JANUARY 2008 INDIANA TORNADOES ? UPDATED

UPDATE 0833hrs, 30 Jan 08!

Midwest braces for 'vicious slap from Mother Nature'

CHICAGO -- Severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and fierce winds sliced through the Midwest, leaving behind bitterly cold air and blizzards in the northern Plains that sent temperatures in some areas plummeting by 50 degrees in a few hours.

Forecasters warned more bad weather was on the way Wednesday.

"This is going to be a hard, vicious slap in the face from Mother Nature," Gino Izzi, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Romeoville, Illinois, said Tuesday night. "The temperature drop we saw was really spectacular in a bad way."

High winds associated with thunderstorms may have killed two people in Indiana, authorities said Tuesday. Snow forced the closure of schools and highways in many areas, and avalanche warnings were issued for some Western regions.

"I wouldn't call it a common occurrence to see winds this strong with this kind of snow," Izzi said. "This isn't something we see every year."

The cold air and wind gusts as high as 70 mph slammed into the Midwest, where fog created problems for air travel Tuesday in Chicago. About 350 flights were canceled Tuesday at O'Hare International Airport, said Chicago Department of Aviation spokesman Karen Pride.

The system also dragged frigid air across the northern Plains. The Weather Service reported a midday temperature of 24 degrees below zero at Glasgow, Montana. North Dakota registered wind chill factors of 54 below zero at Garrison, while Williston hit a low of 24 below.

Most of Minnesota was under wind chill warnings until noon Wednesday due to indexes that fell into the minus 30 degree level. It was as low as 50 degrees below freezing in Hibbing.

Though only light snow fell in western, central and eastern Iowa on Tuesday, winds snapping as fast as 60 mph caused visibility problems, and temperatures dropped into single digits.

In north central and eastern Iowa, forecasters expected strong winds and blowing snow to continue overnight, and for temperatures to possibly dip to 10 below zero.

"It's a little worse than your average snowstorm," said Rod Donovan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines, Iowa. "The biggest impact is that the driving conditions can change quickly with this type of storm. Once it begins, travel is quite hazardous."

Some 1,500 workers went home early from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, while critical medical staff were put up in hotels so they could stay close to serve patients. The blustery winds also put flight operations on ice at the Rochester airport.

Firefighters in southwestern Indiana pulled two bodies from a mobile home near Evansville that had been turned on its side by winds in a thunderstorm, WEHT-TV reported.

Residents near Danville, west of Indianapolis, reported funnel clouds, and damage was reported to a home and the Morgan County Courthouse in Martinsville.

The National Weather Service reported an unconfirmed tornado touchdown near Okawville, Illinois. A corner of the roof peeled off a high school in Nashville, Illinonis, but no injuries were reported.

Temperatures in Illinois dropped from Tuesday's highs in the 40s to about zero overnight. In anticipation, some central Illinois schools canceled Wednesday classes.

In Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, winds as strong as 70 mph and dime-size hail were reported Tuesday. Two unconfirmed funnel clouds were reported, said Dick Knaup, the county's emergency management director.

The week began with heavy snow pummeling mountain areas from Washington state to northern Arizona as two storms converged, one from hard-hit California and another from the Gulf of Alaska, meteorologists said. Watch residents struggle in Spokane, Washington »

The storms were followed Tuesday by a third that threatened to leave up to 20 inches of snow in Idaho's mountains, said Jay Breidenbach of the Weather Service office in Boise, Idaho.

A fourth storm was on the way to the interior West: "By Thursday, the next storm will be right on our doorstep. This is quite a storm system," Breidenbach said.

The Navajo reservation, which sprawls across parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, was under an emergency declaration because of the possibility that melting snow could create flooding.

In the snow farther west, avalanche danger forced officials to close Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass, Washington state's main east-west artery across the Cascade Mountains. The pass was to remain closed until Wednesday morning, Meagan McFadden of the state Department of Transportation said.

More than 200 trucks were backed up at North Bend, waiting to move freight across the pass. On a typical weekday, as many as 7,000 trucks travel I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass, she added.

Snow also closed highways in Minnesota, Colorado and Wyoming.

Two of three snowmobilers lost in the mountains west of Denver were found late Tuesday, said Summit County sheriff's spokeswoman Paulette Horr. The third was still missing.

In Oregon, two snowmobilers were rescued Monday after spending two nights in the Wallowa Mountains, where they were trapped by storms. Authorities said the two were dressed warmly and equipped with survival gear, matches and an avalanche beacon.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.10:17

PM January 29, 2008

Tornadoes reported in metro area; 2 dead in S. Ind.

Star report

January 29, 2008

Several tornadoes were reported in the Indianapolis-metro area tonight as high winds, hail and thunderstorms moved across Central Indiana. Officials said that two deaths in southern Indiana may have been caused by high winds.

Firefighters pulled two bodies from a mobile home in northern Posey County after it was turned over on its side, apparently by storm winds, Evansville television station WEHT reported.

A sheriff’s dispatcher said he could not confirm the deaths but said the coroner had been called to the scene.

Duke Energy reported more than 28,000 customers without power as of 9:25 p.m., with the largest outages in Morgan and Vigo counties. More than 6,600 people were without power in Morgan County, while power to more than 5,000 was cut in the Terre Haute area.

WEHT reported that Pike County and South Gibson school districts canceled classes Wednesday due to power outages.

There were preliminary reports of storm damage on the Northwestside of Indianapolis as the leading edge of the storm reached the city. From Bloomington to the south and Frankfort to the north, the storm blew through with winds of more than 60 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Indianapolis.

Reports of downed power lines, damaged roofs and toppled trees followed the storm as it moved through the area. There were preliminary reports of damaged homes in eastern Hendricks County.

