There is a debate (see here and here) playing out in the media world and beyond about whether Hurricane Irene was Hurricane Hype.

This likely comes from the fact that the media centers of the world -- Washington, D.C. and New York -- were in the crosshairs but saw relatively little damage.

The Outer Banks took the first hit, and had attracted a large gathering of reporters from across the country. N.C. 12 was indeed broken up, cutting off towns from the rest of the world, but much of the national attention had shifted by the time that became clear. Irene was headed for New York.

The rest of the Outer Banks saw -- relatively speaking, now -- little damage.

But here's the thing: The beaches for years have been largely escaping the movie-like scenes of destruction and death that the words "hurricane warning" seem to evoke. (The Gulf Coast in Katrina being the exception, not the norm.)

We see TV reporters hanging onto poles at the beach, over and over.

Many of those houses behind them in their endless streams of video have been jacked up, to avoid damage. The building codes are better; roofs don't all blow away. And people heed warnings, and leave.

Where the deaths and damage are -- and have been -- is inland.

Since 1970, most of the deaths from hurricanes have been far from the shores.

That was the case in Fran here in 1996.

In Floyd in 1999.

In Isabel in 2003.

In New Orleans from Katrina in 2005.

And in Irene.

If the national reporters had all been posted in Pamlico County, warning us all of the expected flooding from both surge and rain -- and then stuck around to see it -- the story might have been told differently on the large scale. It would have been dramatic, too, as many residents have reported to us of the sudden and historic rise in water in places like Belhaven and Stumpy Point.

Image if an outlet had captured video of Joenisha Brown, wading through chest-high water with her four children hanging on to her neck and arms?

Those folks in Vermont aren't on the coast.

They also aren't in the media capital of the universe.

That's the world we live in...

Here's a piece, from 1999, explaining where the real story in a hurricane is. The message from Joel Cline -- formerly of the National Hurricane Center -- is as spot-on today as it was then.

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Page 1a

June 1, 1999

MANY HURRICANE DEATHS OCCUR INLAND, METEROLOGIST WARNS AS HURRICANE SEASON BEGINS

Residents of inland counties should take note that flooding after a hurricane can be deadly

By J. Andrew Curliss, staff writer

The hurricane season opens today with a dose of sobering news for the Triangle: People in inland counties - not on the nation's coastlines - are more likely to die when the big storms sweep ashore with winds, rain and heavy surf.

And for the most part, the killer isn't the wind. Or the ocean.

It's the flooded creeks, streams, rivers and lakes that swell up for days after a storm is long gone, said Joel Cline, a weather service meteorologist in Raleigh who once worked at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Cline and others have analyzed three decades of storm figures in advance of this year's tropical season, which begins today, peaks in September and ends Nov. 30.

Those figures show that 6 of every 10 people who died in hurricanes since 1970 were killed in inland counties. And of those, about 7 of every 10 died in flooding.

Experts see some success in the numbers, mostly in a steady decline of deaths attributed to "storm surge, " the wall of water pushed ashore by a hurricane's strong winds.

But they now see gaps in educating people of a hurricane’s consequences inland. Cline is scheduled to outline his figures today to state emergency management officials in Raleigh. Then, he'll begin a media blitz across the Triangle, Sandhills and Piedmont that he hopes will help to prevent any more inland deaths.

"We seem to know that it's not safe to go to the coast in a hurricane - the warnings for the most part are being heeded there," Cline said. "And so our thinking is changing. The killer used to be the storm surge. That was fact. But we need to turn our attention to inland areas. That's where our people are dying."

It's particularly important now because experts think the Americas may be on the threshold of a decades-long period of increased hurricanes - fueled by shifts in deep ocean currents, increased rainfall in Africa and warmer global temperatures.

Many are predicting 1999 will be an above-average year for the storms, with at least three severe hurricanes forming with winds greater than 110 mph. An average season has 10 tropical storms and six hurricanes, two of which are severe.

"It can be a worrisome thing, " said Jay Barnes, director of the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores and author of "North Carolina's Hurricane History."

"There has been this lull for several decades in the frequency of hurricanes, and it's coincided just at the time that we've seen a tremendous amount of growth on the coast. There is a lot of property out here that is vulnerable."

But only the Old Farmer's Almanac ventures a guess of where - or when - such storms will make landfall. Mixed in with planting tables and "zodiac secrets, " the Almanac says a hurricane or tropical storm will threaten Georgia or the Carolinas from Sept. 27 to Sept. 30.

Still, cities across the state - not just on the coast - have been taking notice.

Since Hurricane Fran walloped much of the Triangle in 1996, officials in Raleigh, Durham and elsewhere have used grant money to buy up flood-prone houses and structures. More than half of the two dozen people killed in Fran died in inland counties, most because of fallen trees or in traffic accidents.

Cline said his figures cover all U.S. deaths, though North Carolina data are in line with the trend.

"People used to think, 'Hey, we're in Wake County. We're far from it. We're safe, ' " Cline said. "We don't want that type of thinking anymore. We want everyone to be particularly aware of the risks hurricanes bring, even in the Triangle."

