Towerview February 2019

TOWERVIEW FEBRUARY 6, 2019 | VOL. 20 | ISSUE 3

Chron

Icons, Leaders, Pioneers

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

2 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

INTRODUCING CHRON15 Icons

Pioneers

Leaders

Kate Bowler J. Samuel Hammond Maria Mateas Jay Singletary Zion Williamson

Ashley Jardina Sally Afia Nuamah Axel Herrera Ramos Duke Electric Vehicles People’s State of the University

Valerie Ashby Ryan Bergamini Chris Pollard Paula McClain Anthony Monroe

Welcome to this year’s Chron15.

Looking back at your Duke experience so far, who were the people that impacted you the most?

As students, we have a limited amount of time at this University. This annual list aims to highlight a few of the people who have impacted that. People who broke records, who advocated for the rights of marginalized groups, who made you smile at the JB’s checkout line.

Every year, Chron15 honors campus

pioneers, leaders and icons. Our selections are based on nominations from the Duke community, and they attempt to highlight the individuals or groups who have shaped experiences at the University. We believe that the people honored in the Chron15 exemplify the Duke community in 2019 and what it means to be a part of it.

Our honorees this year have overcome unimaginable hardships and fought for their beliefs. They are people who foster community and brighten up your day. They

are people with incredible athletic talents and charisma, or intellectual pioneers as faculty in various fields.

As you read about the Chron15, we want you to consider their significance and contributions to the community and experience at Duke or their impact in broader areas, like their scholarly field. Whether it is your first or last year on campus, we hope you will reflect on the people who have impacted you, the people you have impacted and your experience as a part of this community.

These are not the only 15 influential people on campus, of course. Instead, they represent a cross section of different pieces of student life, each of which includes many more mentors and leaders.

This collection aims to highlight the stories of 15 people and groups who impact this University. But at a school as big as Duke, this barely scratches the surface. So we urge you to look around yourself and listen to others’ stories.

This University is a special place. Take advantage of it while you can.

—Shannon Fang and Hank Tucker, features editors

find housing at The Chronicle’s online guide to living near Duke.

The Chronicle

Photo by Charles York

Kate Bowler

Maria Mateas

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019 | 3

Photo by Charles York

By L. Greg Jones Dean of Divinity School

What do you do after “everything happens,” and you discover the future isn’t what you thought it would be? You cry, you scream, you question, and…if you are Kate Bowler, you also laugh at the absurdity of it all. And then you offer profound insights to others about the intersections of faith, suffering, hope, resilience, and joy.

Kate Bowler, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School, was told at the age of 35 that she had a rare form of cancer and likely less than two years to live. With a husband and a then two-year old child at home, and an influential book on the prosperity gospel under her belt, Kate was on a terrific trajectory—until that day in September when everything came crashing in on her. And yet, in the midst of a death-dealing diagnosis and now new-found yet fragile hope for her future, she has offered a powerful example of living faith for many others – here at Duke and, through her best-selling memoir and her widelydownloaded podcasts, around the world.

Kate has become an iconic figure at Duke because she holds together so many things we think are oppositional: suffering and hope; tragedy and comedy; tears and laughter; impact among the literati and compassion for the afflicted. Kate is a brilliant scholar and accessible writer who is special because she is wise, funny, a great friend and, most importantly, profoundly human.

Staff Reports The Chronicle

As a freshman on the Duke women’s tennis team, Maria Mateas arrived on campus with a desire to improve her tennis prowess. But the fact that she is even in college is unique. She is currently ranked WTA No. 299 and topped out her junior ranking at 26 almost three years ago. She is also the ninth highest ranked women’s tennis player with ties to college and the only one current enrolled.

Most players with professional success and a professional singles title would jump right into playing professionally full time and skip college. But Mateas saw the value in a collegiate experience and decided to improve her game with one of the top teams in the county. The Blue Devil coaching staff—led by head coach Jamie Ashworth and associate head coach Matt Manasse— is also one of the top units in country and has coached numerous top-100 players, which will only benefit Mateas’ growth.