At 7:18 p.m., northern Marion County came under a tornado warning with a preliminary report of a tornado touchdown in Clermont, along the Hendricks County line. Such reports are typically confirmed by the weather service the next day after a visual inspection.

A tornado warning was issued for Fillmore, Ind., 26 miles south of Crawfordsville, at 6:44 p.m. National Weather Service radar showed a possible tornado near Danville at 6:57 p.m. today.

IPL was still getting reports of power outages immediately after the storm, but the utility's first estimate was that 8,500 customers lost power, mostly on the Northwestside, said Crystal Livers-Powers, spokeswoman for IPL.

Firefighters were looking into reports that several homes were damaged on Swanson Drive on the Northwestside, not far from 44th Street and Kessler Boulevard North Drive.

Downed lines and debris led to the brief closing of the intersection of 30th Street and High School Road.

The wind and rain were only the beginning, weather experts said.

Tonight, a cold front is expected to settle in, pushing temperatures below freezing — possibly into the upper 20s — between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., said Jason Puma of the weather service.

The overnight low for Indianapolis was forecast to be 11 degrees, officials said.

“That’s a big change considering we’re about 50 degrees right now,” Puma said about 6 p.m. today.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cold and dry, with highs in the 20s, but things could get interesting later in the week, he said.

“We could see a significant winter storm … (one that is) building out of the southern plains,” Puma said. “Given what we’re seeing so far, it will be a measurable snowfall."

NWS Indianapolis Reports - Severe Thunderstorms batter Central Indiana

ILLINOIS CHASE REPORT
January 29, 2008 Southwest Illinois Chase
by John Farley

Yes, really! A chase in January! And a very interesting weather day indeed. I had no real plans to chase today, but did keep up with the weather situation and when, by shortly after noon, it became apparent that severe weather could occur in my immediate area, I decided to head out. With marginal instability (it IS January, after all) but very strong low-level shear and a very strong cold front approaching, SPC had placed much of eastern MO and southern IL under a tornado watch. Scattered storms were developing between the STL area and the front, which was located near Columbia, MO around noon. (Report)

WISCONSIN TORNADO UPDATE

Odyssey of family's checks shows human concern, tornado's power

Posted: Jan. 17, 2008

Jim Stingl E-MAIL

Christopher Bilda's first thought when he found a pad of checks on his property in Waterford was that maybe he had a trespasser.

"I was just walking my dogs. I've got a 7-acre place. There it was in the middle of the woods," he said.

It wasn't a whole checkbook, just a pad of checks about half used up. They were soggy but readable.

John Nichols is the name on the checks. Beaverton Road. Capron, Ill.

Christopher's wife, Cindy, told him there had been tornadoes in northern Illinois the same day last week that Kenosha County got hit. Maybe the checks blew up here.

But Capron to Waterford is more than 40 miles, a long way to ride on the wind.

Christopher contacted me to see if we could track down John Nichols and figure out what happened. I did a Google search for Nichols-Beaverton-tornado. Up popped the answer.

"Many working to help tornado victims," one site was headlined. "It's a total disaster," another said.

Reading further, I learned that the person most seriously hurt was Jeanette Nichols, 64, from the same Beaverton Road address on the checks. She had broken bones and a punctured lung. Her son, John, and two of his children had survived more or less unhurt.

The house was leveled. Same with a garage, pole barn and chicken coop.

Jeanette answered the phone when I called her room at St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford. "They tell me I'm healing. They got me out of intensive care," she said.

She and her family never heard any warning siren, she said.

The tornado was suddenly on top of them. John had been helping his kids with their homework and managed to rush to the basement with them as the house was disappearing above them. Jeanette was in a different room.

"The glass broke and the wind blew me out the window and dropped me," she said.

Christopher Bilda knows something about surviving disaster. He's a machinist at Falk Corp., and he was there when the plant was rocked by a huge explosion in December of 2006. He remembers shattered glass, debris and smoke.

The checks he found on his property, and the powerful act of nature that carried them there, have left an impression on Christopher. "I hope it never happens to me. Imagine your stuff scattered all over," he said.

When I reached John Nichols, he said he was astounded that his property was discovered so far away. He said the checks had been sitting on his desk in a second-floor bedroom. The desk was never found.

"It was nice he called," he said of Christopher's quest to find the checks' owner. "That's the only thing I know of that came back to me like that."

The Nichols family lost most of its possessions in what John calls those "15 seconds of terror." But John's and Jeanette's wallets were both found in the rubble, at least some irreplaceable photos were recovered, and two plates once owned by Jeanette's grandmother survived the storm unbroken. Volunteers have come by the hundreds to help out.

Christopher planned to mail the checks back to John. They are a grim souvenir of this rare January tornado, but also a small reminder that we're looking out for one another.

Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or e-mail at jstingl@journalsentinel.com

SUMMER FLOODS OF 2007 IN THE UK

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has released its report into the Summer Floods of 2007 in the UK. It can be found at: SUMMER FLOODS OF 2007 IN THE UK

WORKSHOPS

NATIONAL SEVERE WEATHER WORKSHOP 2008

A national forum for academia, emergency management, media, and NOAA to exchange information and techniques for public safety during severe weather. March 6-8, 2008. National Center for Employee Development 2801 East State Highway 9 Norman, Oklahoma 73071

INDIANA SEVERE WEATHER SYMPOSIUM

CHICAGO WEATHER

50 degrees today... that came to an sudden end! Like in three hours...

RS

NOAA Selects Bill Read as New National Hurricane Center Director

He is smiling now! Hope it stays that way! Good Luck Bill Read!

January 25, 2008

(Bill Read at the National Hurricane Center forecast desk.)

