4rd Annual NCEM-ECU Hurricane Workshop
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Item Open Access 2013 Hurricane Season Forecast(2013-05-22) Szatkowski, GaryMr. Szatkowski described the 2012 hurricane season. In 2012 there were 19 named storms, 10 reached hurricane strength and 2 were major hurricanes. This exceeded the average number. This year is likely to exceed last year because the ACE, Accumulated Cyclone Energy is estimated to be higher than last year. The forecast has not been released from the Hurricane Center yet, but it can be expect to be an above average active season. Mr. Szatkowski cautioned that the U. S. is experiencing the longest period without a major hurricane striking land based on long term averages. Chances are that we can expect a major hurricane before long.Item Open Access Hurricane Sandy (Panel)(2013-05-22) Johnson, Darlene; Szatkowski, Gary; Smith, CraigMr. Szatkowski described the experience of Hurricane Sandy from the point of view of forecast meteorologists working in New Jersey area hit by the storm. His office in Mount Holly began issuing warnings forty hours before the storm and knew that coastal flooding was the biggest threat. They anticipated record breaking water heights and made a personal plea to people to be prepared by showing photographs of storm damage from the hurricane in 1902 that devastated the area. Sandy hit at high tide with a storm tide of 12-15 feet. Mr. Szatkowski said that the governors of New Jersey and Delaware issued the evacuation orders when they needed to and did a great job in the run up to the storm. The New Jersey governor ordered a mandatory evacuation, but the New York mayor did not. In extreme events, past experience fails to inform good decisions. For example, the New Jersey railway made the mistake of putting trains in an area that did not flood in past hurricanes, but this time lost 400 million dollars in equipment. Some people did not evacuate because they thought Hurricane Irene the year before was less intense than anticipated. In a study, researchers found that 76% of people said that they “experienced” a hurricane, but only 37% reported suffering damage from Hurricane Irene. Mr. Szatkowski observed if you did not experience damage or other problems, you did not really experience the hurricane. Climate change is also expected to make future severe weather events worse. The trend in sea level rise is acceleration, which will raise storm tide levels. It Is very difficult to confront this problem because it is long term and outside personal experience. Looking ahead– even though forecasting has gotten better and is expected to improve, it is difficult to get people to understand the impact of a hurricane...Item Open Access NCEM Workshop Keynote Speaker(2013-05-22) Sturgis, LindaKeynote speaker Linda Sturgis described the impact that Hurricane Sandy had on the coast of New York and Northern New Jersey, an area in which she was responsible for safety, transportation and navigation. The effects are still being felt. The statue of Liberty is not open yet, not because the monument was damaged, but due to damage to the docking facilities on the Island. Ellis Island was heavily damaged including many archives stored there. The weather buoys measured water height at 9 feet and 10 feet and then suddenly off the scale. Some people said there was 42 foot wave and they are probably right, but it was not measured. What affected people most, Sturgis said, was shipping, especially petro-chemical products because the anchorages in New York serve a large region and have the second largest refinery in the country, operating since 1905. The entire system was disrupted, including areas currently being dredged to accommodate larger ships. Widespread power outages effected millions of people. In lower Manhattan, many of the neighborhoods in which first responders live were hit hard. Many transportation routes were disabled for days.Item Open Access Modeling and Planning for Storm Surge (Panel)(2013-05-22) Losego, Jessica; Dorman, John; Birch, TraciJessica Losego discussed the CERA (Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment)-Atlantic portal that is part of the DHS Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence housed at UNC Chapel Hill. She showed examples of the five-day forecasts that are generated based on ADCIRC coastal circulation and storm surge models that produce deterministic wave and surge forecasts. The layers of the map include storm track, water height, waves, wind speed and gauge stations located on a Google map. The format allows a user to click on any part of the map and find a legend with corresponding colors that indicate inundation and how a particular area will be affected. While this website has been available for several years, recent improvements have been made in response to feedback from emergency managers. They found that emergency managers need information 72 hours before landfall and they need a best guess for decision-making. The onset of tropical force wind is important to emergency managers and although there are many ways to get the hurricane track, it is hard to get information about river flooding and connect that to surge. New changes include color