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Hurricane Katrina (LA General)

The morning after the storm crossed the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast, NOAA
HAZMAT responded on-scene to support the United States Coast Guard (USCG).  A
full and accurate description of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is
impossible to capture with words or photographs.  Three days into the response
phase, details are lacking, but the impact is numbing.  The primary objective of
the USCG response has been to find and rescue victims of the flooding in New
Orleans.  At present, three days into the response, the response is expanding
and transitioning to waterway navigation and hazardous material pollution
threats that effect public safety.  The initial injury assessment includes over
150 NRC spill reports, more than 70 identified salvage issues below the city of
New Orleans, more than 250 stranded and grounded barges, multiple damaged
on-shore and offshore facilities, and thousands of stranded drums.  Most of the
USCG men and women that NOAA Team are working with lived in the area impacted by
the storm.  This report is short.  The briefness of the report reflects only the
time available to write a report at this stage of the response.  

NOAA HAZMAT currently has five personal deployed in Alexandria providing direct
support to USCG Sector New Orleans and dozens of personnel working from their
normal offices (the Home Team) providing support to the team on-scene team (Away
Team).  The NOAA products and resources being produced and coordinated by the
NOAA Scientific Support Team include:  1) On-Scene and Home Team Scientific
Support; 2) Hazard Characterization and Modeling of Potential Threats; 3)
Collection and Synthesis of NOAA Aerial Photography by the NOAA Citation; 4)
Information Management to include capturing situation data of overflight
observations, resources deployed, and reported pollution releases into a GIS
mapping format to support USCG Operations, Response Planning, and Documentation;
and 5)Spot Weather Forecasting.  In addition, HAZMAT team members have been
coordinating efforts to support the NOAA Navigational Surveys and interfacing
with the EPA on ESF-10 issues.  Additional information to follow in future reports.