+ High Resolution (Credit: NOAA)

NOAA officials today named Bill Read as the new director of its Tropical Prediction Center, which includes the National Hurricane Center and two other divisions, in Miami. Read has served as the center’s acting deputy director since August 2007.

“Bill has what it takes be the nation’s hurricane center director. He’s spent 30 years of his career as a weather professional with NOAA dedicated to protecting lives from severe weather, much of it hurricanes and tropical storms,” said retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “Bill has been a trusted consultant to emergency managers in and around Houston and I’m sure he will foster that type of goodwill in communities vulnerable to hurricanes. He will find the job as rewarding as it is demanding.”

Tropical storms and hurricanes have frequently played a major role in Read’s professional life. Read and his team were at the forefront in July 2003 as Hurricane Claudette made landfall on the Texas coast. He also was part of the Hurricane Liaison Team at the National Hurricane Center in Miami when Hurricane Isabel came ashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and raced northeast in September 2003.

Read was appointed to direct the Houston/Galveston weather forecast office of NOAA’s National Weather Service in 1992 and led it through the challenges of the National Weather Service modernization and restructuring program in the mid 1990s.

“Bill brings a wealth of experience in meteorology and management to this position. He has a clear understanding of the needs of staff, the emergency management community and the public in fulfilling our mission of saving lives and property,” said Jack Hayes, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Bill has a proven track record of pulling people together – from the forecaster to the emergency manager – as severe weather threatens.”

Prior to joining NOAA’s National Weather Service, Read served in the U.S. Navy, where his duties included an assignment as an on-board meteorologist with the Hurricane Hunters. He began his career in 1977 with the National Weather Service test and evaluation division in Sterling, Va., developed his forecasting skills in Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas; and, served as severe thunderstorm and flash flood program leader at the National Weather Service headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

NOAA’s Tropical Prediction Center contains three divisions – 1.) the National Hurricane Center provides forecasts of the movement and strength of tropical weather systems and issues watches and warnings for the U.S. and surrounding areas, 2.) the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch provides support for satellite and radar analyses, and 3.) the Technical Support Branch provides support for the Center’s computer and communications systems and develops new techniques for tropical cyclone and tropical weather analysis and prediction.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

ILLINOIS TORNADO TALLY 2007 - a Quiet Year

The tornado statistics for Illinois for 2007 are as follows:

JAN 0

FEB 0
MAR 4
APR 2
MAY 5
JUN 4
JUL 0
AUG 2
SEP 4
OCT 2

NOV 0
DEC 0
TOTAL 23

By EF Scale
EF0 22
EF1 1
EF2 - EF5 0

Total by NWS office area of responsibility
Chicago (northeast/north central IL) 5
Quad Cities (northwest IL) 3
Lincoln (central/southeast IL) 6
St. Louis (southwest IL) 7
Paducah (southern IL) 2

The 30 year running annual average for the state of IL from 1978-2007 is 41.

NWS CHIGAGO/ROMEOVILLE - Looking for River Watchers
River Watchers Wanted

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Chicago/Romeoville, IL is looking for individuals that live or work along the Kankakee River to become part of a river watcher network. Ice jams can result in rapid and devastating flooding. Although the NWS does monitor a small number of automated river gages, they typically do not accurately reflect the current conditions upstream and downstream due to the isolated nature of ice jams. It is also important to know extent of the current ice cover and conditions. That kind of information can only be obtained from visual observations. Under no circumstances are river watchers to actually go out on the ice! Your safety is important to us. Observations should be made from a safe location on the bank or perhaps from your home.

River watchers will receive basic training that will cover ice formation and ice reporting procedures. We hope to expand the network to other rivers in northern Illinois prone to ice jam flooding including the Rock and Fox Rivers.

If you are interested please contact Bill Morris, Hydrologist at the National Weather Service Chicago/Romeoville office. Please include your name, address, phone number, and email.

211 WEATHER CENTER

State Unveils 211 Storm Emergency Number

New Number Aims To Reduce Calls To 911

BOSTON -- There's a new phone number to call during storms or disasters in Massachusetts: 211. Officials at the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said 211 is designed to reduce the number of non-emergency calls made to 911.

By dialing 211, people can get updated disaster information and post-disaster programs, as well as volunteering and donation opportunities. The 211 call center operates weekdays 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., providing information about social services. It can be staffed around the clock during emergencies. The state is operating the 211 system with the Council of Massachusetts United Ways.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

TORNADO WARNINGS
From Journal Sentinel readers
Jan. 26, 2008

Use phones to create a better system for severe weather emergency warnings

We live in the Town of Dacada, east of Random Lake. There are no sirens in our area, and back in 1996, we had a "tornado." It was called "straight-line winds," and we lost our 40-by-70-foot barn, and a cow was killed when the barn went down.

Earlier that night, the storm was in the Dakotas, and then it went through Minnesota and east into Wisconsin. It hit the Random Lake region around 2 a.m.when everyone was asleep. Thirteen barns went down that night.

Our answer to the problem of an audible warning siren is to set up a system that will warn people who are sleeping or out of earshot of sirens. The phone company could set up a system to send 15 fast rings, awakening residents to alert them to the approaching danger. Residents then could turn on the radio or television to find out what they should do.

This system also could be used during the daylight hours to alert the elderly who might not have the radio or television on. Neighbors without phones could be warned by their neighbors, and even cell phones could be notified. This should solve the problem without the huge expense of a siren system.

