expansion plans have been put on 

 hold by most businesses. Before the 

 storm, nearly 1 5 percent of the small 

 businesses and 17 percent of the medium- 

 sized businesses had plans to expand. This 

 dropped to 1 2 percent and 5 percent 

 respectively after the storm. Before the 

 storm, about 25 percent of the large 

 businesses had expansion plans. After the 

 storm, this dropped to 7 percent. 



ECU faculty members who partici- 

 pated in this study include John R. Maiolo, 

 John C. Whitehead, Marieke Van Willigen, 

 Robert Edwards, Paula Harrell and 

 Kenneth Wilson, and graduate students 

 Kelly Arena and Genuan Gunawardhana. 



Further impact studies will be 

 released at the ECU hurricane conference, 

 May 24-26 at the Greenville campus. For 

 more information, call 919/515-7990 or 

 check the Web at www.ecu.edu/coas/floyd/. 



-P.S. 



26 EARLY SUMMER 2000 



