National Situation Update: Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

National Weather

Midwest
A slow moving front may produce showers and thunderstorms from the Upper Mississippi Valley to the central Plains.  Parts of the Eastern Dakotas and Minnesota may see heavy rain.
Flood Warnings continue for numerous rivers in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. 
Highs will range from the low to mid 60s in western North Dakota to the mid-80s in the Ohio Valley.
Northeast
Pleasant weather is forecast for most of the region with cool mornings quickly warming into sunny afternoons.
High temperatures will range from the upper 50s in northern Maine to the low 80s in West Virginia.
South  
High pressure over New England combining with low pressure off the Southeast Coast will bring gusty onshore winds along the Carolina Coasts.  Heavy surf, rip currents and beach erosion are possible. 
Scattered showers and thunderstorms are possible in southern Texas and the Florida Peninsula. 
Numerous Flood Warnings remain in effect for portions of Texas, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana.
High temperatures will range from the 70s in the southern Appalachians to around 90 in parts of Texas, Florida and Louisiana.
West  
Most of the region will be dry except for a few showers over eastern Montana.
Eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and Idaho may see below freezing temperatures.
Temperatures will range from the 30s in the higher mountains to the 100s in the Mohave and Sonoran Deserts. (NOAA, National Weather Service, Various Media Sources)

Puerto Rico Heavy rainfall (93L)

  • The PR EOC is partially activated 24\7 with select ESF's.
  • The Governor has declared a State of Emergency
  • The PREMA Joint Information Center is partially activated.
  • The USCG has provided a liaison to the PREMA EOC.
  • 4 fatalities; no injuries reported
  • 19 shelters; population 337 in 15 municipalities (FEMA Region II)
  • Fourteen preventive shelters have been opened in 12 municipalities.
  • 13 rivers are flooded and several roads have been closed due to flooding or landslides.
  • The Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority (PREPA) reports about 7,146 (0.48%) customers are without service.
  • The Puerto Rico Aqueduct Sewer Authority (PRASA) reports about 103,379 (8.27%) customers are without service.
  • State/Federal Preliminary Damage Assessments (PDA) will begin tomorrow with 10 IA teams and 9 PA teams in 12 municipalities
  • A Mission Assignment has been issued to ESF-3, USACE for PA PDA support.
  • No Federal assistance is being requested at this time. (FEMA Region II & CAD, PREMA, VITEMA, NWS)

Federal / State Response for Hurricane Ike and Midwest Storms

Region V
Illinois

  • State EOC has returned to normal operations.
  • Joint PDAs are ongoing.
  • 1 fatality; no injuries reported
  • All power has been restored.
  • 4 shelter; population 7 (ESF 6 Sept. 22) Ohio
  • Ohio EOC at Level II (Partial Operations)
  • 7 fatalities; 1 injury reported
  • 47,825 customers remain without power.  (DOE Sept. 22)
  • 1 shelter; population 12 (NSS as of Midnight EDT Sept. 22) Indiana
  • State EOC is activated at Level III (Normal Operations)
  • Joint PDAs are ongoing.
  • 8 fatalities; 19 injuries reported
  • 1 shelters; population 6  (NSS as of Midnight EDT Sept. 22)

FEMA Region VI
Louisiana

  • GOSHEP activated at Level III
  • 5 fatalities; no injuries reported
  • 12,287 customers remain without power  (DOE Sept. 22)
  • 8 shelters; population 513 (ESF 6  Sept. 22) 

Texas

  • Activated at Level I, 24/7
  • 19 fatalities; no injuries reported. (JFO Sitrep #13)
  • Shelters / Occupants: 141; population of 13,500; 41% capacity; shelter counts are reducing with efforts to transition people for re-entry into areas. (ESF 6  Sept. 22) 764,503 customers remain without power. (DOE Sept. 22)
  • PODs continue to consolidate with inventories of commodities to plan to terminate supply flow; there are 27 PODs in Texas.
  • There is 3 Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) and 11 Mobile Disaster Recovery Center (MDRCs) located in Texas. (JFO REPORT #13)
  • The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has established 27 Rights of Entry (ROE) sites for citizens to register their property for the Blue Roof Program.
  • Registration intakes are over 525,000 with 70% submitted online.
  • The City of Galveston will re-open on Wednesday, September 24, 2008.

Presidio, TX Levee issue update: Presidio County, along with the City of Presidio, continues efforts to mitigate the flood impacts from the Rio Grande River.

  • Sandbag operations continue with 6500 sandbags put in place.
  • Air operations successfully placed a large number of large sandbags to reinforce weakness in portions of the levee and remain on stand-by to support additional large sandbag mitigation efforts.
  • Sandbagging operations continue as needed by community and county residents and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice has provided 70 offender personnel to assist in sandbagging operation efforts.  Priorities of the incident are: to prevent levee failure; to continue to maintain emergency shelter operations; provide for a rapid response for search and rescue should the levees fail. (TX SOC Rio Grande River Flood Event SITREP # 3)

Tropical Weather Outlook

Atlantic/Caribbean:
93L - High Potential for Tropical Cyclone Development
A broad area of low pressure centered over the eastern Dominican Republic continues to produce heavy rains over portions of the eastern Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.  This system has changed little in organization during the past several hours; however, upper-level winds are expected to become a little more conducive for development and this system has the potential to become a tropical depression at any time during the next day or two as it moves northwestward away from Hispaniola.  Heavy rainfall with potentially life-threatening flash flooding is expected to continue over the area through early Wednesday.   
Eastern Pacific:
90L - Medium Potential for Tropical Cyclone Development
A broad area of low pressure centered about 225 miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico is producing very limited and disorganized shower activity.  Development of this system, if any, is expected to be slow to occur as it moves west-northwestward.
Western Pacific:
No tropical cyclone activity affecting United States Territories. (NOAA, HPC,  National Hurricane Center, Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Earthquake Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Wildfire Update

National Fire Activity as of  Monday, September 22, 2008:
National Wildfire Preparedness Level: 2
Initial attack activity: Light (63)
New large fires: 0
Uncontained large fires: 5
Large fires contained: 2
States with large fires: CA, MT, OR
Predictive Fire: Clear weather with drier conditions is expected along the West coast, with light north/offshore winds across parts of northern California. Winds out of the southwest will increase across the Southwest and parts of the Great Basin Continued cool and moist weather will continue over much of the northern and central Rockies, with some snow across the higher terrain of Idaho and Montana. The Gulf States will have widespread showers and thunderstorms. Elsewhere, seasonable fall conditions will arrive a little early.  (NIFC, NICC)

Disaster Declaration Activity

The Governor of Indiana requested a Major Disaster Declaration as a result of severe storms and flooding, beginning on Sept 12 and continuing.
The President approved Major Disaster Declaration (FEMA-1794-DR) for Mississippi as a result of Hurricane Gustav.   (FEMA HQ)

Last Modified: Tuesday, 23-Sep-2008 08:17:49 EDT