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NOAA OCEAN SERVICE PROVIDES KEY BEHIND THE SCENES HURRICANE SERVICES
Sept.
15, 2004 — While the NOAA National
Weather Service continues to be the public face of NOAA
during hurricane season, other offices are assisting in both the preparation
for, and the recovery from each hurricane's impact. The NOAA
Ocean Service is home to several of those critical support services,
providing assistance to local, state and federal agencies in their efforts
to predict and mitigate hurricane damage. (Click NOAA close-up
satellite image for larger view of Hurricane Ivan taken at 2:45 p.m.
EDT on Sept. 15, 2004, as the dangerous storm made its way toward landfall
on the USA Gulf Coast. Click
here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please
credit “NOAA.)
With Hurricane Ivan bearing down on the central Gulf of Mexico coast, the NOAA Office of Coast Survey and Office of Response and Restoration are among several such programs gearing up their activities.
New Orleans, La., and Mobile, Ala., are two major commercial ports, and damage inflicted to them will need to be assessed quickly. Nearly one-third of the nation's energy supplies comes from the Gulf region, and grain and other important commercial goods pass through these Gulf of Mexico ports, as well as others.
Keeping those ports open and safe for navigation is one example where NOAA teams with others, such as the United States Coast Guard and local port management. The NOAA Office of Coast Survey plays an integral role by performing quick and accurate underwater surveys ensuring safe maritime vessel navigation for the nation's economic welfare.
To do so, the NOAA Office of Coast Survey uses "Navigation Response Teams" or NRTs, which are mobile emergency response units equipped and trained to survey ports and near-shore waterways immediately following incidents, such as a maritime accident or a major storm like Hurricane Ivan that may cause the sea bottom or submerged obstructions to shift. The field teams conduct hazardous obstructions surveys utilizing multibeam and side scan sonars and diving operations throughout the Atlantic seaboard, Pacific Coast, Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.
Currently,
NRTs are standing by in various Gulf area locations ready to assist
with response efforts. NRT launches can be rapidly transported on a
trailer from one location to another for quick response.
Surveying
the ports of Palm Beach, Canaveral and Fort Pierce, Fla., in the aftermath
of Hurricane Frances was their most recent mission, undertaken at the
request of the U.S. Coast Guard. The NOAA Office of Coast Survey regional
navigation managers are in close contact with local constituents and
state emergency operations centers in order to plan for a potential
response to Ivan. However, assisting in hurricane recovery is but one
part of this office's duties. (Click NOAA image for larger view
of destroyed ship cabin in West Palm Beach, Fla., following Hurricane
Frances. Click here
for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please credit “NOAA.”)
"In any given year, a variety of man-made and natural events affect U.S. waterways, ports and harbors, said Steve Barnum, chief of navigation services divisions for the NOAA Office of Coast Survey. "NOAA stands ready not only to assist with navigational needs during Hurricane Ivan but whenever its special expertise can be of assistance."
When
not responding to emergencies, the NRTs check the accuracy of NOAA's
nautical charts and help address the priority needs of mariners. Up-to-date
nautical products reduce risk in vessel transits and increase economic
benefits to ports and the commercial vessel traffic that transports
billions of dollars of goods and energy products into and out of the
country. NRT surveys allow pilots to transit areas in varying weather
and sea conditions and with confidence that the charted positions of
features critical to safe navigation are highly accurate. (Click
NOAA image for larger view of sailboat damaged in West Palm Beach, Fla.,
as a result of Hurricane Frances. Click
here for high resolution version, which is a large file. Please
credit “NOAA.”)
Ivan's advance into the oil and chemical pipeline-laced Gulf of Mexico has put the NOAA Office of Response and Restoration on high alert. Should damage occur, NOAA scientists, who are in close touch with federal, state and local emergency centers, would immediately take action to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in response efforts.
NOAA field scientists would gather information concerning the nature of the spill, what was spilled, its size, weather conditions, water current information and other environmental variables. The information would be transmitted to the NOAA Scientific Support Team in Seattle, Wash., where models projecting its trajectory and fate would be developed. Field scientists also would assist the U.S. Coast Guard on-scene, providing technical support.
If the source of the spill is identified, the NOAA Damage Assessment Center, fulfilling NOAA's role as a Natural Resource Trustee, may provide on-scene assessment of the impact to NOAA's Trust Resources. Other NOAA Ocean Service offices, including the National Geodetic Survey, Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, and Coastal Services Center, also provide support for recovery and response activities.
The NOAA Coastal Services Center is another NOAA office that works behind the scenes to provide critical tools to assist local, state and federal agencies in their preparations. Center staff uses geographic information's systems (GIS) to bring together the pertinent weather and flooding data the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency need to make response and recovery decisions.
Through the Federal Response Plan, NOAA staff work with DHS / FEMA to help them incorporate GIS data that include storm surge forecasts, precipitation forecasts, flash flood guidance, real-time and forecast wind data, and forecast wave heights. The NOAA Coastal Services Center was key in managing FEMA resources in response to anticipated flooding from Hurricane Frances. The center developed products that depicted runoff areas to give regional FEMA operations centers a better idea of flooded areas and levels of response needed. After the storm passed through Florida, the CSC obtained real-time precipitation data and then did the same analysis.
One NOAA Ocean Service office always on duty 24/7 is the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services, or CO-OPS, as it provides real- and near real-time tide, storm surge and meteorological observations from the National Water Level Observation Network and the Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System, or PORTS®.
CO-OPS currently is providing tidal levels and storm surge projections as Ivan approaches the Gulf coast through a special Web site that uses the extensive water level stations along the coast and inland up coastal waterways.
The NOAA's PORTS® Program is used for the Port of New Orleans and will help provide commercial shippers information every six minutes on water levels in the shipping channels as they seek safe placement of their vessels and cargoes.
Should the storm cause major erosion, the NOAA National Geodetic Survey will take immediate action by making aerial surveys of the erosion impacts. The coastal imaging photos taken in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane are provided to coastal managers and others who need it for both recovery efforts and long-term restoration or rebuilding decision.
In New Orleans, the NOAA National Geodetic Survey ground-based elevation surveys of major evacuation routes have pointed to the critical need for early evacuation decisions as one of the region's major evacuation routes, Airline Highway, has been sinking steadily and is subject to rapid flooding.
The NOAA Ocean Service mission includes exploring, understanding, conserving and restoring the nation's coasts and oceans. The NOAA Ocean Service balances environmental protection with economic prosperity in fulfilling its mission of promoting safe navigation, supporting coastal communities, sustaining coastal habitats and mitigating coastal hazards.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation’s coastal and marine resources. NOAA is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Ocean Service
NOAA Office of Response and Restoration
Media
Contact:
Ben
Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service,
(301) 713-3066 ext. 178
(West Palm Beach, Fla., photos courtesy of Bob Ramsey, NOAA Ocean Service.)