Hurricane Hazel in the Carolinas (Images of America)
Title: Jay Barnes, hurricane historianAuthor: Staff WriterPublisher: ENC TodayDate: 6/26/2010No force on Earth can stop the wind, but we do know how to get out of its way thanks to advances like satellites that show the spinning hurricanes heading our way.Jay Barnes probably knows as much about East Coast hurricane history as anyone. In 1995 he published "North Carolina's Hurricane History" while he was still director of the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Know Shores on Bogue Banks. The book is now in its third edition.Barnes' book won the North Carolina Historians' Award. But Barnes said he had to put out a revised edition because, in 1996, Carolina got whacked with Bertha and Fran, and then another revised edition when along came Hurricane Dennis and then Floyd in 1999.Until Barnes' hurricane book came out, there was no single reference book that created the record of the more than 50 storms to hit North Carolina in recorded history. Barnes said he scoured through numerous newspaper reports, records of the National Weather Service, photographs and eyewitness accounts.Remembering HazelHurricane Hazel in 1954 was probably "the most powerful storm to hit North Carolina" and went all the way up to Canada, Barnes said.Now, having assembled a collection of Hazel photographs, Barnes has a new book that just came out, published by Arcadia Publishing, that "traces the history of Hazel in the Carolinas" with pictures of the havoc it caused at Myrtle Beach, Wilmington, Wilson, Goldsboro and into Canada.Barnes, 51, grew up in Southport below Wilmington. So, he noted, he has always been around water and storms. He went to the College of Design at N.C. State University, and he got "very interested in museums." When he got out of college, he applied for the job of curator of design at the N.C. Aquarium and began work there in 1980 and as director in 1989.After 20 years, Barnes left to head up fundraising for the N.C. Aquarium Society. Alan Monroe became the new director, but his wife, Robin, still works at the aquarium. They have two daughters, ages 26 and 17.Asked what drove him into his pursuits, Barnes said, "I always tell people this: I'm not a meteorologist or a marine biologist." But he loves the work.Although fascinated with the history of hurricanes, Barnes was quick to say, "I can't say I love them, though, because when they come, there are a lot of new tragedies come with them."Barnes said Hurricane Hazel in 1954 is still remembered as a destroyer; Hugo in 1989 swung inshore below Craven and Carteret counties, and did a lot of damage in Charlotte. Another "legacy of destruction" was left by Fran in the fall of 1996, but Hurricane Floyd, which hit on Sept. 16, 1999, replaced Fran as the "state's foremost weather event," gaining the dubious title as "the greatest disaster in North Carolina history."