As part of a NSF - funded research team led by Arnie Miller (U. Cincinnati), I contributed to research on the effects of Hurricane Hugo on benthic communities (Miller et al., 1992). A one-kilometer transect was sampled just before and just after the hurricane devastated St. Croix, U. S. V. I. Multivariate analyses revealed that no wholesale redistribution of the benthic fauna occurred as a result of the hurricane, suggesting that faunal gradients documented in ancient rocks should not be considered a priori unaffected by major storm events.