The Beaufort Marine Laboratory still has not fully recovered from the ravages of last year's Hurricane Bonnie, whose powerful winds and torrential rains spawned a waterspout that ripped the roof off the facility's largest dormitory and trashed the school's library and auditorium.
This past weekend, as lab officials boarded up windows and prepared for a possible evacuation while keeping their eyes on the ever-changing path of menacing Hurricane Dennis, they must have thought with an eerie sense of déjà vu: Let's hope a hurricane never strikes the same place twice.
Cautiousness won out over optimism, and the island laboratory was evacuated Sunday night. For the second straight year, Beaufort refugees are seeking shelter in Trent Dormitory. Marine Lab orientation, which was scheduled to begin yesterday, has been postponed until Thursday, leaving students with plenty of leisure time on their hands.
Marine Lab Director Michael Orbach said that although he considers last year's devastation to be the product of the waterspout-not an ordinary hurricane-all storms must be taken seriously.
"Last year was a significantly abnormal experience, so we should not base our decisions on what happened last year...," he said. "But even a relatively moderately sized hurricane is still a hurricane."
The Beaufort management team began meeting Friday to discuss Dennis. They removed the lab's two smaller ships-one 30' and one 52' vessel-from water to prevent storm damage. The lab's 135' flagship, the Cape Hatteras, left Sunday for a secure port in Norfolk, Va.
They also posted online and voicemail messages recommending that students delay their travel plans, Orbach said. The staff directed students who could not cancel their plans to Durham.
Orbach said nine students followed the advice and headed for Duke, while nine others had already arrived at the lab. When it became clear that the storm was going to pass near the coast, he added, officials began making plans to evacuate the island Monday morning.
"But we watched the storm [Sunday] afternoon, and the storm was just coming too fast," he said, so they transported all the students to Durham Sunday night and prepared to leave the island. Although the storm knocked out power, the emergency generator provided ample electricity to maintain the lab's tanks and ongoing experiments.
Orbach, a professor of the practice in the Nicholas School of the Environment, stayed at the lab until 10 p.m. Sunday night before retreating one mile to his Beaufort home, which still had electricity.
The most powerful section of the storm passed by Monday morning, and brought weather Orbach described as "very squally," with a sustained downpour and winds of 50 knots.
"Looking out across the sound toward the inlet," he said, describing the storm damage to the area, "there are a lots of trees around and trash cans have blown away."
Although he does not think there was substantial damage to the lab, Orbach said he was unsure when it will be completely recovered.
"There's always little leaks and water damage," he said Monday afternoon. "The storm is also not quite over yet, so we still don't know when the electricity will come back on."
Trinity junior Elaine Chen, whose life possessions are crammed in her car while she awaits the chance to move into the Beaufort dorm room, said she is looking forward to her arrival on the island, although she does not mind "lounging around campus.
"It's fun just hanging out. It still feels like summer vacation," she said of her life in Trent. "[I] just sit and watch TV and play games."
Sarah Endsley contributed to this story.
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