Jerry and Kathy Daddato
Dacada

TYPHOONS 2007

NW Pacific Typhoons 2007 Summary of 2007 NW Pacific Typhoon Season and Verification of Authors' Seasonal Forecasts. Published 9th January 2008

MARITIME NOTES FROM HOLLAND AND KNIGHT

New York – freshly squeezed

The US Coast Guard issued a press release stating that, on January 24, the orange-juice tanker ORANGE SUN collided with the dredge NEW YORK in Newark Bay. The US Coast Guard also issued a video release which you may find interesting. No injuries were reported. The incident is under investigation. A subsequent press release reports on steps take to minimize the impact of the hydraulic fluid that was released into the water and the initial survey of the damaged dredge. (1/26/08).

USCG – ISPR report to be released

The US Coast Guard issued a press release stating that the Incident Specific Preparedness Review (ISPR) Phase I report will be released in San Francisco at 1:00 p.m. local time on Monday, January 28. The report concerns the first two weeks of the response operation to the COSCO BUSAN oil spill. It does not address the cause of the spill, only the preparedness for and response to the spill. A second report on the remainder of the response will be released at a later time. (1/25/08).

San Francisco Bay – update n COSCO BUSAN clean-up

The Unified Command issued a news release providing an update on the clean-up of the oil spill from the COSCO BUSAN. Reading between the lines, it appears that the active response is largely complete. (1/24/08).

RS

Waterspouts and Ships!

Waterspouts are one of the subjects that we have yet covered.

So since I received the below email from a good friend of mine, who is serving as a Chief Mate aboard a "Drill Ship" doing exploration off the coast of South America. (No the report did not come from this vessel I linked to either).

So what is a Chief Mate aboard a commercial ship? Well he is next in command to the Master or Captain. For you Star Trek fans this would be equivalent to Mr. Spock...

So I thought we would visit the subject. Remember when aboard ship there is really no place to run!

(To the left is a drawing by Benjamin Franklin and his understanding of water spouts.

Benjamin Franklin was a student of severe weather and theorized about how storms formed. Representation of waterspout accompanying "Water-spouts and Whirlwinds" by Benjamin Franklin.

This paper was republished in "The complete works in philosophy, politics, and morals, of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin ....", 1806. Volume II, p. 26. Library Call Number PS745 .A2 1806. Image ID: wea00342, Historic NWS Collection)

As my shipmate writes....

"At around 9:45 on Wednesday 16 Jan we were drilling and sitting in 40knot winds from direction 145... A ABS (Able Body Seaman) ran into the operations office and said he spotted a waterspout. Operations opened the door and said there was zero visibility. A couple minutes later we got hit with a steady 85 knots on the stbd beam, gust up to who knows what. All 6 7,000hp thrusters kicked in but we were still pushed off 35 feet."

Its not all that uncommon for ships to get struck by a waterspout since its really hard to sail around them and especially when watches and warning at sea are almost non-existent. Yes the ship will get weather briefs or weather faxes with potential dangers, but unlike a shore-based tornadoes there is no news flashes, warning sirens, news helicopters daring the twister or storm chasers and spotters sounding the alert. As he writes, most of these events are spotted by the crew and by that time ... well... as you can read it is sometimes too late.

In this case there was no injuries and damage was very limited. But as you can read this water spout actually move the ship off station by 35 feet. Now that might not sound like a lot but on many ships and especially offshore platforms like a drill ship, have a computer control system called a "Dynamic Positioning System" which keeps the ship stabilized and on course or on station. Its like a very advanced cruise control for ships.

Though there were two reported, now funny events (they were not at the time). Seems as the waterspout dropped in for a visit there was one seaman at the time working on the derrick of this drill ship and supposedly you now can see his finger nail marks on the hand rails! One lucky dude! The second one though some of you might laugh, but seafarers do take superstition seriously even today. It involved a visiting technical representative who came onto the bridge whistling just prior to the ship being struck by the waterspout. This person was asked to stop whistling and replied something to the effect that they were not superstitious.

Well you see, according to maritime lore, whistling "on-board" ship brings winds... Moments later the ship was struck by the waterspout along with 85 knots+ winds....Think that person is now superstitious?

So what is a "Waterspout"?

Waterspouts are tornadoes over water. But scientific work over the last 30 or so years has led to a more complicated picture with waterspouts differing in some ways from tornadoes over land, especially large ones.

Waterspouts and all the different kinds of tornadoes have a similar basic structure with air moving upward. At the ground or ocean surface, winds are rushing faster and faster as they swirl into the vortex and then upward.

Often with both tornadoes and waterspouts, the vortex is seen coming down from the cloud, but not obviously touching the ground or ocean. Such vortices that don't seem to touch the ground are called "funnels" or "funnel clouds."

It's important to say "seems" not to touch because often, especially in the beginning, the vortex is invisible along part of its path. We begin to see the vortex when its lower air pressure cools the air enough to condense water vapor in the air into tiny water droplets.

Beginning in the late 1960s when he investigated waterspouts in the Keys from a single-engine Cessna 172 piloted by a friend, Joseph Golden, now a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, documented the "what" of spouts and tried to puzzle out the "why." The original studies were for his Ph.D. thesis at Florida State University.

During 12 days in September 1974, Golden flew into 16 Florida Keys waterspouts — one of them 26 times — in a North American T-6 airplane that had been modified for weather research. The World War II era trainer was flown by a professional weather research pilot. Golden recalls that flying into spouts with winds blowing faster than 60 mph around the vortex and moving upwards at 20 mph or better "rattled my teeth."

And, he notes, these were "weak to moderate" strength waterspouts. Careful study of movies or videos of waterspouts show speeds up to the 190 mph range.

They are not to be taken lightly.

In fact, Golden speculates that "a significant fraction of the so-called Bermuda Triangle incidents are from waterspouts."

How waterspouts form

The first sign, which can be seen from the air but usually not from a boat, is the formation of a dark spot on the ocean. Smoke flares dropped in these areas show the air is moving in a circle and upward. Many dark spots die out without progressing any further. But some begin to take on a spiral pattern of dark and lighter water.

Golden says at this second stage someone on a boat at the surface would probably feel the wind shift and maybe increase. Also, if you looked upward, you might see a funnel coming from a cloud overhead or off to one side.

People on boats will see the third stage.

Even though it might be invisible, a vortex is reaching the ocean surface from the cloud. When the wind speeds reach around 40 mph, the wind begins to kick up spray in a circular pattern — the spray vortex. At this time you might see the funnel pointing down from the cloud toward the ring.

The fourth, or mature, stage is when the funnel reaches all the way from the cloud to the ocean. You can usually see through the funnel - it's really a thin cloud of tiny water droplets.

During this stage, small waves are being kicked up and the spout leaves a bubbly wake behind as it moves across the ocean. These tiny bubbles could be carbon dioxide and other gases that are dissolved in the water that are caused to effervesce by the low air pressure in the spout's center - like a bottle of soda that's just opened.

In the fifth, and final stage, the spray vortex weakens and the funnel becomes shorter and maybe more tapered. It often twists around and the bottom of the waterspout may move out from under the cloud.

Scientists say the waterspout's dissipation usually occurs when rain begins falling from the parent cloud. Cool air brought down by the rain cuts off the supply of warm, humid air that's feeding into the waterspout to keep it going.

Where waterspouts are most likely

The Florida Keys "are the greatest, natural vortex lab in the world," says Golden. "Waterspouts probably occur more frequently in the Florida Keys than anywhere in the world."

Waters around the Keys, especially from Marathon past Key West on westward to the Dry Tortugas, probably see 400 or 500 waterspouts a year. Since they are so common, most go unreported unless they cause damage.

Golden suspects so many waterspouts hit the Florida Keys because the weather and geography supply two necessary ingredients.

First, the islands and the shallow water along them help heat the air. During the summer, waterspout season, the air is extremely humid with temperatures in the mid-80s into the low 90s. The heat causes the air to rise. As it rises, the air's humidity condenses into the tiny water droplets that make up clouds.

As water vapor condenses, it releases more heat that makes the air rise even faster. Rising air currents are needed for waterspout formation.

The second important waterspout ingredient in the Keys seems to be the regular east or northeast "trade winds" that blow right down the islands. These winds help line up the clouds. Lines of clouds encourage waterspouts. Exactly how is one of the questions researchers are trying to answer.

Clouds that spawn waterspouts in the Keys are generally from around to 18,000 to 22,000 feet high. Golden says, waterspouts are likely to form when the clouds are growing upwards.

In the Keys, waterspouts are most likely to form between 4 and 7 p.m. with a secondary maximum from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A few waterspouts form around sunrise.

After the Florida Keys, the next most active U.S. waterspout area is the southeast Florida Coast from around Stuart south to Homestead. Tampa Bay has the greatest number of damaging waterspouts, probably because the shores of the Bay are so built up.

Places around the Gulf of Mexico along with the Atlantic Coast northward to Chesapeake Bay are also likely to see waterspouts. Waterspouts have been reported on the West Coast from Tatoosh Island, Wash., south to San Diego, but they tend to be weak and short lived. Waterspouts also skip across the Great Lakes and Utah's Great Salt Lake from time to time.

Boaters safety around waterspouts

Even though waterspouts are usually weaker than the strong tornadoes over land, they can be a real danger to boaters. Waterspouts are most common in the Florida Keys and over other warm oceans, but they can occur over just about any body of water.

As with any kind of weather hazard, safety begins by staying informed. One of the special radios that pick up weather broadcasts should always be aboard your boat. And, you should listen to it regularly.

Waterspouts tend to come from clouds with a dark, flat bottom when there is just the first hint of rain.

If one heads your way, try to escape by going at right angles to its path. And if it's about to hit your boat, the best bet might be to dive overboard. Flying debris is the big killer in tornadoes and waterspouts.

How about diving underwater to escape?

"If you dive before one hits, I think you will be O.K.," says Golden.

But no one really knows what the water is doing right under a waterspout and such a dive should be a last-ditch attempt to avoid flying debris. I'm not prepared to say it's safe to dive under a waterspout," Golden says. Source: USA Today

Here is a pix of one getting ready to drop in for a visit!

Source NOAA

WATERSPOUTS THREAT TO SHIPPING ?

In the summer of 1949, a message was broadcast describing an exotic natural phenomenon. On a coastal region of New Zealand, a rain shower was accompanied by the fall of thousands of small-sized fish. A similar occurrence was observed in 1933 by the inhabitants of village of Kavalerovo in Primor'ye Territory, but instead of fish, there was a rain of jellyfish.

In August, 1972, a giant waterspout appeared near the town of Khosta (Black Sea coast). Darkness covered the town. On the coast of Tikhaya Bay, a waterspout dropped a huge mass of water (about 150,000 tons).

In historical chronicles, there are many authentic stories about similar kinds of unusual rains. The cause of these rains is often waterspouts, the diameter of which range from several tens of meters up to 3 km, with an average height of 800 - 1,500 m, and on occasion, 2 - 3 km. The wind-speed inside a waterspout reaches 100 m/s. The vortices move with a speed of 5 - 10 m/s and sometimes, up to 30 m/s. The duration of the “life” of waterspouts is from several minutes to several hours. During this time, they can travel hundreds kilometres, destroying everything in their paths.

For a long time, the nature of waterspouts remained a riddle. It has now been found that waterspouts occur when air masses spin rapidly during thunder-storms in areas where the air-flow has a sharply distinguished speed of movement, temperature and water vapour content.

