Life has returned to normal at the Beaufort Marine Laboratory after a brief scare from Hurricane Felix.
Although it veered east at the last minute from its impending collision with the North Carolina and Virginia coasts, Felix posed enough of a threat to cause the evacuation of the laboratory on Aug. 15.
"We knew it was heading straight at us," said Joseph Ramus, director of the lab. Ramus said that he made the decision to evacuate Beaufort after Carteret County hurricane officials began evacuating other parts of the island. Most students returned the following day.
Before leaving, employees and administrators took various steps to protect the facility, such as removing boats from the water and boarding up windows.
Ramus said that the decision to evacuate was an easy one. "No student will experience a hurricane on this campus," he said.
The hurricane was not of great concern to students and faculty at Beaufort, said Shirish Shenolikar, an associate professor of pharmacology. Shenolikar directs a two-week program at Beaufort for 36 incoming freshman interested in cell biology. "Some thought [Felix] was exciting," he said.
Students in the program arrived at the marine laboratory on Aug. 15, but returned to Durham later that day. After three days of lab work at the University, students went back to Beaufort on Aug. 19.
Felix was officially designated a Class I hurricane, the least severe category. No hurricane stronger than Class III has ever hit the North Carolina coast, Ramus said. In its 57-year history, the marine laboratory has never suffered damage from a hurricane.
Nevertheless, Beaufort takes steps to ensure that students are educated about the potential dangers of storms. All students who spend the fall semester at the marine laboratory are given an orientation about hurricanes, Ramus said.
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