Between playing in professional tournaments this fall, Mateas, in her college debut, advanced to the finals of the ITA All-American Championships in October after she knocked off two top-16 opponents. Mateas hopes to be ranked professionally in the top 10 in coming years but does not have an exact timetable to make that jump. (new paragraph) Before she steps foot onto the professional circuit for good, Mateas will look to lead her team atop the singles lineup to its first national championship since 2009. Ashworth’s team that season included Mallory Cecil, a freshman who went on to win the NCAA Individual Singles Championship.

icons

Jay Singletary

By Liv McKinney and Tara Pal

Maybe you know him as Jay from JB’s or as the friendliest Bella Union barista, but regardless of where you’ve met him, Javon (Jay) Singletary brings an unmistakable positive energy to any room.

This Boston sports fanatic, fun uncle and provider of the best fist bumps and hugs on campus is sure to know your name and order by heart if you find him behind the register a couple times–whether it’s the apple and fennel salad, a 6-ounce strip steak with extra fries or a caramel macchiato. The sheer number of conversations

and inside jokes Jay has with members of the Duke community is a testament to his uncommon compassion and rare ability to form meaningful relationships.

The love Jay shows the Duke community is why he is so loved in return, perhaps best shown by the group of seniors who once pitched in to buy him his first Celtics jersey.

Those of us lucky enough to know or work with Jay know his infectious positivity and caring attitude never fail to improve our days. He is dedicated fan, a giving friend and, all in all, a true Duke icon.

Photo by Charles York

The Chronicle

By Mark Evan Bonds Cary C. Boshamer Distinguished Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill

Photo by Charles York Photo by Charles York

the Rare Books collection in Perkins Library benefitted from his long experience with the University’s holdings and above all his encyclopedic knowledge of Duke. Sam arrived on campus as an undergraduate in the fall of 1964, and to our good fortune, he never left. He played his last official concert on New Year’s Eve 2018. By order of the University Trustees, the carillon he played for so long is now rightly named in his honor.

And so we’ll continue to hear the sound of a Duke icon.

Zion Williamson Staff Reports

J. Samuel Hammond

Sound carries, and Sam’s has carried far for a long time.

We heard him on West Campus almost every weekday for more than 50 years, even if we rarely saw him. As University Carilloneur, he played the Duke Chapel’s 50 bells from a console high in the tower almost every weekday at 5:00 p.m. for 15 minutes, with longer performances after services on Sunday. (Google it and you’ll see clips of how it’s done.)

But Sam wasn’t always invisible: those who frequented

Trinity Juniors

Special to the Chronicle

He had more than a million followers on Instagram before he ever stepped on campus as a student, he was the secondranked basketball recruit in the 2018 high school class, and somehow, Zion Williamson has easily exceeded the hype.

Every game at Cameron Indoor Stadium this year has become a hype spectacle, a chance to witness something you’ve never seen before. Against Eastern Michigan, Williamson elevated for an electric alleyoop with his eyes even with the rim at the height of his leap. Against Clemson, he soared for a 360-degree turn in midair before another slam. Students and fans can count on a few special moments every time they see him in person, and he has opposing fans begging for flashy dunks in warmup lines before road games.

Williamson has also taken some by surprise by being an exceptional allaround player, the best and most efficient scoring threat on a team that may be a national title contender. He has a unique skillset that pundits and other coaches have scrambled to find reasonable comparisons for to no avail and is the clear frontrunner for every national player of the year award.

Perhaps the most important element of his aura is the joy he brings to the game and his infectious charisma around teammates, coaches, media members and random students tenting in K-Ville. He understands the attention he receives but deflects it to the rest of the team, and it shows. R.J. Barrett, the top-ranked recruit in the class who has often been upstaged by the spotlight on Williamson, still jumps for joy and jokes with Williamson in the locker room after every highlight-reel play. This will certainly be Williamson’s only year of entertaining the Cameron Crazies before he is eligible to jump to the NBA, but he is making it count and cementing himself as a Blue Devil for life.

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

4 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

Photo by Aaron Zhao

pioneers

Staff Reports The Chronicle

Photo by Bre Bradham

People’s State of the University

People’s State of the University is a campus activist group that rose to prominence after its student members stormed the stage at an alumni address by President Vincent Price in April 2018 and issued a series of demands. They connected their protest to the 1968 Silent Vigil, which followed the death of Martin Luther King Jr. PSOTU issued a dozen demands to the administration, which ranged from making Board of Trustees meetings open and more transparent to creating a”standardized set of consequences” for hate and bias acts on campus and guaranteeing need-blind admission for international students. Since the April protest, PSOTU has gained seats at the bargaining table with administrators, earning spots on the Working Group for Community and Dialogue.

Duke has addressed some of the group’s demands. Duke and the University Health System announced in September that they would not ask individuals whether they had committed a felony in the first round of employment applications, fulfilling the “ban the box” demand. The Board of Trustees also introduced new transparency measures in the Fall and renamed the Carr Building in December.

Duke Electric Vehicles

Ashley Jardina

By Deondra Rose

By Judith Kelley

Assistant Professor in the Sanford School

The beginning of the semester doesn’t always evoke triumphant smiles and jaunty little jigs from students. But I have found one phrase to be consistently accompanied by such illumination: “I managed to get into Professor Jardina’s class!”

Since 2014, my friend, colleague and fellow political scientist Ashley Jardina has worked to provide Duke’s students with powerful tools for understanding and thinking critically about group identities, racial attitudes and political behavior.

Her courses, which include Race and Politics and Politics, Groups, and Identities, are widely regarded as both fascinating and eye-opening.

A rising star in political science, Jardina’s ground-breaking research is similarly admired by the academic community. Her new book, White Identity Politics, is already shaking up both the scholarly and popular discourse on race in the United States, helping to bring our understanding of the significance of white identity in American politics into greater focus.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Jardina said, “One reason that we haven’t talked a lot about whiteness in the past is because whites don’t have to confront their racial identity the way that people of color in the United States traditionally have. So we think about whiteness and white identity as being an invisible group identity because whites don’t experience systematic subordination or discrimination.”

In a social and political context that is not always amenable to forthright discussions about race—particularly, whiteness—Ashley Jardina’s work offers a powerful example of how Duke’s most inspiring faculty are leading the way toward richer discussion and greater understanding.

Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy

Photo by Charles York

By Nico Hotz Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

For more than seven years, the Duke Electric Vehicle team, formerly named Duke Eco-Marathon, has worked on finding solutions for more sustainable transport by inventing future electric vehicle technologies. The team’s battery-powered vehicles have very successfully competed in the Shell Eco-marathon Americas, winning the competition for battery electric cars in 2017 and 2018. Typically numbering 15 to 20 students, the entirely student-run team went one step further last year and added an additional vehicle type to their team: a fuel cell car powered by hydrogen.

In its first year working with this novel technology, the Duke Electric Vehicle team won the Eco Marathon and set a new Guinness world record for the most fuelefficient car in known human history, reaching more than 14,500 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent. With the equivalent of one gallon of gasoline, the team’s car could drive from New York to Los Angeles more than five times! On the way to this world record, the team invented pioneering and groundbreaking new technological solutions, which are publicly available and can be used to design better and more sustainable cars in the future.

Axel Herrera Ramos

By Daisy Almonte Photo by Bre Bradham

Trinity Junior

Leaders are made, not born, and Axel Herrera Ramos has become one of the most impactful leaders on campus. As a sophomore, he founded Duke Define American, the first undocumented student advocacy group at Duke. With programming like Undocumented Awareness Week, he has brought DREAMers into the conversations of both Duke students and administration.

