North Carolina Nor'easters and Their Related Storm Hazards

Abstract

Some natural events occur in our environment which last but a short time, with a life span of days or even seconds. When these unusual events affect humans adversely we refer to them as natural haz.ards. Most hazards fall into two categories, those resulting from the dissipation of energy in the earth's interior and those resulting from atmospheric imbalance of energy. Geologic hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are not such a problem in North Carolina since the state lies over a relatively stable crustal plate. Many small earthquakes occur but there are no known injuries recorded from earthquakes in the state. There have been no active volcanoes in the region since long before the time the human species evolved.