After feeling twinges of an earthquake earlier this week, the Duke community is preparing for another, and likely more threatening, natural phenomenon.
According to a trajectory estimate as of Thursday, Hurricane Irene will make landfall Saturday along the coast and move inland, said Ryan Ellis, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Raleigh. The Triangle can expect to see at least a half inch of rain, although the amount can change significantly if the storm’s path changes as little as a few miles east or west.
Due to Irene, Gov. Bev Perdue declared a state of emergency Thursday for counties east of I-95 while some coastal areas faced mandatory evacuations. President Barack Obama later signed an emergency declaration in North Carolina, which orders federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts to Irene’s expected damage.
“Pray for the best, prepare for the worst,” Perdue said at a press briefing Thursday. “That’s what we do in North Carolina.”
The storm, which hit the Bahamas on Thursday as a Category 3, may strengthen to a Category 4 or 5 over warm waters in the Atlantic, Ellis said. It will most likely be Category 3 or 4 when it reaches the Carolina coast, with winds between 111 and 155 miles per hour.
On campus, upperclassmen were be permitted to move in one day early—Thursday as opposed to Friday—to avoid traveling in poor weather, Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Moneta wrote in an email to students Tuesday.
In an email to The Chronicle Wednesday, Moneta added that administrators made the decision not long before sending out the message to the student body.
“I’m not in a position to comment on either weather predictions nor how safe folks will be traveling,” Moneta said. “I do encourage everyone who is traveling over the weekend to keep a close eye on conditions and take every prediction to be safe.”
Sophomore Amanda Griffis wrote in an email Thursday that she plans to move in early as an extra precaution. She originally planned to travel with her family by car from Florida but has now decided to take the train.
“We know better than to fully trust hurricane path predictions,” Griffis said. “Hurricane Jeanne was supposed to veer away from Florida... Instead, it did a full loop and came directly at us, taking our roof off while we were inside.”
Durham County Emergency Management is primarily preparing for heavy rain and strong winds from Irene, Mark Shell, an emergency management coordinator for the group, said. Though the topography of the Triangle area makes flooding a minimal concern, fallen trees and power lines could be a potential hazard for residents.
“We have very scripted plans as to how we prioritize handling damage to essential infrastructure,” Shell said. “Loss of power in facilities like hospitals will get attention first.”
In particular, the state or county may declare a state of emergency and implement a curfew to keep residents from traveling outside, Shell noted. The most recent state of emergency declaration came during a snow storm in 2000, he added.
Hurricane Irene will be the second natural phenomenon to leave its mark this week.
A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck Virginia Tuesday and caused tremors along the East Coast, including the Triangle area.
Despite reports of sporadic tremors shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday, there were no reported injuries or property damage on or near campus, said Kyle Cavanaugh, vice president for human resources and emergency coordinator for the University.
Caroline Rourk, administrative director of the occupational medicine toxicology program at the Duke University Medical Center, said she felt her fourth floor office on Erwin Road shake for about one minute at 1:55 p.m. Tuesday.
“Everything just started moving. You could feel the building swaying side to side,” Rourk said. “I have never been in an earthquake, so everything was crazy for a second. Luckily, it didn’t last that long though.”
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