NOAA05-109
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dave Miller
9/2/05
 NOAA News Releases 2005
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NOAA Public Affairs


NOAA HURRICANE KATRINA SUPPORT ACTIVITIES

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provides a variety of support activities for areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. This release provides a summary of activities completed or anticipated to start within the next 24-72 hours.

NOAA MARINE AND AVIATION OPERATIONS

PAO: Jeanne Kouhestani (301) 713-3431 ext. 220, cellular (301) 787-7269

  • NOAA Ship NANCY FOSTER is deployed in Gulf of Mexico, conducting survey and support activities.
  • NOAA Ship THOMAS JEFFERSON underway from Norfolk, VA, for survey operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

NOAA OCEAN SERVICE

PAO: Ben Sherman (301) 713-3066, cellular (202) 253-5256

NOAA Navigational Response Teams are mobile emergency response units equipped and trained to survey ports and nearby shore waterways. These teams check for submerged obstructions that could cause hazards to shipping. Navigation Response Team 1 has completed side scan surveys of the Mobile Ship Channel yesterday and began surveys in other areas of Mobile. NRT1 will complete surveys in Mobile Bay today.

  • NRT4 is continuing to side scan survey in the Mississippi River just north of the New Orleans international airport.
  • NRT6 continues in transit to Baton Rouge, La. from Long Beach, Calif.
  • NOAA contract vessel DAVIDSON enroute to resume surveys in the Mississippi north of Pilottown, La.

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration is supporting US Coast Guard unified command in Baton Rouge, La.

In the past week NOAA has collected aerial images of the hardest hit areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. This data has been made available to federal, state, local agencies as well as the public in order to facilitate the appropriate government response as well as address the concerns of the general public. These images are available via the Internet at http://ngs.woc.noaa.gov/katrina/. To date NOAA has provided over 20 terabytes of data and has facilitated the use of the data by the private sector to meet user needs. The site has averaged 4.5 million photos downloaded on a daily basis for the last five days.

NOAA Coastal Services Center has acquired a large volume of pre-event remote sensing data in the northern Gulf of Mexico region, including aerial photography, digital elevation data data. This data is a crucial component to understanding the effects and changes that have occurred due to Hurricane Katrina. Comparing before and after imagery is going to be one of the first steps in the recovery process.

Ports surveyed to date:

  • Port Fourchon, La.
  • Gulfport, Miss.
  • Biloxi, Miss.
  • Pascagoula, Miss.
  • Mobile, Ala.
  • Pensacola, Fla.

NOAA FISHERIES

PAO: Connie Barclay (301) 713-2370, cellular (202) 441-2398

NOAA Office for Law Enforcement has received a request from the State of Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries Enforcement Division for assistance in marine rescue security and safety matters.

An agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, NOAA is dedicated to enhancing the nation’s economic security, improving public safety through prediction and research of weather and Climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners and nearly 60 countries to develop a global Earth observation network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

On the Web:

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov