my @nbdc_filehandles;
my @nbdc_data;
my $index=0;

foreach my $file (@nbdc_files){
	open(FILE, "./$nbdc_dir/$file") || die "Can't open ./$nbdc_dir/$file";
	$nbdc_filehandles[$index] = *FILE;
	
	#get the first set of data values
	< $nbdc_filehandles[$index] >;
	< $nbdc_filehandles[$index] >;
	chomp; #get rid of trailing \n
	$nbdc_data[$index]=\split(/\t/, $_);
	
	$index++;
 }