He said North Carolinians should watch hurricanes that strike any U.S. coastline because many eventually affect parts of the state.

Cline said that anyone who lives near a body of water, no matter the size, or in a mobile home should evacuate to higher ground as any tropical storm approaches.

People should pay close attention to all flood warnings, and should not walk or drive near any creek, stream or river that has left its banks. Parents should keep an eye on children under age 13 - they are the single biggest group of people killed in hurricane flooding.

"A lot of times, people are just curious," Cline said. "They want to run down and look at the creek because it's as high as it's ever been. Well, I'd say that's plain stupid."

It turns out not so many freshmen had taken upper level classes at UNC-Chapel Hill as a spokesman originally told us in our Sunday story about former football player Marvin Austin's academic transcript.

UNC spokesman Mike McFarland originally said 1,033 freshman had taken a 400 level class in the most recently completed academic year. He has now corrected that to 683 freshmen.

The statistic is significant because McFarland cited it to suggest that Austin's first class at the university -- a 400 level African-American studies course during the second summer session of 2007 -- might not be all that unusual. There were 3,846 freshmen in last year's class, so the original number would suggest one in four freshmen took a 400 level class.

The corrected number indicates it was more like one in six.

That statistic does not reflect how many of those freshmen took a 400 level class in their second semester, when they would have a much better lay of the land and might have taken a prerequisite.  It also doesn't show how many freshman got into a 400 level class after demonstrating they had taken advanced placement classes in high school.

Austin got a B plus in the class, according to the partial transcript we obtained. It was the only class he took that semester before taking a full slate of introductory courses in the fall. Those courses included a remedial writing class.

Austin is one of seven players who had to sit out last season as a result of an NCAA investigation into impermissible perks and academic help.

A state audit last week confirmed concerns first raised when we reported that former Pitt-Greenville Airport Authority Chief James Turcotte held the seventh-highest pension among all state and local retirees. He's now receiving more than $173,000 a year because his base salary was boosted by several enhancements that the authority paid little or no attention to during much of his tenure.

The audit reports that Turcotte boosted his pay regularly without board approval and that his total compensation was not being provided to the board. For example, from 2005 to 2009, Turcotte received more than $71,000 for unused vacation time without going to the board for approval.

The audit found that in Turcotte's final full year of employment, he received more than $283,000 in pay -- at least $68,000 more than the heads of the much larger airports in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham.

The airport board disputed some findings, but agreed that it should seek reimbursement of $16,000 in "limbo leave" that Turcotte had inappropriately received. The leave consisted of vacation time that Turcotte carried over from previous years.

We had reported Turcotte's pension as part of our reports last year that looked into the state's personnel law, which at the time was among the most secretive in the nation. Lawmakers removed some of those restrictions, allowing Greenville resident Terry Boardman to query the board about Turcotte's pay history. The board's report, showing tens of thousands of dollars in additional pay that had not been disclosed to the full board, triggered the state audit.

Boardman, an East Carolina University instructor, said in an email message that he has now asked the Attorney General's office to investigate. He said the way Turcotte boosted his compensation in his final years, and thereby increased his pension, needs to be looked at for possible fraud.

Last week, UNC football coach Butch Davis pledged to release records of business calls made on his personal cell phone, which had been requested by several media organizations.

But his firing this week makes it hard to say whether those records will ever become public.

“That’s up to coach Davis,” UNC chancellor Holden Thorp said this morning.

One of the unanswered questions in the Michael McAdoo plagiarism case is what his professor did when the football player turned in a paper that had numerous copied passages. Even UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp doesn't know.
Professor Julius Nyang'oro was out of town when the extent of plagiarism first surfaced earlier this month. A woman who answered his phone on Monday said he has returned, but he has not responded to phone and email requests for comment since.
Nyang'oro is the chairman of the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, and had McAdoo for a student in a Swahili class during the summer of 2009. Nyang'oro did not turn in McAdoo to the UNC Honor Court, a student-run organization that adjudicates academic dishonesty cases and other student misconduct. It took an athletic department investigation a year later into the activities of a former tutor, Jennifer Wiley, to bring the paper to the court's attention.
The court did not get a full picture of the plagiarism from athletic officials. The athletic department's investigation only focused on Wiley's work in adding footnotes and a bibliography. That, too, constitutes plagiarism, but not to the level critics found when McAdoo made the paper public as part of his court battle.
Some contend the university should no longer stand behind McAdoo because he did not disclose the full amount of plagiarism in the paper and allowed athletic officials to tell the NCAA that the paper -- save for the footnotes and bibliography -- was his work.
Chancellor Holden Thorp, in an interview last week, said he is not going to dig into Nyang'oro's handling of the paper.
"It's very unfortunate what happened here, but I don't get into grading for faculty members," he said.
Thorp said the focus should be on what the honor court did. It found McAdoo guilty of plagiarism, and issued a penalty equal to those handed out for cases of broader plagiarism. The court gave McAdoo an F on the paper, an F for the course, academic probation for the Fall 2010 Semester and suspended him for the Spring 2011 semester.
The penalty meant McAdoo missed a full season of football, but the honor court ruling did give him the opportunity to rejoin the team for the upcoming season. The NCAA, based on the information submitted to the honor court, ruled that McAdoo can no longer play football for a member school.
Thorp would not say whether the university has since given more scrutiny to the other papers McAdoo wrote. The athletic department had brought two others to the honor court for possible improper help from Wiley, but the court did not find a problem with them. The NCAA has. They have not been made public.
Thorp's response to the question: "We've done a very thorough investigation on the academic side."
 

Our colleagues at the Center for Responsive Politics have dug up an interesting tidbit from their campaign finance database: The Dark Lord has outspent Harry Potter in political contributions. Of course, outspending your opponent doesn't guarantee victory.

(This corrects an earlier version that credited the Center for Public Integrity with the research.)

Laura Sanders, a tax columnist for the Wall Street Journal, poses an interesting question today about the legal troubles of former Sen. John Edwards: "Could two obscure taxes paid by a wealthy heiress save a former politician from prison? Quite possibly, say tax- and election-law experts. The curious tale offers a lesson for ordinary taxpayers as well."

Edwards was charged in June with several federal campaign finance violations. Prosecutors say Edwards violated the law by seeking more than $900,000 in hush money to hide his affair and the resulting pregnancy from voters.

Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a multi-millionaire philanthropist and Edwards backer, gave Edwards some $725,000 in 2008.

Mellon's lawyer told the Wall Street Journal that his client paid both gift and generation-skipping taxes on the payments.  And the taxes may have been quite the doozy. 

Attorney Howard Zaritsky of Rapidan, Va., told the Wall Street Journal that Mellon probably paid $799,000 in tax to make her $725,000 gift.

Edwards' lawyers are certain to argue that the taxes are proof that the money was a gift, not a campaign contribution.

The heads of the state's two local government associations each make more than $200,000 annually, according to records from the state treasurer's office and interviews with both men.
Ellis Hankins, executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities, is paid $207,874, while David Thompson, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, earns $204,081.
Both declined to disclose their salaries and other operational expenses in an article in Sunday's News & Observer that reported both associations are allowed to participate in a public pension plan despite their stance that they are not public agencies. Local governments, financed by taxpayers, can be forced to make additional payments to the pension system if investment gains don’t cover promised benefits.
Some say the associations should have to open their books if they want to belong to a pension plan that is run by the state treasurer's office and requires the publicly funded associations to match employee contributions.
On Monday, the treasurer's office released at The N&O's request the most recent monthly salaries for Hankins and Thompson. The treasurer's office collects that information to help accurately track pension contributions.
Once aware that The N&O had that information, both men confirmed their annual salaries.
Thompson is a former manager for Hertford, Stanly, Henderson and Durham counties who became the county association's second leader in 2005. He said the association sets his salary based on what his counterparts make in other large states such as Texas, Florida and California, and on the compensation paid to county managers in North Carolina.
Hankins served as the league's general counsel from 1982 to 1994 and then returned as executive director in 1997. He said his salary is set by the league's board of directors each year after "an extensive performance appraisal discussion."
Their pay is slightly lower than the leaders of Wake County's two biggest municipalities. Wake County Manager David Cooke and Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen each make roughly $220,000 a year.
The league has more than 90 employees and the county association has 36. Both organizations lobby state lawmakers, run self-insurance pools for their member municipalities and provide training for municipal officials. Much of the associations' funding comes from taxpayers through the dues that municipalities or counties pay.
To belong to the state pension system, the associations and their employees each have to kick in roughly six percent of the employees' salaries.
Pensions are set in part by an employee's four highest consecutive years of pay. If Hankins and Thompson retired with full pensions based on their current salaries, Hankins would receive an annual pension of $115,370, while Thompson's pension would be $113,265.

Gov. Bev Perdue has signed into law changes to the state program that produces stream and wetland restorations to counter the environmental damage caused by road building and development.
Senate Bill 425 requires the state Ecosystem Enhancement Program to first contract with businesses known as mitigation bankers that identify, design and build the restored streams and wetlands. The program still has the option to oversee the design and construction, but only as a last resort.
The provision comes in response to our series, Washed Away, that found roughly a third of the stream restorations overseen by the program didn't hold up, resulting in repairs that in some cases several hundred thousand dollars. In those cases, the program often ended up footing the repair bill.
By using mitigation bankers, the state is shifting the repair responsibility to the businesses. If the restorations are poorly done or fail, the bankers are on the hook to fix them.
The legislation also requires local governments to use mitigation bankers for their restoration needs, if there is one or more operating within the governments' watersheds.
The legislation is one of several changes to the program that began after we started asking questions about how it was operating. Another change unveiled this month is a new website that is much cleaner and easier to navigate than the old site. It includes a map that shows every site, with links to basic information and key documents.
The site still needs some work. Some restoration sites lack links to progress reports, and cost information is still incomplete. Program spokesman Tad Boggs, in response to questions about the information gaps, said the site is a "work in progress."
Also this week, the program's longtime director, Bill Gilmore, is retiring and you can read his farewell message here. (We had previously reported in this blog item that his position had been filled, but environmental officials say that is not the case.)