When a storm-cloud passes, there are sharp changes in the wind direction and speed and also differences in the air temperature in the most intense section. Unevenly heated air masses have different densities and collisions occur, causing a spinning motion. The rotation rate increases, and a waterspout is born. When air rotates in a vortex, centrifugal forces are generated. The air pressure inside the tube of a waterspout is sharply reduced, and the difference between this pressure and the outer edge may be as much as 200 mbar. Because of this air-pressure difference, there is almost no cooling taking place, resulting in condensation of the water vapour always present inside of the tube.

A waterspout has a cloudy tube descending to the sea-surface. The sharp decrease in air-pressure inside the tube of a waterspout also explains why suction occurs when one is present. For this reason, as soon as the tube of a waterspout breaks contact with the sea-surface, all of the water being carried is dumped, falling to earth. A waterspout is capable of lifting and carrying particles of sand, water, stones, live sea creatures, and sometimes, people, roofs of houses, etc. All of these can be carried long distances. Waterspouts often cause some destruction at coastal beaches, frequently killing people. If a vessel at sea encounters a waterspout, it is a dangerous situation. Source: UN Atlas of the Oceans

(Jesse Ferrell) of The WeatherMatrix Blog. Has a excellent post with pix's on the End-of-Year Waterspouts for Florida.

NWS Key West Florida has a good page for spout pix's...

NWS Gaylord Michigan has a excellent write up on spouts in the Great Lakes

Storm Chaser Steve Sponsler sent me these videos of a spout taking a whack at some ships at anchorage on May 26, 2007.



SISTERS! JUNE 11, 2007



SISTERS NOT GOOD ENOUGH? MARCH 30, 2007




LASTLY MARITIME NOTES:

January 24, 2008
Ships Collide in Newark Bay and Fluid Leaks
WNBC 4HD NYC

Shortly before 2 this afternoon, three ships collided in Newark Bay, closing the bay to marine traffic.

The three-way collision was between two dredging vessels, the 117-foot Melvin Lemmerhirt and the New York, and the 669-Foot Liberian tanker Orange Sun. The Orange Sun is reported to be carrying orange juice as its cargo. Reports also say the New York is taking on water, that there is a fluid leaking from one of the ships (presumably, not orange juice), and there's hydraulic fluid leaving a sheen on the waters nearby. The juice-filled Orange Sun is being brought back to harbor via tugboat.

Newark Bay is about six miles long and one mile wide and is a tidal back bay of New York Harbor. It's bound by the shores of Newark and Elizabeth on the west, Jersey City on the east and Staten Island on its south. Port Newark-Elizabeth, which is in Newark Bay, is the main port of entry for the New York area.

Ice Prince Update

Latest information on the Greek-registered cargo vessel that sank last week.

MSC Napoli: A Year Late Nearly a year after the MSC Napoli first ran into trouble, the first phase of removing its stern has been completed.

JANUARY 24, 2008 CALIFORNIA SPOUT/TORNADO UPDATE

A rare tornado has touched down in Southern California. It started as a waterspout last night (24 JANUARY) in the Pacific and came ashore at the Point Mugu (muh-GOO') Naval Air Station up the coast from Malibu, ripping a roof off a hangar. It scattered debris on a tarmac but nobody was hurt and flight operations were not affected. The small tornado was from a much bigger storm system that's been causing problems in Southern California, pounding the region with heavy rain and deep snow and triggering at least two tornado warnings last night. Hundreds of cars and tractor trailers had been left stranded on a major highway north of Los Angeles. One driver says he was stuck on the road for 24 hours.


Chicago Weather? Clear, with a low around -1. Wind chill values as low as -12. West wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Forget cold.... Cold was in November.... This will be a good weekend to stay home and do some honey do's......like dusting!

Have a great....brrrrr ...warm weekend!

RS
PS: Thanks Steve....

The Oceans Have Their Own Weather Systems

Pioneering expeditions investigate how eddies make life bloom in oceanic deserts

In the 87 days that Dennis McGillicuddy and colleagues spent in the Sargasso Sea in the summer of 2005, they were tossed around or chased by four hurricanes and two tropical storms: Franklin, Harvey, Irene, Maria, Nate, and Ophelia.

Not one of those massive storms was as powerful as the one swirling in the water beneath them.

From June to September, McGillicuddy and a team of more than 20 scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and five other marine science labs tracked an eddy named A4. It was the oceanic equivalent of a hurricane—a huge mass of water spinning like a whirlpool, moving through the ocean for months, stretching across more than 62 miles (100 kilometers), stirring up a vortex of water and material from the depths to the surface.

“Eddies are the internal weather of the sea,” says McGillicuddy, an associate scientist in the WHOI Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department. But unlike destructive hurricanes, eddies can be productive. As certain types of eddies stir the ocean, they draw nutrients up from the deep, fertilizing the waters to create blooms of microscopic marine plants in the open ocean, where little life was once thought to exist.

“The open ocean is twice as productive as we can explain based on what we know about nutrients in the water,” said McGillicuddy. “Where do all the nutrients come from to make these oases in the oceanic desert?”

Pump up the volume (of nutrients)
The Sargasso Sea—south and east of the Gulf Stream—forms the geographic center of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is warmer, saltier, bluer, and clearer than most other parts of the North Atlantic, except for the floating mats of sargassum seaweed that gave the sea its name. For centuries, prevailing wisdom was that such open ocean waters were mostly desert-like, unproductive regions.

A lecture on the Sargasso Sea in the early 1990s sparked McGillicuddy’s curiosity. In the talk, Bill Jenkins, a senior scientist in the WHOI Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, pointed out that scientists were finding more oxygen being produced and consumed in the open ocean than anyone expected. The suspects were phytoplankton, microscopic marine plants that produce oxygen in photosynthesis, and zooplankton (microscopic animals) and bacteria, which use oxygen as they consume plants and organic detritus that sink to the seafloor.