This year, he was instrumental in bringing the Define American National Summit to Duke’s campus, where DREAMers from across the nation convened for a weekend. Axel is not only a leader, but also a mentor. He focuses his energy outside of Duke as well with BOOST, a program that promotes STEM to underrepresented middle schoolers in Durham. His continued dedication to the Durham community has even landed him on a Latinx 20 Under 20 list from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Axel uses the power of story to continue to be an activist for his communities. He is resilient, resourceful and unafraid. Leadership like his is needed on Duke’s campus, where administration continues to put aside the concerns and voices of marginalized students and staff. Axel is special because he is not afraid to speak up for his community’s rights, and when he does, people listen.

Few assistant professors start their first academic job having already done a TEDx Talk.

But Sally Nuamah has.

That’s because she’s committed to taking her scholarship beyond seminar rooms and sharing it with the world. She is not only a public policy professor: she is also a documentary filmmaker, a writer and an outspoken advocate for girls’ education Nuamah’s passion for leveling the playing field is rooted in her childhood in Chicago. Her mom was a single parent and hotel worker, and they led a rather no-frills life. She excelled in the classroom and won scholarship after scholarship to launch her career. Her pioneering talent was noticed during her years as a Phi Beta Kappa undergraduate at George Washington University, where she won the Manatt-Trachtenberg Award for challenging the social and intellectual conscience of the university.

Since then, she has accumulated many more awards, including the 35 Under 35 Leaders Making an Impact from Chicago Scholars and the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education. Her new book “How Girls Achieve” grew from her comparative studies of students in the United States, Ghana and South Africa. In it, she examines the institutional and social barriers that prevent girls from reaching their goals.

To further her goal of helping girls, she founded the TWII Foundation, which provides college scholarships for low income girls in Ghana. She argues for “feminist schools” to start girls on path to lifelong achievement.

Photo by Mary Helen Wood

Sally Afia Nuamah

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

Provost

Valerie Ashby has brought her own remarkable style to the role of dean of arts and sciences. While some leaders want to be “large and in charge” and others lead from behind, Valerie brings a unique ability to lead by creating and empowering a highly effective team. A major focus of her time as dean has been to select the very best department chairs and to mentor them to be the very best leaders they can be and to let them lead. She has also built a dynamic and effective leadership team within the Dean’s office.

This is not to say that Dean Ashby abdicates her own responsibility. Not at all. Rather, she guides by example and by clear articulation of principles.

While she clearly knows that the buck stops with her, her leadership style is highly consultative: she doesn’t

ask her team for their opinions as a formality. An excellent listener, she encourages collegial discussion, and even dissent, to get to the best possible solution for the school and the university as a whole.

Dean Ashby is driven by a strong commitment to students.

She will never say no to a student who wants to speak with her and she always has the best interests of the students in view when she makes decisions–often difficult ones with a tight budget. Her new effort to revolutionize the firstyear student experience, currently underway, reflects this dedication to the undergraduate experience at Duke. And she does all of this with a wonderful sense of humor, great personal warmth and intelligence, a remarkable public presence and an ability to keep her cool even when the inevitable challenges come her way!

Valerie Ashby

Professor in Surgery

Visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community can often be difficult to achieve, and even dangerous given not only the personal and political climate, but the lack of protections in the hiring and firing practices in North Carolina.

Typical diversity and inclusion efforts lag behind in support and visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially in STEM fields.

Anthony Monroe is a visionary and is advocating for the careful consideration and use of appropriate gender pronouns as a tool to improve the sense of belonging of LGBTQIA+ in the Duke community. His work and passion in raising awareness of LGBTQIA+ in STEM fields will serve as a springboard for an entire community to recognize their potential and achieve game-changing scientific advances. Anthony is a rare dual biomedical Ph.D./MBA student, the executive secretary of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, a leader in o-STEM–a group for LGBT+ graduate students–and founder of a national symposium to discuss LGBTQIA+ rights and treatment within the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.

