Ten years ago, Hurricane Floyd pounded the Bahamas as a category 4 storm and resulted in one of the largest peacetime evacuations in the U.S. as it threatened the coasts of Florida and South Carolina. It finally came ashore in North Carolina on September 16, 1999, as a category 2 storm, where it sat, dumping 15 to 20 inches of rain in some portions of the state that had been saturated by Hurricane Dennis just two weeks before.
Floyd’s wind, waves, and torrential rainfall severely impacted almost the entire state of North Carolina, making it one of the worst disasters in that state’s history.
Out of that storm have come many successful programs and projects that have resulted in the state being better prepared for disaster—and able to rebound more quickly should it strike again.
The cover story of this edition of Coastal Services examines some of the Floyd success stories and shares the primary lesson that North Carolina coastal resource managers learned—be as prepared as possible before disaster strikes.
While North Carolina has spent considerable funds to be prepared, cost-benefit analysis shows that the state is actually saving money in the long term.
A take-away message: spending a little extra money today to plan for and address the potential impacts from natural disasters or climate change could save significant amounts of money later.
To help coastal communities with this process, a new Digital Coast resource focusing on coastal inundation issues has recently been released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Services Center and numerous partners.
In addition to data and tools, the Coastal Inundation Toolkit provides basic information on coastal inundation, risk communication, and how other communities are developing and using risk assessments, including a more detailed list of Delaware’s lidar lessons, which is a feature story in this Coastal Services edition.
Go to the Coastal Inundation Toolkit at www.csc.noaa.gov/inundation/, and be sure to share your coastal inundation planning success stories with us.
-- Margaret A. Davidson