scale changes and more intuitive page design...Item Open Access Tools for Risk and Emergency Communication (Panel)(2013-05-22) Sprayberry, Mike; Mitchelson, Ron; Kruse, Jamie; Kain, Donna; Hawley, Steve; Putnam, Gloria; Allen, Thomas RichardAfter the welcoming remarks, Dr. Kain introduced the first panel theme of communication and introduced the speakers. Her presentation, Social Media Management Systems (not included in the video), overviews the tools that social media managers can use on multiple platforms and apps. She demonstrates the software managers Tweetdeck and Hootsuite.Item Open Access Planning for Resilience in Coastal Louisiana(2013-05-22) Birch, TraciTraci Birch a managing partner with The Verdant Group – a woman-owned urban planning firm based in New Orleans. In this position she specializes in land use and environmental planning, and has worked extensively in Louisiana and across the Gulf Coast on disaster recovery and resiliency planning. In particular, she has worked with many at-risk communities to develop land use plans and development codes that focus on sustainability and hazard resiliency. In addition, Dr. Birch is an adjunct professor at the University of New Orleans, where she teaches coastal and environmental planning. She will be joining the faculty of East Carolina University in the fall of 2013, where she will be teaching coastal and environmental planning in the Department of Geography.Item Open Access Introducing the North Carolina Coastal Atlas(2013-05-22) Allen, Thomas RichardDr. Allen is the director of C-SIM at ECU and the co-director of ECU's Center for Geographic Information Science. He is interested in understanding spatial and temporal change in the natural environment, particularly vegetation and related environmental processes in order to inform human actions. His research therefore emphasizes the development of geospatial technologies such as satellite remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and global positioning systems (GPS). His primary areas of study are coastal and mountain environments of North America, Central America, and Fennoscandia. His current research projects include spatial analysis of coastal barrier morphodynamics; mapping mangroves and coastal change in Costa Rica; developing new algorithms for satellite remote-sensing monitoring and change detection; remote sensing and GIS data fusion for characterizing estuarine processes; and investigating biophysical patterns and processes in subarctic, alpine, and mountain environments.Item Open Access City of Greenville’s Social Media in times of emergencies(2013-05-22) Hawley, SteveSteve Hawley is communications manager and public information officer for the City of Greenville where his work has won Excellence in Communications Awards from North Carolina City and County Communicators. He is the host of the city of Greenville's public-access television show "City Scene.Item Open Access Hurricane Sandy: Response and Recovery in New York and New Jersey(2013-05-22) Sturgis, LindaCommander Linda Sturgis is originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia. She began military service in the U.S. Army in 1988 and graduated Old Dominion University in 1992. Shortly after college graduation, she changed military services and attended Coast Guard Officer Candidate training in 1993. She was stationed on USCGC MELLON where she conducted fisheries enforcement, undocumented migrant and drug interdiction operations in the Bearing Sea, the Caribbean, and South Pacific Ocean. She has been assigned to the Coast Guard Headquarters budget formulation office and Marine Safety Offices across the country including Seattle, Miami, Cleveland as Commanding Officer and is currently assigned to Coast Guard Sector New York on Staten Island, New York. Her current position as Prevention Department Head at Coast Guard Sector New York includes overseeing domestic ice breaking, aids to navigation, waterways management, commercial vessel inspections, waterfront facility inspections, law enforcement boardings on deep draft commercial vessels prior to entering port, and marine casualty investigations. She holds a Masters Degree in Marine Affairs and business certificate in Global Trade and Transportation from the University of Washington. Commander Sturgis will be rotating from Sector New York during the summer of 2013 and will be assigned as a senior military fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington DC.Item Open Access The Pursuit of Risk(2013-05-22) Dorman, JohnJohn Dorman is the Assistant EM Director for Geospatial and Technology Management in the North Carolina Division of Emergency Management. In this capacity, he is responsible for the design, acquisition, analysis, and dissemination of data, models, systems and applications associated with hazard and threats. Mr. Dorman has facilitated and managed the statewide acquisition of LiDAR-derived elevation data, digital orthophotography, building footprints, and special flood hazard areas. Mr. Dorman is currently managing three national risk management demonstrations: Integrated Hazard Risk Management; Digital Flood Risk; and, Sea Level Rise Impact Study.Item Open Access CERA-Atlantic Storm Surge Web Page: Improvements for 2013 Based on EM Feedback(2013-05-22) Losego, JessicaJessica Losego has worked extensively with the North Carolina emergency management (EM) community since starting as a meteorologist at the University of North Carolina seven years ago. During this time, she developed and managed the NC-FIRST weather education and information program for EMs in North Carolina. Since it began in 2007, over 1,000 users in the EM community have been trained, and NC-FIRST is now a standard tool used across the state. In addition to NC-FIRST, Jessica now works on the collaborative Weather and Emergency Management project funded by NOAA to learn about the critical decisions and use of weather information by the entire EM community, not just county directors, to help NWS improve decision support. Jessica earned a B.S. in Meteorology from Penn State and a M.S. in meteorology from the University of Oklahoma. She also has received a graduate certificate from UNC in Disaster Management and Community Preparedness.Item Open Access Hurricane Season Forecast 2013(2013-05-22) Szatkowski, GaryMr. Szatkowski described the 2012 hurricane season. In 2012 there were 19 named storms, 10 reached hurricane strength and 2 were major hurricanes. This exceeded the average number. This year is likely to exceed last year because the ACE, Accumulated Cyclone Energy is estimat- ed to be higher than last year. The forecast has not been released from the Hurricane Center yet, but it can be expect to be an above average active season. Mr. Szatkowski cautioned that the U. S. is experiencing the longest period without a major hurricane striking land based on long term averages. Chances are that we can expect a major hurricane before long.Item Open Access Reflections on Sandy: Understanding What Happened & Where Do We Go From Here?(2013-05-22) Szatkowski, GaryMr. Szatkowski described the experience of Hurricane Sandy from the point of view of forecast meteorologists working in New Jersey area hit by the storm. His office in Mount Holly began issuing warnings forty hours before the storm and knew that coastal flooding was the biggest threat. They anticipated record breaking water heights and made a personal plea to people to be prepared by showing photographs of storm damage from the hurricane in 1902 that devastated the area. Sandy hit at high tide with a storm tide of 12-15 feet. Mr. Szatkowski said that the governors of New Jersey and Delaware issued the evacuation orders when they needed to and did a great job in the run up to the storm. The New Jersey governor ordered a mandatory evacuation, but the New York mayor did not. In extreme events, past experience fails to inform good decisions. For example, the New Jersey railway made the mistake of putting trains in an area that did not flood in past hurricanes, but this time lost 400 million dollars in equipment. Some people did not evacuate because they thought Hurricane Irene the year before was less intense than anticipated. In a study, researchers found that 76% of people said that they “experienced” a hurricane, but only 37% reported suffering damage from Hurricane Irene. Mr. Szatkowski observed if you did not experience damage or other problems, you did not really experience the hurricane. Climate change is also expected to make future severe weather events worse. The trend in sea level rise is acceleration, which will raise storm tide levels. It Is very difficult to confront this problem because it is long term and outside personal experience. Looking ahead– even though forecasting has gotten better and is expected to improve, it is difficult to get people to understand the impact of a hurricane.Item Open Access Social Media Management Systems(2013-05-22) Kain, DonnaDr. Kain introduced the first panel theme of communication and introduced the speakers. Her presentation, Social Media Management Systems (not included in the video), overviews the tools that social media managers can use on multiple platforms and apps. She demonstrates the software managers Tweetdeck and Hootsuite.Item Open Access North Carolina Department of Public Safety(2013-05-22) Johnson, DarleneMs. Johnson overviewed the EMAC process for providing mutual aid to other states during an event. She said that if first responders are sent on a mission to work in another state during an emergency, they are able to function and should be paid in the same way as if they are in their home state. This includes liability protections. She described the reimbursement and other procedures that are involved in the process including forms and contacts.Item Open Access 2013 North Carolina Hurricane Workshop Summary(2013-05-22) Covi, Michelle P.The North Carolina Division of Emergency Management in collaboration with East Carolina University's Center for Natural Hazards Research held a Hurricane Workshop on May 22, 2013 at the Murphy Center in Greenville, NC. Over 180 emergency managers, meteorologists, emergency responders and university researchers gathered to learn about new policies and procedures for social media, planning and emergency response, modeling storm surge and planning for future flooding emergencies and the experiences from managing Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast.