NOAA PULLS OUT STOPS ON HURRICANE RESPONSE
By Jeanne Kouhestani and Ben Sherman

November 15, 2005 — The worst effects of Hurricanes Katrina, Ophelia, and Rita brought out the best in NOAA as personnel worked tirelessly in and around communities and waterways ravaged by the storms.

“One NOAA” has never been more apparent than now, traditional boundaries often dropped as employees reach across to help each other. Wherever possible, NOAA resources have been pooled to better leverage the agency’s response capabilities. That was certainly the case as NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations and the NOAA Ocean Service teamed up in anticipation of the storms by pre-positioning NOAA assets and personnel for a speedy post-storm mission response.

Before the storms roared onto land, data gathered by the NOAA P-3 hurricane hunters and G-IV surveillance jet, flown by crews from the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in support of the NOAA National Hurricane Center and NOAA Hurricane Research Division, played a significant role in helping hurricane forecasters make the right-on-target predictions that saved thousands of lives.

NMAO felt the effects of Katrina up close and personal, with Gordon Gunter and Oregon II, their officers and crew, based in hard-hit Pascagoula, Miss. Gunter was miraculously undamaged, and initially served as a shelter for NOAA’s new homeless and a provider of email and satellite phone services for area Navy and Coast Guard personnel. Oregon II didn’t fare so well; a hole punched into its battered hull above the waterline rendered it unseaworthy. Rather than bringing people into its shelter, the ship’s officers and crew radiated outward, reaching into the devastated community with non-stop assistance.

An email from Lt. Jeremy Adams of Oregon II outlined the selfless contributions of each of the crew members, including those of one who had nearly lost his life when the storm swept him and his house into Mississippi Sound. Despite his personal loss, this marine engineer began repairing recovered impounded bikes to donate to kids in shelters. He also found families in shelters who had not been able to contact out-of-state relatives to let them know they were alive; he brought them to Oregon II to use the ship’s email and satellite phone. Lt. Adams added that “Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Brown has led the crew during this trying time by setting a high standard of compassion, charity and community service ... His leadership during this disaster has been the key to our crew’s actions, perseverance and can-do attitude, which has paid HUGE dividends to those affected by the storm and also in terms of NOAA visibility and appreciation in our community.”

NMAO’s port office was demolished along with much of the fisheries lab it was housed with. Several ship crew members and local NOAA Fisheries personnel lost everything but their families and their lives. Only slab foundations marked the spot of some homes; rubble was swept away with the wind. Their homes were destroyed, yet NOAA employees returned to the ships and lab with determination to work and help in whatever ways possible.

In the heart of the storm-ravaged area, the ships served as a staging ground for other relief efforts as well.

• Two Gordon Gunter engineers drove to the NOAA National Data Buoy Center at Stennis Space Center to perform emergency repairs to the generators.
• A Public Health Service officer assigned to the NOAA Marine Operations Center in Seattle tracked down critical hepatitis and tetanus vaccines — in short supply nationally — and shipped them via FedEx to Mobile, Ala. A PHS officer on Gordon Gunter picked them up and delivered them to NDBC, whose employees were exposed to raw sewage in the water.
• NOAA Research’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab loaned a truck to an Oregon II officer, who loaded it up with supplies in Michigan — paid for with funds donated by himself and Oregon II’s commanding officer and chief marine engineer — and drove it back south. GLERL employees drove a second van full of donated supplies down to Pascagoula as well.

AOC-operated aircraft helped with relief logistics before diverting to post-damage flights. NOAA’s Bell helicopter flew thousands of pounds of supplies to NOAA facilities. Later flights helped locate hazards to navigation, oil and chemical spills, a wayward NDBC buoy and damaged tide gauges. The NOAA Shrike aircraft searched for stranded marine mammals and turtles along the Gulf Coast.

Nearby, the VT Halter Marine shipyard, including NOAA’s on-site office, sustained major damage. This is where NOAA’s new fisheries survey vessels are being built and a SWATH (i.e., Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) vessel is being designed. The consequences to these programs are still being assessed. Fortunately, Henry B. Bigelow, which was launched in July (but not yet delivered to NOAA), was undamaged and construction of FSV #3 was barely underway.

Once the Katrina damage assessment was complete, response became mission one with the Office of Coast Survey and NMAO diverting two NOAA ships to conduct emergency surveys of navigational obstructions. The NOAA ship Nancy Foster, a coastal oceanographic vessel that OCS quickly outfitted with multibeam and side-scan sonar, was dispatched to the Gulf. Fortunately, Nancy Foster’s NOAA Corps commanding officer is an experienced hydrographer.

The NOAA ship Nancy Foster reverted back to coastal work when the ship was tasked by NOAA Fisheries to conduct seafood safety tests. “Talk about sailing full circle on a mission as one of NOAA’s multi-purpose platforms,” said Cmdr. James Verlaque, commanding officer of Nancy Foster. “Whether it’s meteorology, oceanography, charting or fishing, Nancy Foster’s crew is up to the challenge.”

Scientists from NOAA Research’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory were also on board to sample sediments and seawater for contaminants. An upside-down weather data buoy was recovered for the National Data Buoy Center and towed into Tampa Bay.