Anthony has joined forces with existing student groups– including oSTEM and CSGD–to come up with actionable items for improving the sense of belonging and inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community on campus.

leaders Ryan Bergamini

By Malcolm Brown Pratt Senior

Photo by Charles York

Anthony Monroe

By Georgia Tomaras

Photo by Sujal Manohar

By Sally Kornbluth

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019 | 5

The main characteristic that makes Ryan Bergamini a leader is his commitment to community.

Throughout my time here at Duke, I’ve witnessed Ryan brainstorm and follow through with multiple creative ideas to improve the Duke community. For example, he recently created the Duke Student Group, an initiative

Photo by Charles York

dedicated to forming positive relationships between tenters and line monitors in K-Ville and building a more inclusive Duke Basketball community. Similarly, I’ve even seen Ryan bring together diverse crowds of people–who otherwise would never cross paths–around something as simple as street hockey on a Saturday.

What makes all of this possible is Ryan’s extroverted personality and his ability to galvanize people into taking action on an issue.

Something about Ryan’s energetic nature makes him a natural leader that many people feel more than comfortable getting behind.

Chris Pollard

Paula McClain

By Max Miller

By John Aldrich

Trinity ‘18

Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. University Professor of Political Science

Chris Pollard has spent his entire baseball coaching career instilling discipline, perspective and poise into players through his leadership.

All college sports teams are evolving every day, month and season, but the one constant within successful programs is an established culture. Duke Baseball has not only developed an inclusive culture under Coach Pollard that players can lean on, but also become a nationally recognized baseball brand that alumni like me can be proud of. One tangible culture-driver is the Leadership Council that Coach Pollard created during my freshman season in 2014.

The inclusion of player-driven ideas isn’t always encouraged in college athletics, but Coach continues to facilitate trust and place value in players’ ideas. In meetings, elected players from each class discuss critical adjustments (“What do you think about breaking out the machine for BP going into the regional? Our report has all of the arms we’ll face up over 93.”) and tiny details (“We’ve gotten some internal pushback from guys on the pregame Chick-fil-A sandwiches now being grilled instead of fried”).

Some of these issues may seem insignificant to an ACC baseball coach, but over the course of a 60-game season, they add up. Coach Pollard has taught me and countless others how to lead, work and win. After five straight 30-pluswin seasons, Duke’s first regional appearance since the 1960s and a record-breaking 2018 campaign, it’s impossible to imagine a better leader of this program.

Paula McClain is a professor of political science and public policy, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education. She is a major figure in the study of race and ethnic politics, serves as a leader in university and disciplinary administration and combines her passionate commitment with adherence to the highest standards of excellence.

Paula brought with her to Duke the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute, a program to help minority undergraduate students think about and become more prepared for graduate school. The Bunche program is recognized as the leading such program in the nation. She also established the race and ethnic politics theme field in political science based on principles espoused

by Ralph Bunche, Nobel Laureate for Peace, lifelong civil rights activist and former president of the American Political Science Association. She is now the incoming president of that association herself.

Dean McClain is known for her fervent advocacy for minority and women’s rights. Her students quickly learn that passion is not enough, and that she holds them to the highest standards of ethics and of research. But then she asks no less of herself.

Photo by Charles York

Photo by Simran Prakesh

6 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

Months after storm, Hurricane Florence’s effects linger near Duke Marine Lab upstream of the dam breach were only a fraction of state standards.

The Department of Environmental Quality, Crawling inland at a slow rate of 3 miles per however, released test results showing all but one hour, Hurricane Florence dropped approximately heavy metal to be below state standards. Copper 8 trillion gallons of rain on North Carolina. was detected at a level slightly above the standard.

In the short time since the hurricane, the The Cape Fear Public Utility Authority said Duke University Marine Laboratory has chipped that any coal ash flooding would not threaten in to play a small part in helping the slow treated water being supplied to 200,000 people recovery process. in Wilmington.

