The U.S. Geological Survey is proud to announce four major actions taken to prepare for monitoring floods arising from hurricanes and other tropical storms. USGS activities include strengthening streamgages along the Gulf Coast to withstand hurricane-force winds and waters; implementing rapidly deployable, mobile gages on streams lacking monitoring equipment; developing capabilities to measure hurricane-driven storm surges; and installing an emergency satellite-communications and data-distribution system.
These activities are coordinated with National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other Federal, State, and local organizations. These coordinated actions will ensure timely and uninterrupted water information for forecasters, emergency and evacuation managers, scientists, and the general public. Improved flood monitoring and assessment will help reduce the risks to coastal communities, property, and human life.
Printable Publication
USGS Hurricane Information Sheet
Hardened Streamgages from Florida to Texas
The USGS is hardening about 120 continuous-record streamgages within 100 miles of the Gulf Coast, in an area that stretches roughly between Miami, Fla. and Port Comfort, Texas. All of these streamgages are used by the National Weather Service for river flood forecasting and modeling. In addition, USGS is hardening 8 to 10 open-water tidal/water-quality gages in Mississippi and Louisiana (not shown).
Flood-Hardened Streamgages-120
Position your pointer over a dot for the Streamgage Number and Name.
Click on dot for Streamgage home/web page. |
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Google Earth KML File
Display USGS Flood-Hardened streamgages in Google
Earth. Google Earth is an interactive, 3D viewer that seamlessly zooms
from a global scale down to less than a meter in many urban areas. To display
USGS Flood-Hardened Streamgages, download one of the following files and
open it in Google Earth.
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To ensure reliable delivery of data during future hurricanes, the USGS is hardening about 120 continuous-record streamgages within 100 miles of the Gulf Coast. All of these streamgages are used by the National Weather Service for river flood forecasting and modeling.
The USGS network of 7,400 streamgaging stations covers many of the Nations streams - but not all. The lack of a gage can be critical during a storm or when an emergency condition requires more detailed monitoring. Therefore, USGS has developed new rapidly deployable, mobile streamgages to provide short-term water-level data to those areas. These mobile gages can also serve as emergency replacements for damaged or destroyed gages. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, seven temporary streamgages with satellite telemetry were installed in and around New Orleans to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers track efforts to dewater the flooded city.
West Fork San Jacinto River above Lake Houston near Porter, Texas in Montgomery County. For real-time data for this site go to http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/ nwis/nwisman/?site_no=08068090& agency_cd=USGS
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Gage before hardening.
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Gage after hardening.
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Rapid Deployment to Mobile Streamgages
The USGS has developed new rapidly deployable, mobile streamgages to provide short-term water-level data to critical areas lacking streamgages.
The USGS network of 7,400 streamgaging stations covers many of the Nations streams - but not all. The lack of a gage can be critical during a storm or when an emergency condition requires more detailed monitoring. Therefore, USGS has developed new rapidly deployable, mobile streamgages to provide short-term water-level data to those areas. These mobile gages can also serve as emergency replacements for damaged or destroyed gages. In the days following Hurricane Katrina, seven temporary streamgages with satellite telemetry were installed in and around New Orleans to help the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers track efforts to dewater the flooded city.
Data from all USGS streamgages, both mobile and permanent, are transmitted by satellite telemetry in real time to the USGS National Water Information System (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt). |
Rapidly Deployed Gage
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Measuring Storm Surge
The USGS has designed and developed mobile networks of rugged, inexpensive water-level and barometric-pressure sensors to measure information about the timing, extent and magnitude of hurricane storm surge accurately.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita vividly demonstrated that storm surge can be as dangerous to coastal communities as riverine floods are to inland communities. Historically, storm-surge assessments were based on eye witness accounts and post-storm analysis of debris piles, high-water marks, and structural damage. While these assessments are useful to document the magnitude of the storm surge, they cannot provide reliable information about the timing of the inundation, nor do they facilitate reconstruction of the various flow paths by which the surge waters penetrate inland areas. In order to improve surge forecasting, design better infrastructure, and improve land use planning, quantitative data are needed to characterize the dynamic interaction of hurricane-driven surge waters and waves with coastal topography, buildings, bridges, roads, and channels.
The experimental network of 47 sensors was first deployed to areas of southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas in the hours preceding landfall of Hurricane Rita in September 2005. Information on water levels, barometric pressure, and related high-water marks were collected, and maps were generated to display flood duration, times of surge arrival and retreat, and maximum depths (available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/2006/220/). By overlaying the storm-surge information on other visualizations of hurricane impacts, such as beach erosion and housing damage, and incorporating the information into complex hydrodynamic models, scientists, engineers, and emergency managers can better understand surge mechanisms and develop designs that will lead to safer coastal communities. (http://pubs.er.usgs.gov/usgspubs/fs/fs20063136).
For more information about storm surge go to URL: http://water.usgs.gov/osw/programs/storm_surge.html.
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Sensor
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Mobile Sensor Installation
A sensor used to collect water-level and barometric-pressure data. Future USGS sensors may be able to monitor salinity and include real-time telemetry to help emergency officials respond when storm surge threatens any coastal community.
This USGS hydrographer is deploying a storm-surge sensor (in a protective metal casing) to a bridge piling.
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Emergency Data Acquisition and Dissemination
Streamflow data are critical for emergency managers who need to make informed decisions about flood and storm response activities, which can save lives and property. The USGS, NOAA, and many other data users are partnering to establish an emergency satellite data acquisition and dissemination unit at the USGS facility located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Currently, USGS real-time water data are relayed (about every hour) from streamgages to a single command-and-data acquisition station at Wallops Island, Virginia. Since this station is located near the coast-only about 15 feet above sea level-it is vulnerable to hurricanes and other storms. To ensure the continuity of continuous critical data in real time, the USGS, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, and many other partners and data users are partnering to establish an emergency satellite data acquisition and dissemination unit at the USGS facility located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This unit is expected to be operational by the end of 2007.
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Sioux Falls Facility
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To see more USGS Hazard information go to URL:
http://www.usgs.gov/hazards/hurricanes/2007/default.asp for USGS Natural Hazards: Before, During and After the Storm
WaterWatch
For more than 125 years, the USGS has monitored flow in selected streams and rivers across the U.S. The USGS collects data from more than 7,400 streamgages, many of which provide real-time data in 15 minute increments (explore this information at http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch/). The information is routinely used for water supply and management, monitoring floods and droughts, bridge and road design, and for many recreational activities.
National Water Information System
Access an even larger variety of USGS data, such as for ground water and water quality, through the National Water Information System Web Interface (NWISWeb), which contains over 1.5 million sites, and averages over 25 million hits per month (log onto at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/).
For more information contact: Robert Mason, National Program, Deputy Chief, Office of Surface Water; rrmason@usgs.gov; (703)648-5305.
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