Few events in modern society are as frightening and unpredictable as a hurricane. A hurricane's strength, its duration, and the location of its landfall are often uncertain until mere hours before it strikes land. Disruptions from hurricanes—including property loss, infrastructure damage, and human miserylast weeks or months, and the toll in lives lost can be catastrophic in less developed countries. However, hurricanes are normal disturbances that natural ecosystems have been affected by and recovered from for millennia. One such ecosystem, the Cape Fear River system in North Carolina, has been struck repeatedly by hurricanes in recent years. The ecosystem-level effects of this recent spate of hurricanes are evident in the severe degradation of water quality, benthic community displacement and mortality, and large-scale fish kills. Since the Atlantic basin is predicted to have above average hurricane activity for the next 10 to 40 years (Goldberg et al. 2000), such environmental degradation is likely to continue.
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Mallin et al. (2002) studied this question.