Follow-up On Storm Debris Cleanup

During the four-day period from May 5th through May 8th, the park was pounded by a severe nor’easter that caused washover all along its beaches. When the storm abated, park staff found large quantities of styrofoam on the beach from Cape Lookout to Ocracoke Inlet. Investigation revealed that it came from 21 containers that had been lost from the Paris Express, a container ship owned by Hapag-Lloyd, one of the largest shipping companies in the world. Twelve of those containers were filled with ceiling fans packed in styrofoam. Moran Environmental, the company contracted to clean up the material, now has about 110 people working in Cape Lookout and Cape Hatteras. About 210 cubic yards of foam had been removed from eight to ten miles of beach at Cape Lookout as of late yesterday.