On the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) in the United States the words “Hurricane or Tropical Storm” have bad connotations. On the Upper Texas Coast, names like Carla, Rita, Alicia, Allison, and Ike all bring back memories of surging streams and rivers in ever widening floodplains, storm surge, waves, tidal influences, high winds, broken or blown over trees, roofless houses, rain, rain, rain in or on our flooded streets, businesses, parks, and houses, and human misery, injury, and loss of life. We have all suffered from the effects of hurricanes and similar natural weather phenomena. 
Nature can provide us with many challenges. Our first response to these challenges, like a hurricane, is often to fight and attempt to conquer Nature. Dredge out and widen rivers and streams, build huge levees and dikes, lay down or create dunes and beaches, build ever-growing seawalls, and talk about how we can engineer out way out of a storm's danger, hazard, risk, and the probability they will happen to us again.
However, if we take a step back we can learn from and begin to understand these large, natural, storms and their place in coastal human and natural ecosystems. The first principle for “living by the rules of the sea” should be, “Work with, and not against, Nature”.
Hurricanes, Tropical Storms, and similar weather phenomena (in this article we will use the term “hurricane” for these storms) are Nature's way to provide needed ecological change in our coastal and near coastal ecosystems. These storms drive natural ecological processes like erosion, deposition, and vegetational succession which result in changed but healthy ecosystems. The benefits of hurricanes are not just local or regional but also global. With a bit more knowledge we can avoid harm and assist ourselves and Nature in places where these storms exist.
Ecological Benefits of Hurricanes
We know the negative effects of hurricanes on humans, as briefly mentioned above. But are there also beneficial effects? Listed below are some of the positive ecological effects of hurricanes.
1) Droughts – It goes without saying that in Texas, if you want to know what the weather will be like, just wait five minutes and it will change. Texas is known for storms and droughts. These droughts can be seasonal, annual, or last many years. Everyone prays for rain during a drought to “break it” and bring back vegetative growth and a more normal way of life.
Hurricanes can be the weather phenomena that “breaks a drought”. This has often happened in South Texas and Northern Mexico where annual rainfall is much sparser than on the Upper Texas Coast. This also happens deeper in other parts of the United States. In 2012, the remnants of Hurricane Issac dropped five inches of rain in the Midwestern Corn Belt on dry agricultural fields. 1 In places like Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Texas hurricanes can provide 25% or more of their annual rainfall. 2
2) Heat Relief and Balance – When hurricanes arrive in the summer and early fall, temperatures are often 90 or 100 degrees. The rains and winds of a hurricane cool down temperatures for awhile and provide some heat relief. In addition, hurricanes draw up from the GOM deep, cooler, waters which act as a determent for creation of hurricanes which thrive on hot surface waters. 1 These cooler waters can reduce heat stress in coral ecosystems. 5 Hurricanes also move warmer air from the topics, near the equator, toward the poles. This makes tropical areas cooler and the poles warmer. 2
3) Vegetation Succession and Biological Diversity – When hurricanes rearrange sediments this leads to colonization of these new or changed land surfaces by the same, similar, or different plant communities. This advances or delays natural vegetation change. In addition, when trees are blown down the canopy opens up and more and different plants grow due to greater sunlight which increases biological production and diversity. 3
4) Erosion and Deposition – Hurricanes rearrange soils and sediments. In some places erosion (the loss of sediments) and or deposition (the build-up of sediments) occurs. These new landscapes provide additional places for plants to grow and animals to live. 3
5) Barrier Island Maintenance – Hurricanes erode barrier islands on the ocean side and build them up on their back sides. 2 This allows barrier islands to move and to survive sea level rise. Hurricanes help barrier islands become higher and wider. 6
6) Ocean Nutrient Cycling – Hurricanes stir-up the ocean which allows upwelling of nutrients to the surface from deeper waters which increases marine life ocean productivity. 2 The overall productivity of ecosystems appears to increase with periodic hurricanes. 7
