Newswise — With its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, landfall site for many hurricanes, the University of North Carolina Wilmington has become a model Disaster Resistant University and its faculty and staff have developed expertise in hurricane impacts and other coastal living issues.
Hurricane Season Is Here Again: Are You Ready?
Are you ready for another hurricane season? Do you have a hurricane plan? How have the aftermaths of hurricanes like Katrina and Ivan changed hurricane preparedness efforts? The University of North Carolina Wilmington is one of the six original Disaster Resistant Universities (DRU) designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and has seen its share of storms over the past decades. As emergency operations coordinator for UNCW and co-administrator on the DRU grants, Associate Vice Chancellor Sharon Boyd leads the university's hurricane preparations, responses, mitigations and recoveries. Disaster Resistant University measures at UNCW have included hosting a conference to share best practices with other universities and institutions, conducting a vulnerability assessment of key campus facilities and funding wind-borne debris protection for windows and doors. Most recently, her leadership has led to an overhaul of UNCW's hurricane operations plan in the wake of Katrina that addresses emergency communications, external agreements, loss of research and critical contents, and economic loss and business continuity.
Stan Harts, director of environmental and health safety, and Suzanne Blake, emergency management coordinator, both have experience in hurricane preparedness and hosted the disaster resistant university conference in summer 2005. They were instrumental in securing $100,000 in grants from FEMA to make UNCW a disaster resistant university. The university has made a conscious effort to incorporate disaster resistance into university planning, policies and procedures.
Faculty Hurricane Resources
Economic impact of hurricanesExperienced hurricane faculty experts include Christopher Dumas, associate professor of economics. He is well-versed in the economic impacts of hurricanes. His areas of research interest and expertise include environmental and natural resource economics and applied microeconomics.
He is a member of the American Economic Association, Southern Economics Association, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, American Agricultural Economics Association and National Association for Business Economics.He earned a Ph.D. in 1997 in Natural Resource Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dumas's most recent project is "A Determination & Analysis of the Economic Impacts & Benefits of Recreational & Commercial Boating & Marine Related Business Along the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway in NC and Oceanfront Beach Nourishment in North Carolina."
Resulting water quality issues, storm surge, and marsh impactsUNCW's resource person on water quality issues is Lawrence B. Cahoon, professor of biology and marine biology. His area of expertise include water quality issues resulting from hurricanes.
Frederick Bingham, associate professor of physics & oceanography, works with the oceanic response and storm surges.
Gregg Snedden, a visiting research assistant professor of marine science, is a Louisiana native and has done extensive work in the marshes.
Counseling to hurricane victims Len Lecci, professor of psychology, traveled to Louisiana in December to counsel victims of Hurricane Katrina.
River, Pond, Beach Water QualityAs you get in the swim of things this summer, are you concerned about water pollution in the river, pond, or beach? Get some answers from Dr. Michael A. Mallin, research professor in biology and marine biology at the UNC Wilmington Center for Marine Science.
Mallin authored an article on coastal development and how it causes beach water and shellfish bed pollution in the June 2006 issue of Scientific American. His research interests include the urban and rural stream pollution, land use and how it affects water quality, and environmental management issues. He also studies the ecology of marine and freshwater phytoplankton and zooplankton and the causes and effects of eutrophication (a process whereby lakes, estuaries or slow-moving streams receive excess nutrients that stimulate excessive plant growth, i.e., algae, periphyton attached algae and nuisance plants weeds). He is the research coordinator for the Lower Cape Fear River Program, the Wilmington Watersheds Program, and the award-winning New Hanover County Tidal Creeks Program. In his research he collaborates with biologists, chemists, engineers and land use planners. His publications include studies on factors influencing bacterial contamination of coastal and inland waters, pollution from industrial scale swine and poultry farms, the nutrient and plankton ecology of the coastal ocean, the effects of weather on ecosystems, nutrient sensitivity of streams, rivers, and estuaries, and toxic algae.
Summer CampsLooking for exciting, confidence-building educational experiences for your children? UNCW has a broad range of excellent programs available in a beautiful coastal North Carolina setting. Camps range from "hands-on, feet-wet" MarineQuest experiences along the Intracoastal Waterway for children 5 to14, Theatre Camp for ages 9-13, and even Robotics Camp for ages 11-15. Details -- http://www.uncw.edu/dpscs/campsIndex.htm.