The Hurricane made landfall south of Wrightsville Beach, N.C. on Sept. 14 as a Category Stepping in to help Although Florence made landfall south 1 storm, yet Florence shattered previous flood records set by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. of Wilmington, Swansboro, a town further Gov. Roy Cooper announced in October that northeast along the coast, was hit with the most estimates of damage caused by the storm reached precipitation in the state, receiving over 33 inches $13.7 billion, but the greater ecological impact of rain.

A 40-minute drive east from Swansboro lies has yet to be fully understood. Some coastal residents will still feel the effects of the damage Beaufort, the third-oldest town in the state and home to the Duke Marine Laboratory and other for months to come. historic sites, including where Blackbeard the Courtesy of Sean Rowe pirate ran his flagship the Queen Anne’s Revenge Toxic flooding and pollution Duke undergraduates and graduate students came together to bring supplies and help clean houses Flooded rivers bring pollution and debris to aground in 1718.

“Since Florence, we have pulled up over damaged from Hurricane Florence in Carteret County, where the Marine Lab is located. the ocean, which can create dead zones where Duke undergraduate students also took marine life cannot survive. In addition, the 100,020 pounds of debris including 11 vessels, physically visible during the storm. floodwaters can carry pollutants hazardous to 34 illegal moorings and seven car tires within “Right after Hurricane Florence hit, it was initiative to help how they could. Trevyn Toone, a Beaufort waterways. A lot of it was storm debris clear that there was a lot of damage along the senior at the Marine Lab, made and sold t-shirts human health across large distances.

“In North Carolina, when storms like and some had been in place for quite some time,” coast,” said Nancy Kelly, Director of Nicholas to people across Carteret and Durham counties Florence hit, there’s a delayed impact where the said Rett Newton, PhD student at the Duke Community Engagement & Events at Duke. raising over $1,000 for relief supplies purchases.

“Our response plan focused on Carteret County Kelly also organized two day trips over fall break water will run down toward the coast through Marine Laboratory and Mayor of Beaufort.

Newton said the town was fortunate because of our Beaufort campus. The Marine where undergraduate students in Durham could rivers and you’ll see flooding that doesn’t peak hurricane Lab was severely volunteer to help clean up in Carteret County. until a week after the storm,” WRAL investigative the made landfall reporter Tyler Dukes said. but About 30 or 40 students took the threeStudents went door to door checking damaged, Duke has a lot hour bus ride to Beaufort either day, bringing Eastern North Carolina’s economy has been as a Category 1 of resources that supplies from a donation drive on main campus supported by large-scale hog farms after the storm, as it had in on citizens, offering rides to the classified FEMA office, helping with language others in the and working to clean up houses that had been fall of Big Tobacco in the 1990s. Waste from the been community do suffered water damage. They helped clean up farms are flushed into open pit lagoons. Florence as a Category 4 while barriers, indentifying individuals who not.” caused at least 110 of these lagoons to flood, hurricane mold, raked marsh grass, cleared yards and Shortly after the pitched tarps over roofs for first responders killing 5,500 hogs and 4.1 million chickens and still over the ocean. might need assitance.

Duke Energy storm, Marine Lab and members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the turkeys. graduate students, Coastal Plains.

In addition to the flooding of hog lagoons, arrived in Beaufort rachel lo piccolo postdocs and “Students went door to door checking in two Duke Energy coal ash pits experienced with military grade PROGRAM COORDINATOR AT THE DUKE MARINE LAB significant flooding. Coal ash is a byproduct equipment to try faculty mobilized on citizens, offering rides to the FEMA office, to help recovery helping with language barriers, identifying of burning coal for energy production which to turn the power efforts. Students who had evacuated to Durham individuals who might need assistance,” said contains toxic heavy metals such as mercury and back on.

The town ran out of food altogether, and raised money on social media to fill their cars Rachel Lo Piccolo, PhD Program Coordinator at arsenic.

Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental rescue groups distributed Meals, Ready to Eat with relief supplies and bring them to the coast. the Duke Marine Laboratory. “They took it on advocacy group, released test results showing to citizens from the fire station. Across Carteret As donations became more readily available in themselves to learn about FEMA and DSNAP, a arsenic levels 71 times the state water quality County, there was a need to provide shelter for Beaufort, students packed up their cars once federal program for emergencies allowing people standard by the Cape Fear Riverwatch displaced residents, but no place for them to go. again to bring relief supplies to rural towns that to apply for money for groceries. The students learned about these programs and facilitated downstream from the dam breach. Arsenic levels Newton said the economic divide became very faced more damage and received less help. bringing them to the public.”

By Delaney Dryfoos Staff Writer

‘There is more work than there is labor’ Since much of the flood water didn’t reach the coast until a week after the storm, many buildings experienced water damage after Florence had left the area. The damage led to high incidences of black mold, which is highly linked to cancers and birth defects.

In Beaufort, the residents in units where mold was present were evicted and housed in emergency shelters. In more rural areas, many stayed in their damaged homes for shelter with nowhere else to go.

“Our house was not as badly damaged as others, but we had mold in the ceiling of our bedroom,” said Leslie Acton, a postdoctoral research fellow at Colorado State University living in the Beaufort area. “We tried to stay, but I have really bad allergies and was really sensitive.

My eyes were red and swollen and people asked me if I got punched in the face. We stayed for three or four days and then stayed with friends around here.”

Acton and a group of her friends took loads of supplies in their car to underserved towns north of Beaufort, including Marymount and South River. Newton suggested they go to the smaller towns in the north because Courtesy of Sean Rowe the towns to the east, which received more Students and volunteers at the Duke Marine Lab brought supplies to smaller towns to the northern and eastern parts of the state once the flooding in Beaufort began to subside.

See HURRICANE on Page 7

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019 | 7

HURRICANE FROM PAGE 6 precipitation, were better organized and had clearer avenues to get resources.

“The key needs were information about FEMA, food aid and lost wages aid. I knew that kind of information but was not getting to a lot of people who needed it the most,” Acton said.

“There were a lot of rumors going around that people were stopping at houses and pretending to be FEMA to come inside and stake out the houses to rob.”

Much of the community began communicating via a Facebook group called “Beaufort NC – Florence Community Support Group.” The group’s name has since been changed to “Beaufort / Down East Community News” and continues to serve as a place where residents can ask questions, find links to apply for FEMA and find housing such as FEMA trailers.

Marian Tucker and Brenda Lee of Newport also created a nonprofit called Carteret Warriors for Recovery about two weeks after Florence.

“I felt lucky that we didn’t have any major damage at our house, just a little roof damage,” Tucker said. “I wanted to help people that weren’t as fortunate and basically through the generosity of our community, we’ve been able to get the group off the ground.”

The nonprofit has helped supply over 300 families with clothing, linens, houseware appliances and furniture, especially mattresses.

They’ve expanded to help Carteret, Onslow and Craven counties. About half of the 300 families lost everything in the storm initially, while the rest were later evicted from their apartments due to water damage. Tucker estimates that only about 25 percent of the families they’ve helped are back in their homes.

“Duke has millions of dollars to pour into restoration effort, but there aren’t enough contractors to do the actual work to rebuild,” said Stacy Zhang, PhD student at the Duke Marine Laboratory. “People are coming from all over the country right now to help rebuild, but there is more work than there is labor.... I drive by a lot of the homes we put tarps on and the tarps are still there three and a half months later.

“We’ve seen trucks and vans from Alabama and Arkansas. Contractors are coming in from everywhere to try to help,” added Acton, who moved back into her home on Dec. 3.

The Marine Lab community also made counseling and mentoring local children a key part of the recovery process. They brought mental health professionals from Durham to volunteer and offer services to children at the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Plains and Carteret County Public Schools. In addition, students, staff and faculty volunteered at local Boys and Girls Clubs to help after the complete destruction of the facilities and to become longterm mentors to local families.

