By Ann Green 



Photos by Scott D. Taylor 



Left: ECU professor Stan Riggs gives teachers 

 a lesson on erosion above the Tar River. 



/^\s the Tar River flows behind 

 him. East Carolina University marine 

 geology professor Stan Riggs stands high 

 above Princeville on a rebuilt dike that 

 failed during Hurricane Floyd. 



Looking down into a flat field with a 

 scattering of concrete steps, Riggs recalls 

 the rushing water that came into the trailer 

 park and "stacked up the trailers against the 

 trees like dominos." 



"The dike eliminated part of the flood- 

 plain," says Riggs. "The flood water flowed 

 into Princeville at the end of the dike and at 

 a low spot for the railroad crossing forming 

 Princeville Lake. The water came over the 

 top of the dike." 



The dike tour is the last stop for 

 teachers on a Hurricane Floyd field trip. 

 With notebooks in hand, elementary, 

 middle and high school teachers from the 

 mid-Atlantic states, Idaho and Tennessee 

 trek around areas flooded in September 

 1999 during Floyd. Their stops have 

 included Greenville, Simpson and 

 Princeville. The North Carolina Sea Grant- 

 sponsored trip is part of a COAST/ 

 Operation Pathfinder four-day course at 

 ECU, "Floyd and the Flood: Implications 

 of a Natural Disaster for Teaching." 



The rebuilding of the dike by the U.S. 

 Army Corps of Engineers has received 

 mixed reactions from scientists and 

 community leaders. The new dike is the 

 same height as the original dike built in the 

 1960s. The only changes are a gravel road 

 on top and a special closure across a 

 railroad crossing. 



"In the past, this area had to be 

 sandbagged," says Penny Schmitt, chief of 

 public affairs, Wilmington District of the 

 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "This is a 

 stop-log structure that people can put 

 together very rapidly and close quickly. 

 We are cleaning out all the drainage 

 structures. With all the earthwork done, 

 Princeville has back its protection." 



Princeville officials supported 

 rebuilding the dike instead of accepting a 

 buyout by the Federal Emergency Manage- 

 ment Agency. Founded in 1 865 by former 

 slaves, Princeville has historic significance 

 for many residents. 



"I didn't see the need to move," says 

 Princeville Mayor Delia Perkins. "The dike 

 had taken care of the town for a long time. 

 This wasn't an ordinary flood. It was 46 

 feet of water. All the area around here 

 flooded. So why should we move?" 



However, Riggs thinks the dike has 

 exacerbated the flooding for Princeville, 

 Tarboro and other upstream areas. 



"Princeville sits in a bad physical 

 location," says Riggs. "You couldn't design 

 a worse place to put a town. It is built 

 directly on the floodplain in a narrow zone 

 of a major river bend, immediately below 

 the input of two large tributary systems and 

 above the new Highway 64 road dam." 



Riggs' discussion sparks a lively 

 debate among the teachers who will 

 incorporate the information into their 

 curriculum. 



Sue Basdikis, a high school psychol- 

 ogy teacher in Virginia Beach, Va., 

 supports the town's decision. 



"There is a lot of blood and sweat 

 attached to this town," says Basdikis. 



"People have roots here. Because of 

 the town's historical significance, I say 

 rebuild and do the engineering around it." 



However, June McWhorter of 

 Jacksonville disagrees. "From a scientific 

 viewpoint, I think it is a disaster to rebuild. 

 The town could buy 1 ,000 acres of the best 

 land and rebuild somewhere else." 



Whatever the teachers' viewpoint, 

 course leaders hope the teachers will take 

 the information back to the classroom. The 

 course was coordinated by North Carolina 

 Sea Grant marine education specialist 

 Lundie Spence with instruction and 

 leadership from Vicki Clark, Virginia Sea 

 Grant; Terri Hathaway, North Carolina 

 Aquarium at Roanoke Island; Elizabeth 

 Doster, ECU; Cynthia Rogers, the 

 University of North Carolina at 

 Wilmington; and Debbie Savage, 

 North Carolina State University. 



Hurricane Floyd was one of the most 

 devastating natural events in the last 30 

 years of coastal plain history, says Spence. 

 North Carolina had over $3 billion in 

 damage, with over 7,000 homes destroyed 



. Continued 



COASTWATCH 17 



