Residents and emergency personnel in western North Carolina readied Thursday for more wet weather as Hurricane Ivan was scheduled to make a sweep up the Eastern seaboard over land already saturated from earlier storms. Meteorologists say spin-off storms from Ivan, most likely tornadoes, are possible as far east as Durham.
“Hurricane Ivan is a dangerous storm,” Governor Mike Easley told reporters at a Thursday morning briefing in Raleigh. “If you’ve not already prepared for it, you must do so today.”
Experts say the greatest threats from the storm, which killed 11 people as it made landfall on the Alabama coastline, include flooding and mudslides. With about 50 roads in the western mountainous region still closed as a result of Tropical Depression Frances, crews from the Department of Transportation worked around the clock to keep thoroughfares clear of debris and prevent further safety problems.
Easley activated 245 members of the National Guard in anticipation of the soggy weather and dispatched 144 additional Highway Patrol troopers to the western part of the state to manage traffic.
Many say they expect Ivan to bring up to a foot of rain to Western North Carolina.
“We expect the effects to be about the same as Frances,” said Rose Cummings, spokesperson for Duke Power. “It’s all dependent on the track the hurricane takes, though.”
Duke Power, which manages hydroelectric facilities in the Catawba River system in northwest North Carolina, has been furiously working to move water through the 225-mile-long chain of 11 lakes. Duke Power’s hydroelectric plants are now working at full capacity, gates to the company’s dams have been opened and spillways along certain portions of the river system are being utilized. But preventing problematic flooding is still difficult.
“We manage the Catawba River chain as a whole system, not individual lakes and reservoirs,” Cummings said.
The high levels of rainfall expected with the storm, coupled with winds predicted at speeds of up to 40 mph, only confound flooding problems that the region has already encountered, experts say.
“Water has nowhere to go into the ground,” said Lincoln Pratson, an associate professor of sedimentary geology at the Nicholas School of the Environment. “One impact, when there are heavy rains like this, is falling trees.”
Fallen trees could only add to mud flow on eroding hillsides, some experts say, creating potentially devastating mudslides. Such erosion also occurs on coastlines where hurricanes originally come ashore, although this deterioration is typically temporary.
“[Coastline] beach erosion during a storm is pretty much a temporary thing,” said Brad Murray, an assistant professor at the Nicholas School of the Environment. “The sand generally does come back, though not to the same places necessarily.”
Although beaches tend to rebuild rather quickly, the effects of mudslides on mountainous vegetation could produce long-term consequences.
By Thursday afternoon meteorologists warned of potential spin-off thunderstorms and tornadoes in the Triangle area from Ivan’s North Carolina path. Duke officials had already moved Saturday’s inauguration ceremony of new president Richard Brodhead indoors and said they would assess the situation as the weather progresses.
“We have a severe weather plan that is always in place,” said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. “Fundamentally the determination is made on how safe the environment can be.”
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