Elizabeth Demattia teaches a service learning course at the Duke Marine Lab where students

Courtesy of the Duke Marine Lab The Duke Marine Lab, located near Beaufort on the North Carolina coast, is part of the University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

created science and art projects to show both the people at the Marine Lab had a lot of damage that physical and emotional effects of Florence. They only became clear after the fact, such as a small made a “heat map” by asking children what they leak that caused mold and became catastrophic would tell the hurricane if they could or what later on.” they would tell other community kids.

Acton sought out FEMA workers directly to “We want people to read the words. There try to distribute information to the families of were times when I teared up,” Demattia said. the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Plains “Half of my class and to the northern really wanted to talk I drive by a lot of the homes we towns she had visited about the justice that weren’t receiving and mental health put tarps on, and the tarps are still much help. of hurricane trauma there three and a half months later.

“A FEMA person and the other half went to North River wanted to talk about one day but only protections from stacy zhang had one or two PhD STUDENT AT THE DUKE MARINE LAB people come and the shoreline and ecological response.” sign up. Reasons for that could be a ton: Navigating FEMA paperwork bad advertising, people already applied, people Despite the efforts of the community to might not have been home, couldn’t get to the provide information about applying for FEMA fire station, trust issues and all kinds of tensions,” reimbursements, the process remained confusing Acton said. “It’s unfortunate they didn’t help as for many residents. FEMA requires applications many people as they wanted to and I’m afraid and supplies funds meant to supplement already that’s going to deter them from helping in the existing insurance. A homeowner needs to be future.” able to show that the damage was caused by the Most homeowners were still awaiting federal hurricane, a complicated process that differs in assistance from Matthew when Florence hit. the amount of proof needed for wind and water North Carolina received less than 1 damage. percent of the federal refunds requested after “I heard that if people got denied, it could Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which only have been because they were helping out the estimated $1.5 billion in damage as opposed people who had the most intense damage first to Florence’s $13.7 billion. As of Sept. 1, North and that if you appealed your denial, you had an Carolina had only released $2 million of the okay chance of being approved that time,” Acton $266 million it received in federal rebuilding said. “I don’t know if that’s accurate, but a lot of money after Matthew.

Courtesy of the Nicholas School of the Environment The Marine Lab brought mental health professionals to the coast after the storm to help at nearby public schools and volunteer with the Boys and Girls Club of the Coastal Plains.

What comes next?

Cooper’s $1.5 billion plan for Florence recovery anticipates help from private insurance and federal and state government. He initially released $56.5 million for immediate recovery.

He is proposing to put $750 million in a special fund in the state budget for 2019 to pay for future storm relief.

He also emphasized that taxes would not be raised in order to do this. The relief money is meant to get displaced people in permanent homes, help small businesses survive and help the state’s agriculture industry.

As the funds to support hurricane relief programs are being redistributed elsewhere, the country continues to face climate change events that are potentially increasing the intensity of hurricanes. Hurricanes form over warm seas, and in the past 100 years, the global average sea temperature has risen by about 1 degree Celsius.

The Duke Marine Lab and other organizations are already investigating the environmental impact of Florence as well as ways to increase natural defenses along shorelines such as rock walls, oyster sills, marshes and jetties, which help protect more than man-made sea walls.

“I think we have so many natural disasters happening back to back it’s hard to remember that people are deeply affected for years,” Kelly said. “I really want to encourage people to come outside of their little bubble and help those that are in need. It’s so widespread it can be overwhelming, but if everyone pitches in a little bit, it really does go a long way.”

Courtesy of the Nicholas School of the Environment Florence caused an estimated $13.7 billion of damage in North Carolina, but the Marine Lab had the resources to get back on its feet quickly.

The Chronicle

TOWERVIEW

8 | WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019

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