The National Guard assisted in the rescue of flood-stranded communities in the wake of the hurricane. • Larry Cahoon of 

 UNC- Wibiington was part of a cadre of scientists who initiated an unprecedented surge of research targeting the environmental status of coastal 

 waters. • Dams, roadways and bridges were no match for Hurricane Floyd's rampaging floodwaters. 



Isabel was a successful "test case" for an 

 array of instrumented buoys deployed along the 

 coasts of North and South Carolina. The NOAA- 

 funded Carolinas Coastal Ocean Observing and 

 Prediction System (Caro-COOPS), is part of 

 a national storm prediction system. It enables 

 emergency management officials to make critical 

 evacuation decisions based on information from 

 the buoys' submerged instruments. 



In April, NOAA installed a solar-powered 

 device, known as the Sutron Expert, at the Johnny 

 Mercer Pier at Wrightsville Beach. It is designed to 

 measure tides, wind speed, wind direction, water 

 temperature and barometric pressure to help assess 

 potential for storm surge and coastal flooding. Data 

 is transmitted every six minutes to a satellite that 

 feeds information to NWS and is posted online at 

 www.tidesonline.com. 



Making a 



In the days following Hurricane Floyd, 

 H. David Bruton, then N.C. Secretary of Health 

 and Human Services, assessed the disaster this 

 way: "Nothing since the Civil War has been as 

 destructive to families here. . . The recovery process 

 will be much longer than the water-going-down 

 process." 



Floyd was the deadliest and most cosdy 

 hurricane in the United States since Agnes in 

 1972, according to NWS. In North Carolina, 35 



deaths, most from drowning, were attributed to 

 Floyd. Damage estimates approached $3 billion. 



Most roads east of 1-95 were flooded, bridges 

 washed out, dams failed, water treatment plants 

 swamped water supplies cut off, and a half million 

 people were without electricity. Farm crops and 

 livestock were wiped out, commercial and recre- 

 ational fishing idled, and most tourists went home. 



Entire towns, including Princeville, disap- 

 peared under water. But the human spirit endures, 

 says Samuel Knight, Princeville's interim town 

 manager and planning and zoning officer. 



"On the morning that Floyd came and went, 

 by 5 a.m. water was standing in Town Hall - and 

 rising," Knight recalls. "With the dike failing, we 

 knew it was time to evacuate the entire town of 

 2,200, most of whom are senior citizens." 



By the end of the day, the traffic light at the 

 comer of Mutual and Main was the only visible 

 sign of the town's presence. "For ten days, all we 

 saw were treetops," Knight says. "Our people lost 

 everything. More than 750 homes and dozens of 

 businesses were gone." 



The governor's disaster proclamation freed 

 up federal funds that provided travel trailers for 

 suddenly homeless residents. 



The decision whether to accept a federal 

 buy-out program to relocate, or rebuild Princeville 

 in place, was a difficult one. "First, how do you 

 relocate more than 700 households?" he asks 

 rhetorically. "Second, how do you restore a sense 

 of history and pride of place?" 



Citizens of Princeville, who take great pride 

 in the fact that theirs was the first town in North 

 Carolina to be incorporated by freed slaves, voted 

 to stay on the land and accept FEMA's one-time 

 offer. Five years later, Knight says, the dike is 

 rebuilt and most citizens are back home. 



'Floyd was a blessing in disguise," Knight 

 says. "Historic Princeville is no secret any more." 



More than 26,000 volunteers from as far away 

 as the Soviet Union and Korea have helped Princev- 

 ille emerge from the muddy waters. And, when 

 Prince the Entertainer visited the town to celebrate 

 Princeville Heritage Day last year, he donated $1 

 million to help with the rebuilding process. 



"Our citizens are now comfortable and happy 

 in centrally heated and air-conditioned homes. 

 They are pretty content — except when it rains. 

 Then, I get calls," Knight says with an understand- 

 ing smile. 



Resilient 



The major hurricane activity of the 1990s 

 was a catalyst for unprecedented research targeting 

 the environmental status of the vital Albemarle- 

 Pamlico Estuarine System — the largest lagoonal 

 estuary in the United States. Scientists from univer- 

 sities and state and federal agencies focused on the 

 cumulative effects of a decade of powerful storms, 

 including Hurricane Fran in 1996 and Hurricanes 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 19 



