Duke Back To Business After Irene
Hurricane causes minimal damage at Duke's campuses in Durham, Beaufort
Two days after Hurricane Irene made landfall on North Carolina's coast, life is returning to normal for faculty, staff and students at Duke's Marine Lab in Beaufort.
About 50 students arrive today in time to start a slightly delayed academic year after full power was restored Monday afternoon and all buildings opened. Student orientation at the Marine Lab will be Tuesday,and classes start Wednesday.
Faculty, staff and students worked together to put classrooms and labs back in order. Resident advisors are also helping about 30 students move into the Marine Lab's residence halls."This morning, we all had a chance to come together for coffee and bagels and told hurricane stories," said Cindy Van Dover, director of the Marine Lab. "We've had students and staff going around the island picking up shingles that fell off our roofs and there's a real feeling of good will to look after one another and the Marine Lab to make sure everything is back to normal."
The Marine Lab was without power from about 2 a.m. Saturday until about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, when partial power was restored. Generators supplied electricity until full power returned around noon Monday.
Images from around Duke following Hurricane Irene.
While Hurricane Irene caused limited damage in Beaufort, Duke's Durham campus was also relatively spared from the storm that left about 444,000 North Carolina homes without power.
Trees fell on Duke's campus in Durham, with the biggest damage from a large willow oak tree that toppled on East Campus next to the West Duke Building at about 2 p.m. Saturday. When the tree fell, it caused minor aesthetic damage to the building, scratching outside walls, breaking two windows and slightly denting the building's roof. Based on its size - 40 to 48-feet tall and 40 to 48-inches wide - the tree was between 70 and 90 years old.
On Sunday and Monday, crews at Duke were back to cleaning up debris from trees and fallen limbs on walkways, roads and more.
"When you take things into consideration, things weren't really that bad for us," said Roger Conner, superintendent for Duke Grounds. "We responded quickly and paid attention to all the things that needed to be done. We prepared for more than what we actually got."
Donald Lane, buildings and grounds superintendent for the Marine Lab on the coast, said the most harm from Irene occurred to one of the site's dorms, which lost shingles from its roof. Those shingles then broke a window in a nearby lab. Lane also reported minimal flooding in two buildings.
No injuries were reported over the weekend on the Duke campus in Durham or in Beaufort.