Scientists found 10 times more microscopic life in the Sargasso Sea than anyone could explain, given the dearth of nitrate, phosphate, trace metals, and other nutrients that plants need to grow in sunlit surface waters. Researchers slowly developed the hypothesis that vortices of cold or warm water—eddies—might somehow act as a biological pump.

“I had proposed a problem, and Dennis suggested a solution,” Jenkins said. “He had the clever idea that eddies were perturbing the layers of the water column, mixing different waters, and bringing nutrients up from below.” The upwelling of nutrients into the euphotic zone (the top 330 feet or 100 meters of the ocean, where light penetrates) would stimulate prodigious blooms of phytoplankton, which attract zooplankton and other animals up the food chain.

The Eddies Dynamics, Mixing, Export, and Species composition (EDDIES) project was born.

Into the eye of the oceanic storm
“Dennis has wanted to do this experiment since he was a graduate student,” said Dave Siegel, a longtime collaborator with McGillicuddy and an oceanographer from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).

McGillicuddy mustered chemists, biologists, and physical oceanographers from WHOI, UCSB, Rutgers University, Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Dalhousie University, and the University of Miami. Together, they secured $3.5 million from the National Science Foundation, as well as five months of ship time over two years on the WHOI-operated research vessel Oceanus and the BBSR-operated Weatherbird II.

The goal: to make detailed chemical, biological, and oceanographic measurements of a specific eddy by getting right into the middle of it.

“We didn’t want to just sit on the fence and watch from one point,” said Ken Buesseler, chairman of the WHOI Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry. “Eddies move and develop, so we decided to follow a parcel of ocean as it moved. This was the first time anyone has really studied an eddy in this way.”

Toward a holistic view of scientific problems
Eddies are distinct parcels of water that move and jostle within the ocean, much like warm and cold air masses or high- and low-pressure systems in the atmosphere. Eddies are formed by differences in ocean temperature and salinity that give water different densities. Like oil and water, water masses of different densities tend to keep separate, rather than mix.

The largest eddies can contain up to 1,200 cubic miles (5,000 cubic kilometers) of water and can last for months to a year. Earth’s rotation—the Coriolis force—gives eddies their spin.

To hunt for their target, McGillicuddy and colleagues used data from satellites, whose measurements of sea surface heights show telltale signs of eddies. Warm-water eddies form bumps in the ocean; cold-water eddies form depressions. The team examined several eddies and settled on anticyclone No. 4, or A4, a “mode water” eddy (see "The Hunt for 18° Water") that stretched some 93 miles (150 kilometers) in diameter at the surface.

The EDDIES program took a truly integrated approach, combining many tools—satellites, ships, moorings, drifters, robotic vehicles, computer models—and many types of scientists.

From June 20 to Sept. 14, 2005, the researchers zigzagged across the eddy as it drifted southwest about 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) per day. The team on Oceanus buzzed around collecting water and nutrient samples, measuring current speeds and directions, and towing WHOI biologist Cabell Davis’ Video Plankton Recorder through the turbulent swirl. Bill Jenkins and his lab mates measured natural chemical markers such as tritium, an indicator of the amount of plant-fueling nitrate being raised from the depths. WHOI Senior Scientist Jim Ledwell, an expert on using tracers in the ocean, injected sulfur hexafluoride, a harmless chemical, into the middle of the eddy and tracked how it spread up, down, and across the sea.

At the same time, a research team on Weatherbird II made targeted measurements in the core of the eddy, measuring plant and animal productivity, the movement of particles, and thorium, a radioisotope that marks how much organic material is sinking from surface waters. Siegel used a radiometer to measure whether the eddy was disturbing the light penetrating the blue water.

“Ocean scientists are moving toward a more holistic view of their research problems,” said Siegel. “Ocean science grows by filling in the cracks between disciplines. If you put a smart and diverse group of people together in a boat, a lot of good things can happen. People start to think outside of their own little research worlds, and together we can tell scientific stories that we couldn’t put together individually.”

Stirring up a rich soup
Fueled by nutrients from the deep, diatoms bloomed to concentrations 10,000 to 100,000 times the norm—among the highest ever observed in the Sargasso Sea.

At the same time, the team was surprised to find historically low concentrations of oxygen in the depths, a sign of zooplankton and bacterial population explosions. It also meant that an awful lot of heat-trapping carbon dioxide may have been drawn out of the atmosphere and ocean surface, transformed by phytoplankton, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

Six months after the last EDDIES researcher stepped off Oceanus, the scientists are still assessing and analyzing the wealth of data they collected on A4. The team met in February 2006 at the international Ocean Sciences Meeting in Hawaii to share observations and collectively make sense of what they saw. Ultimately, the goal is to develop high-resolution computer models—McGillicuddy’s specialty—that can simulate and predict the full range of eddy dynamics.

The EDDIES project is a critical step toward comprehending these great ocean storms, whose sheer size and scale are daunting. During the expedition, tropical storm Harvey made a direct hit in early August, cutting a path right across eddy A4. The eddy hardly felt Harvey; the monstrous atmospheric storm never came come close to breaking up the potent, voluminous swirl of water in the ocean.

—Mike Carlowicz

The EDDIES project received funding from the Chemical Oceanography, Biological Oceanography, and Physical Oceanography branches of the National Science Foundation.


WEATHER STORY

One of the severe weather issues that face the Great Lakes Region is severe Ice Jam flooding. So what are Ice Jam Floods? As NWS (LOT) Chicago explains....