7) Seed Dispersal – The winds and waters of hurricanes move seeds and other plant parts around. In Southern Florida, the tropical hardwood hammocks that exist in Everglades National Park reached Florida via birds, ocean currents, and or hurricanes. 3
8) Habitat Modification – In South Texas' Laguna Madre, hurricanes “flush” out salty waters and provide diluted seawater via rain and runoff. 3
9) Inshore Nutrient Flush – Heavy hurricane rainfall, as it travels inland, increases the level of water in stream and river channels and floodplains. As these waters flow down to bays, estuaries, and the GOM they bring a mixture of freshwater, organic matter, nutrients, and sediments. Flushed out floodplains provide new places where plants and animals can live and the “flush” of freshwater, organic matter, nutrients, and sediments fertilizes bays, estuaries, and GOM so that over time biological productivity increases (critters and plants). 3
An example of how ecosystems have adapted to the effects of hurricanes was shown when in 1996, Hurricane Fran and in 1999, Hurricanes Dennis, Floyd, and Irene, hit the Neuse River and Estuary and western Pamlico Sound in eastern North Carolina. Scientists studied the impacts of hurricanes here and determined that there were few negative, long-term, effects. Water quality, the number and health of most shellfish and finfish populations, and the overall health of water systems have over the long-term returned to normal. This means that these estuaries are resilient to hurricanes. 4
Some harmful organisms have been reduced in numbers in the Neuse River Estuary by hurricanes and initial depletion of dissolved oxygen in the water, which created fish kills, has been replaced by water with normal dissolved oxygen levels. Blue Crab populations are still recovering but are moving toward what they were before the storms. 4
In many cases today, natural ecosystems that are damaged by hurricanes, do not bounce back as quickly as they used to because human development and other impacts have degraded the health of natural ecosystems so they are no longer as resilient as they were. 8
Other Hurricane Benefits
1) Coastal Development Expense – Hurricane impacts help document the high cost of coastal over-development and use of protective structures. Sand is washed away in front of protective structures over time which requires perpetual beach renourishment, a costly and very intensive action especially since over time nearby and less expensive sand supplies are depleted. 1
2) Archaeological Benefits – Hurricanes can uncover the remains of shipwrecks, aircraft, and other archaeological elements. For instance, in 2012, Hurricane Isaac uncovered Rachel, a ship built during World War I which ran aground in 1923 on the Alabama Coast. Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, unearthed a ship which ran aground in the early 1900's. 1
What Should We Do?
So how do we approach whether a development in a coastal area that is visited by hurricanes makes sense. To begin with, we must determine whether construction of a development contradicts “The Rules of the Sea”. These rules include (1) The coastal zone is unique and requires unique management strategies; (2) Coastal physical processes must be identified and understood from a whole-island perspective; (3) Property damage potential is site-specific and each site is different; (4) Property damage mitigation must be from a whole-island perspective; (5) Relative risk areas can be recognized on the basis of well-defined criteria; (6) All coastal hazard evaluation and mitigation must consider a rising sea level; (7) Repair alterations due to development; (8) Conserve sand; (9) Conserve vegetation cover; and (10) Conserve land-forms. 9
We can then use lessons from coastal management to score a development proposal. These lessons include (1) Wide beaches protect property; (2) Dunes protect property: (3) Vegetation protects property; (4) Shore-perpendicular roads act as overwash and storm-surge ebb conduits; (5) Notches in dunes create overwash passes; (6) Overwash and storm-surge ebb is intensified when funneled by structures; (7) Seawalls can protect buildings, but they also can cause narrowing of the beach, reducing both recreation and storm protection value; (8) Setbacks protect; (9) Elevation protects; and (10) Proper community governance offers a degree of self-protection. 9
