_A here's a price to pay for living in 

 Paradise/'Jimmy Morris says philosophically. 



Morris and his wife, Robin, paid dearly when 

 Hurricane Isabel surged over the Core Banks barrier 

 island, pushing Core Sound waters through theirSea 

 Level home and clam hatchery business — its crop of 

 8 million seed clams just weeks away from harvesting. 



"When the storm tide surged, the beach went 

 under and the surf came in," says Willis. 



In the wake of the storm, some 90 percent 

 of the homes and businesses in the small Carteret 

 Cou nty com m u n ity were destroyed or damaged . 



"It's hard," says Robin Moms. "But people 

 here have been helpful and generous." 



a similar dilemma in Swan Quarter on the Pamlico 

 Sound. 



His shedding operation is pretty much a 

 wash. 'The building may be repairable, but the 

 inside operation is gone. What Isabel did not wash 

 away is ruined. ... I have no idea what amount of 

 money it will take to get back in business," New- 

 man says. 



To make matters worse, he adds, "I thought I 

 was insured, but the wind insurance folks are argu- 

 ing with the flood insurance folks." 



There is no federal grant money available to 

 help rebuild —just small business loans. "Most folks 

 here don't see that as an alternative since they are 



The United Methodist Disaster Response Pro- 

 gram is operating in Swan Quarter. "We are here for 

 the long term," says site coordinatorTommy Gilbert. 

 'There's much more need here than folks across the 

 state know about." 



Gilbert is coordinating all volunteer activities, 

 including plans for a rebuilding program utilizing 

 volunteer labor and donated materials. 



"We're here to fill in the gaps for those without 

 insurance or other assistance," he says. He expects the 

 outreach program to remain for another 18 months. 



"It'll be a slow recovery. For Swan Quarter, 

 Isabel was a lot worse than Humcane Floyd," says 

 Brooks. "We just never expected what we got." 



A4akcs History in INJortH C33jnoliraa 



By Pam Smith 



The couple recently paid off their home 

 mortgage, but had not renewed theirflood insur- 

 ance policy, which was tied to monthly mortgage 

 and escrow payments. 



So, after nearly 30 years, they are starting 

 overfrom scratch. Natives of nearby Atlantic, 

 they moved to Sea Level soon after they married, 

 bought a home and made a life. Until about 1 

 years ago, Morris fished for a living. 



"Wth two sons, I wanted to do something 

 that meant being off the boat and at home with 

 my family more," he recalls. 



That something was building a clam hatch- 

 ery business — one of only a few producing seed 

 clams for growers. 



After 1 years, the business was beginning 

 to pay off. But Isabel sent him back to square one. 

 Gone is the clam nursery building and all the "stuff' 

 that keeps the operation going — electrical and 

 plumbing systems, meters, raceways and tanks. 



Gone also is the crop of seed clams that 

 would have sold for about $1 60,000. 



"A year's worth of work was gone in a flash," 

 Morris says. 



Little or- No 



Disaster ./Kid 



Though aquaculture is covered under a new 

 provision of a disaster-assistance program for 

 agricultural products, Morris doesn't expect to be 

 compensated for his loss. The formula, he says, is 

 complicated, and adjusters are not familiar with 

 aquaculture "crop" values. 



Still, he says, he'll find away to start over. At 

 least Isabel had spared the clams he had planted in 

 his leased bottom a year earlier. 



Farther north, Dell Newman is experiencing 



still in hock from Humcane Floyd small business 

 loans," he explains. 



Still, Newman considers himself lucky. His 

 home was spared. "It's a different story for my folks. 

 They had more than two feet of standing water 

 — the first time that happened in the 36 years they 

 lived in that house." 



Some folks have cleaned out the muck as 

 best they could and continue to live in their homes, 

 because they have nowhere else to go, Newman 

 says. Others, including some elderly Swan Quarter 

 residents, have moved inland to live with relatives or 

 in nursing homes. 



Moving away is not an option. Like his father, 

 Tommy Newman, he has fished all his life. Once a 

 waterman, always a waterman, he says. 



Margie Brooks, director of the Hyde County 

 Chamber of Commerce, also has no intention of 

 leaving in spite of the fart that her home, business 

 and two vehicles were inundated. 



Brooks was standing on her front porch when 

 the eye passed. "I looked down the street and a 

 six-foot wall ofwaterwas crashing along Main Street 

 and all the way to U.S. 264. It ran through the old 

 OA Peay School that we all thoughtwas on high 

 ground," she recalls. 'There was no high ground that 

 day." 



In all, more than 400 homes and businesses 

 were damaged or destroyed in Hyde County, she 

 says. "While Ocracoke Island was spared, their 

 economy is tied to tourist trade. And the island was 

 pretty much closed for more than a month." 



Assistance is limited. Hyde County's share of 

 the North Carolina's Hurricane Fund is $33,000 

 —just enough to underwrite the needs of about 64 

 households, Brooks says. 



"But good things are happening," she adds. 



View from tHe Sea 



Ironically, just two months before Isabel 

 unleashed her wrath, an array of instrumented buoys 

 was deployed along the coasts of North and South 

 Carolina. The pilot project known as the Carolinas 

 Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction System 

 (Caro-COOPS) is funded by the National Oceanic 

 and Atmosphenc Administration. 



Caro-COOPS could become part of an inte- 

 grated national storm prediction system that enables 

 emergency management officials to make crucial 

 evacuation decisions, says Len Pietrafesa, project co- 

 investigator from North Carolina State University. 



When Isabel began to chum in the Atlantic and 

 threatened the Carolinas as a massive Category 5 

 hurricane, the team of scientists from NC State, the 

 University of North Carolina at Wlmington and the 

 University of South Carolina were ready to put the 

 system to the test. 



Every two hours, data streams from the buoys' 

 submerged instruments bounce off a satellite and 

 beam into laboratory computers — water temperature, 

 salinity, wave activity and water height. In addition, 

 an acoustic Doppler current profiler is used to detect 

 shifts in the current's direction and speed, critical to 

 humcane prediction and storm surge modeling. 



Knowing what is going on near the ocean floor 

 helps scientists understand how powerful the storm 

 surge will be, Pietrafesa says. 



For nearly a week before landfall, the team 

 worked to collect and analyze the near-real time data. 

 As the storm advanced, they developed "what-if ' 

 landfall scenarios — Myrtle Beach, Wlmington and 

 Bogue Sound — for the National Weather Service. 



Wth the humcane still more than 72 hours 

 from landfall, the team narrowed the target to the 

 Continued 



COASTWATCH 13 