The National Geodetic Survey's Remote Sensing Division was in the air flying NOAA’s AOC Citation jet the day after Katrina’s landfall to photograph what was left of the Gulf region. More than 12,000 aerial images were posted on the NOAA Web site. Search engine Google quickly developed an interface with its geographic software allowing both residents and responders to zoom in to see if their houses were still standing and assess damage. The result was a daily download of nearly 4.5 million photos for nearly three weeks, the greatest number of Web downloads in NOAA history.

A NOAA P-3 conducted post-Katrina damage assessment flights at 1,000 feet, with National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield, NOAA Administrator Vice Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, and NMAO Director Rear Admiral Samuel De Bow on board. The assessments are used by NHC to compare actual damages with hurricane forecasts to help determine forecast accuracy. All too soon, the aircraft flew a post-Rita assessment.

“Our attention has been focused on NOAA’s commendable hurricane response activities, but we need to acknowledge how vital our everyday work is, too,” De Bow said. “For example, our aircraft routinely fly into these dangerous storms, providing data that make accurate forecasts possible. We shouldn’t lose sight of the important work all of NOAA does in good times and bad.”

NOAA undertook a monumental interagency coordination effort to get ports and waterways open as quickly as possible. NOAA Ocean Service’s Office of Coast Survey hit the waterways soon after Katrina passed, and did encore performances after Ophelia and Rita. Four of the six NOAA Navigational Response Teams — or NRTs — were initially dispatched to the Gulf area to survey closed ports and waterways with side-scan sonar to detect underwater hazards to vessels. NRTs are three-person teams; they use small launches that operate in shallow water. They are the first line of defense against obstructed waterways, as they can be deployed quickly to emergency sites.

Results were reported to the Coast Guard, which has authority to open and close waterways, mark ship channels, and issues a daily report on nautical charts changes. The Army Corps of Engineers, which dredges the Mississippi River and port areas to maintain safe depths, removed the obstructions NOAA found. The Navy deployed salvage ships and divers to the area to help remove wrecks and check out obstructions in the extremely polluted waters. The efforts were orchestrated through daily conference calls among agency representatives.

“Our teams worked around the clock to help restore safe navigation channels,” said Captain Roger Parsons, NOAA Corps, who is director of OCS. “The currents of the Mississippi River are so rapid that obstructions that were identified were sometimes washed away before they could be removed, requiring our NRTs to go back and resurvey. However, the river and ports were quickly reopened by the Coast Guard.”

NOAA's efforts were greatly appreciated by the shipping community. "I personally would like to THANK the USCG, NOAA, and the USACE for their swift response in restoring our channel," wrote Capt. Michael A. Morris, presiding officer, Houston Pilots. A similar statement of thanks and praise for the response from NOAA and its federal partners was issued by American Association of Port Authorities.

The hydrographic survey ship Thomas Jefferson was sent to the Gulf to help open up waterways and ports, particularly around a major oil refinery outside Pascagoula. Jefferson crew members supported the NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services by replacing damaged or lost tide gauges that measure water levels and storm surge. Following Hurricane Rita, the ship sailed west to help open up the Houston ship channel.

The effects of Katrina and Rita will be felt for years. The NOAA Office of Response and Restoration will be busy, assisting the Coast Guard and EPA in managing the hazardous chemical and oil spills generated by the storms’ destructive powers. In Louisiana, combining both land and coastal water spills, some 8.1 million gallons of petrochemicals have been released. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill tallied 11 million gallons.

“In terms of overall impact, this hurricane season has created the largest incidents NOAA has ever responded to,” said David Kennedy, director of OR&R. "Our staff will be part of a long-term clean-up commitment by NOAA to the region."

NOAA, along with the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, and Coast Guard, has been helping to coordinate response and restoration efforts by positioning NOAA-trained Scientific Support Teams in each of the three-state interagency command posts. The NOAA teams, including staff from the NOAA OCS and the NOAA National Geodetic Survey, provide a broad range of scientific and technical data. This information has helped the Coast Guard determine where and when to open navigational passageways, and when responders can enter potentially dangerous areas. Through coordinated use of remote sensing and aerial photography, NOAA field teams have been able to produce maps of flooded areas, as well as situation maps of pollution incidents and salvage operations.

Once spills are identified and prioritized and cleanup begins, NOS’s Damage Assessment and Restoration Program will assess and restore natural resources injured by oil and hazardous substance releases and ship groundings.

NOAA efforts reflect a federal response aimed at restoring the economic lifeline of the region. A NOAA-sponsored National Ocean Economics Program study, using 2003 Bureau of Labor statistics, shows that in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama 59 percent of the employment in the natural resource and mining sector, which includes oil and gas production, comes from the 80 counties most severely impacted by the storm.

The names and deeds of NOAA individuals who went far beyond the usual parameters of their jobs in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita are far too many to mention. Some responded by reaching out to others with generous acts of kindness; others turbo-charged their jobs by working impossible hours in miserable conditions. Some stood watch at the Department of Homeland Security’s Operations Center and NOAA Homeland Security Office’s Incident Coordination Center, or worked tirelessly at their desks in the field and at headquarters to coordinate the massive efforts underway. Whatever role they played, the final act was “One NOAA.”

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA Marine and Aviation Operations

NMAO Pre and Post Katrina Assessments and Assistance

NOAA Ocean Service

NOS Katrina and Rita Recovery Efforts in the Gulf Coast Region

Media Contact:
Ben Sherman, NOAA Ocean Service, (301) 713-3066 ext. 178 or
Jeanne Kouhestani, NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, (301) 713-3431 ext. 220