We next look at a development from a coastal processes approach. This process requires that (1) Hazards must be evaluated based on an understanding of coastal physical processes from a geologic point of view; (2) Recognition of hazard areas is imperative; (3) Approaches to property damage mitigation must be taken in recognition of the fact that sea level is rising; (4) Alterations of island environments due to development should be repaired and restored to the natural setting; (5) Island sand volume should be augmented or at least maintained; (6) Potential for property damage must be recognized as both site specific and regional in character; and (7) The entire coastal zone (an entire island, for example) must be considered when applying mitigation plans. 9
We should assess, evaluate, and analyze the need for a development using these ”Truths of the shoreline” (1) There is no erosion problem until a structure is built on a shoreline; (2) Construction by people on the shoreline causes shoreline changes; (3) Shoreline engineering protects the interests of a very few, often at a very high cost in federal and state dollars; (4) Shoreline engineering destroys the beach it was intended to save; (5) The cost of saving beach property through shoreline engineering is usually greater than the value of the property to be saved; and (6) Once you begin shoreline engineering you can't stop it. 10
Finally, a development should be assessed using the following hazards, economics, and politics criteria (1) Development sites are chosen on the basis of market forces, not nature's forces; (2) In old developments residents learned from experience: low-risk sites tended to be developed first, leaving high-risk sites/areas to accommodate growth; (3) Politicians, and/or the political pressures to which they react, are oriented toward giving priority to economic development/management, not protecting the inhabitants; (4) Protective regulations to reduce natural hazards are often viewed as threatening to developers as well as some property owners; (5) Politicians are drawn from the economic community; (6) Politicians are the employers, while the day-to-day work is carried out by the employees: the hired town manager, planner, and community development personnel; (7) When disasters do strike, we depend on firefighters and police as our first line of defense; (8) Collective community attitudes are widely variable; (9) Developers are in business to make money, not to protect the public; (10) Banks and other lenders do have a stake in property mortgages; (11) Catastrophes often set the stage for bigger catastrophes; and (12) The levels of management, regulation, and politics are as diverse as the communities and hazards. 9
If a development still makes sense after considering all of these criteria only then can we use a four-step process to determine if mitigation of the proposal makes sense. This process entails (1) Understand the physical processes (the hazards); (2) Map zones of relative risk of property damage caused by these processes; (3) Develop site-specific (non-structural) property damage mitigation techniques; and (4) Implement mitigation techniques. 9
“Living with the rules of the sea” is the same as “Work with, and not against, Nature”. Our purpose should be to “Keep our natural coast, ecosystems, and people out of harm's way”. If we practice this philosophy then we can weather hurricanes and enjoy our coastal heritage.
Bibliography
1. “What Are Some Positive Effects of a Hurricane?”, Jonathan Marker, eHow Contributor, date unknown
2. “Five Good Things about a Hurricane”, Julia Whitty, Blue Marble, August 27, 2011
3. “What Are Some Positive Effects of a Hurricane?”, Ethan Shaw, OpposingViews.com, date unknown
4. “Ecosystem Bounces Back From Hurricanes”, North Carolina State University, ScienceDaily, June 15, 2004
5. “Terrestrial Impacts and Aquatic Impacts, Hurricanes”, Science and Society, date unknown
6. “Hurricanes Bring Benefits to Barrier Islands and Beaches, Even as They Devastate Communities Located There, Duke Researchers Say”, Orrin Pilkey, Duke University, Office of News & Communications, September 13, 2004
7. “Influence of hurricanes on coastal ecosystems along the northern Gulf of Mexico”, Williams H. Conner, John W. Day Jr., Robert H. Baumann, and John M. Randall, Wetlands and Management, January 1989, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 45-56.
8. “Damage from Ike could affect coastal ecosystem of Texas for years”, The Guardian, September 22, 2008
9. “Living By the Rules of the Sea”, David M. Bush, Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr., and William J. Neal, Duke University Press, 1996.
10. “Living with the Texas shore”, Robert A. Morton, Orrin H. Pilkey, Jr., Orrin H. Pilkey, Sr., and William J. Neal, Duke University Press, 1983.
Brandt Mannchen
May 30, 2016