THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 17, 1995 TAG: 9508170518
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUCK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Research oceanographer Charles Long leaned his lanky, 6-foot-plus frame against the weathered, leeward side of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building and munched reflectively on an American cheese and yellow mustard sandwich on whole wheat.
In the distance, white surf tore ferociously at the Army corps pier stretching a third of a mile into the Atlantic. At 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, sustained 35-mph winds made the summer day hazy with salt spray and airborne sand.
``Felix is not a big deal - yet,'' Long said, finishing his lunch as he watched ocean water arc into the air above the pier. ``But the storm's way out there. Right now, this is a mediocre nor'easter.''
By 2 p.m., ocean gauges two miles out from the corps' Field Research Facility had recorded wave heights of more than 16 feet. Other devices indicated a 2-foot, on-beach water surge that weather forecasters said could grow to between 5 and 8 feet if Felix came ashore sometime today.
Long said that storms like Felix provide marine researchers with invaluable information - information not easily teased out in more sedate conditions.
Automatic instruments on or near the Duck pier are designed to work during the roughest weather, tracking minute-to-minute changes in wind speed, wave heights, ocean currents, and water pressures and depth.
Fed directly to the facility's computer, the readings are stored in digital form. They can also be instantly examined and analyzed, as Long was doing Wednesday afternoon.
``There still are a lot of things to learn about how hurricanes work,'' Long said. ``The more we understand, the better we can prepare for them and prevent damage.''
One of the key questions scientists are trying to answer is how sand and other material is moved to, and away from, the shore. The exact process that leads to beach change is still poorly understood.
As Felix pushed water and wind onto the Outer Banks shore, the storm created what scientists call ``intragravity,'' or long-period waves. Unlike the waves of settled weather, which come often and are relatively gentle, long-period waves take longer to arrive. But they stir up huge amounts of sand and usually carry that sand away from land.
In the research station's image processing room Wednesday, live video of the ocean and Duck beach was channeled from a bank of three cameras at the top of a 120-foot tower into research station computers, where the pictures were digitized and stored.
Scientists will later study the storm images and compare them to daily video shots as they attempt to understand the evolution and transformation of the shore.
Watching the banks of video monitors, and examining other information feeding from the corps' array of automatic sensors, research oceanographer Kent Hathaway appeared pleased.
``We didn't really expect sea changes as big as they are out there,'' he said. ``We're actually seeing sediment transport. That's pretty neat.''
The station's focus is long-term research, Long said, so he wasn't about to make any predictions about Felix's track or its eventual wind speed. Long said he'd leave that to the Weather Channel, which can become ``addictive when the weather affects you directly.''
Long said he was prepared for the worst. Stuffed in the back seat of his car were food, water, a toothbrush, an air mattress, a blanket and a pillow. He'd bunk down Wednesday night in his office if N.C. Route 12, the only access route, were flooded or otherwise impassable.
``This is the best job on the face of the planet,'' Long said. ``This is an exciting work day. It really is fun to see it as it happens.''
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FELIX by CNB