Stay Safe from Rip CurrentsSome quick summer beach tips from UNCW's award-winning Emergency Management Coordinator Suzanne Blake:-Always swim near a lifeguard.-Never swim alone.-If caught in a rip current, stay calm and swim parallel to shore to get out of the rip current. If you are not a good swimmer, float until the rip current dissipates and then swim diagonally towards shore. If you need assistance, yell for help.-Obey lifeguard warnings and pay attention to water conditions.For more specifics, visit the webpage http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov/.
Blake was presented with a public service award on April 18, 2006, for her dedication and involvement in the Rip Current Awareness Strategies Team (RCAST). Meteorologist-in-Charge Michael Caropolo of the Wilmington National Weather Service office stated that Blake's enthusiasm, professionalism and willingness to go above and beyond her duties as Emergency Management Coordinator for UNCW have led directly to several RCAST accomplishments. RCAST develops and delivers educational outreach efforts to elementary and secondary schools, local residents and tourists with the goal of eliminating rip-tide fatalities.
Red Tides"Red tide" is a common term for a phenomenon more recently termed "harmful algal blooms." Certain forms of microalgae that contain colored pigments grow and cause ocean water to have a tinted cast. While microalgae are usually not harmful, some produce neurotoxins that can be transferred through the food chain and harm higher forms of sea life and humans who eat them. Dr. Daniel Baden, director of the UNCW Center for Marine Science, and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in Marine Science, is an expert on the topic of red tides. He and colleagues recently refined two new compounds while working with Florida red tide toxin that have potential to treat cystic fibrosis and similar lung diseases. The potential for discovery of many new therapeutic drugs from marine microalgae is a current research focus.
Check out http://www.cormp.org for real-time ocean conditions before leaving home.
Summer is here and hurricanes might be just around the corner. Where can you go to plan your trip to the beach, offshore fishing trip or get up to date information about coastal ocean conditions? The Coastal Ocean and Research Program at UNCW's Center for Marine Science provides real-time wind, wave, ocean current, salinity and water temperature data on its Web site http://www.cormp.org.
Research conducted by CORMP scientists covers a wide array of topics, but is designed to provide an interdisciplinary science-based framework that supports sound public policy leading to wise coastal use, sustainable fisheries and improved coastal ocean ecosystem health. Specific CORMP research thrusts include: - Examination of water quality in the coastal ocean (e.g. dissolved oxygen, nutrient and chlorophyll levels) to gain an understanding of the meteorological, hydrological, and land use factors in the Cape Fear River watershed that influence the productivity and habitat of the Cape Fear River plume region. - Describing recruitment processes of various marine organisms on offshore reefs, spawning grounds, and areas being considered for protected status and evaluating the role of the Cape Fear River plume in attracting, concentrating and successfully transporting offshore larvae into the river's estuaries. - Assessing the impacts of high-energy storm events on sediment transport, seafloor characteristics, and the ecology of nearshore coastal ecosystems, including "live bottom" reefs and coastal wetlands. - Developing ecological, circulation and storm surge models for North Carolina coastal waters and the Cape Fear River estuarine system.
Summer Reading SuggestionsBe sure to include some new and favorite books by UNCW faculty and alumni on your summer reading list. Clyde Edgerton's first non-fiction book Solo: My Adventures in the Air was released this fall. Solo was favorably reviewed in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Edgerton has previously published eight novels, five of which were New York Times Notables. Lunch at the Piccadilly is another one of Edgerton's books to pick up.
New works by other UNCW Creative Writing faculty include re-entry, a book of poems by Michael White, which was awarded the Vassar Miller Prize this spring. Rebecca Lee has a forthcoming novel, The City Is a Rising Tide, and Phil Furia also has a new book America's Songs: The Stories Behind the Songs of Broadway, Hollywood, and Tin Pan Alley.
UNCW MFA in Creative Writing alum Catherine McCall's memoir, Lifeguarding: A Memoir of Secrets, Swimming, and the South will be available July 11. It has been chosen by Elle as one of three winners of its "Reader's Prize." A feature on McCall's book will appear in the August issue of the magazine.
Robert Brent Toplin, professor of history, has a new book, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11: How One Film Divided a Nation, published by University Press of Kansas.
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