Ice Jam Flooding

Kankakee River Ice Jam at I-55 Feb 2007

Ice jams are resulting in flooding on some rivers in northern Illinois. The National Weather Service advises that if you come upon a flooded roadway, turn around, don’t drown! Also, do not attempt to drive around barricades placed at flooded roads. It only takes as little as 2 feet of flowing water to float many vehicles. More than half of all flood-related fatalities are a result of individuals attempting to drive through a flooded roadway.

What is an ice jam?
An ice jam is a stationary accumulation of ice that restricts flow. Ice jams can cause considerable increases in upstream water levels, while at the same time downstream water levels may drop, exposing water intakes for power plants or municipal water supplies. Types of ice jams include freezeup jams, made primarily of frazil ice; breakup jams, made primarily of fragmented ice pieces; and combinations of both.

Why are we experiencing so much ice jam flooding at this time?
Earlier this month, northern Illinois experienced warm temperatures that melted the existing snow in combination with heavy rainfall that resulted in near record flooding on some streams. Although water levels have receded since the near record levels, they remain well above normal for this time of year. These higher than normal flows are resulting in more substantial flooding when an ice jam forms.

Can you predict ice jams?
The National Weather Service monitors river levels at select gages on area streams, maintained and operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. However, ice jams can be very localized and the gage reading may not always reflect what is happening a few miles upstream or downstream from the gage. In addition, jams can form and break with little or no warning making ice jams very difficult to predict.

If you live along streams prone to ice jams you should continue to closely monitor river levels and listen for possible flood statements or warnings. When a jam forms, water can rise many feet in minutes versus hours and days in a normal river flood, and you may have little time to take action. Report ice jams and ice jam flooding to local authorities for relay to the National Weather Service.

MARITIME NOTES

m/v Kapitan Uskov disappeared in East China sea - 1/24/2008 02:41
January 24, 01.15 LT – message from Germes Co., Sovgavan port (vessel’s operator) – dry cargo Kapitan Uskov disappeared in approximately 31.40N 125.58E area, East China sea, last communication was at 03.00 January 20, didn’t arrive at port of destination ETA January 24. All vessels in area requested to keep a sharp lookout and assist if possible. Japan S&R sendind a plane, Shanghai S&R also informed, asked to assist.m/v Kapitan Uskov (ex-Fine) IMO 8203830, dwt 5223, built 1982 Japan, flag Cambodia, owner ALAZARA NAVIGATION S.A, cargo 4523 rolled steel, crew 17 – all russian citizen.Weather 2-meters sea, wind NNE 20 knots.

NOAA – new Director of Office of Response and Restoration

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a news release stating that Mr. David Westerholm has been appointed as the new Director of the Office of Response and Restoration. (1/22/08).

READERS COMMENTS - CAPTAIN DUNSEL

Believe it or not I do sometimes get comments to my blog. Most are complimentary and many times informative and some even corrective. Then again I also get comments posted anonymously or without return emails and even possibly with stage names. I love these the most. They are always critical. Most of the times I just chuckle and hit the delete button since I view these as "coward postings". If one is going to bother to post to any ones blog or story at least have the common decency for the blogger or author to return a answer. But I guess its just human nature to be a "Captain Dunsel" once and a while...

Moreover if I make a mistake and its pointed out I normally thank the commenter and post the correction after the mistake has been vetted, (IF) the commenter has done so constructively. But in Mr. Paul Williams case (if that is his or hers real name) this "Captain Dunsel" posting deserves a reply on my blog.

Mr. Paul Williams writes,

"Paul Williams has left a new comment on your post The M/V Aratere Incident"

The video fottage attached to this story is of one of the Strait Shipping vessels, NOT an Interislander vessel and certainly NOT the Aratere. If you're going to post these sorts of messages and attach video footage then at least get it right. The interislander vessels are consideralbly larger than the Strait Shipping vessels, so this video is very misleading."

Mr. or Mrs. Williams here is referring to my posting of Tuesday, August 28, 2007 on The M/V Aratere Incident and my posting of Friday, June 8, 2007 Another Plane Of View. Where I posted a picture of the M/V Aratere instead of one of Strait Bluebridge Ferry Service Passenger Ferries the Suilven. Well Mr. Paul (Captain Dunsel) Williams, many of us once and a while do make the wrong ship identifications. We all make mistakes. And after reviewing the video (fottage) footage I did in fact ID the vessel as Straits Suilven. You were correct. You get a cookie for this.

But lets talk about the rest of Captain Dunsel's posting and ship particulars here while missing the entire point. Captain Dunsel says "The interislander vessels are "consideralbly" larger than the Strait Shipping vessels". The Suilvan came out of service in 2003. So we can only gauge Straits (Santa Regina or the Monte Stello) against the Aratere. The M/V Aratere's length is 150m or 492ft, has a beam of 20.25m or 66ft and its Gross Tonnage is 12,300. The Santa Regina has a length of 137m or 449ft with a beam of 22.5m or 73ft with a Gross Tonnage of 14,588. The Monte Stello has a Length of 126.5m or 415ft with a beam of 21m or 68ft and with a Gross Tonnage of 11,630.

The difference between the ships? Aratere Vs. The Santa Regina? Length 43 ft and a beam difference of 25 ft to Aratere's favor. While the Santa Regina is heavier by 2200 Gross Tons. The Aratere Vs. The Monte Stello? Difference in length? 77ft and a beam difference of 68ft. Length favors Aratere and the beam favors the Monte Stello and not the Aratere, while the tonnage difference is only 670 Gross Tons.

Well Captain Dunsel in the terms of ship particulars of this class of vessel your definition of "consideralbly larger" is slightly off base like your spelling and really a false flag. These ships are very close in general arrangements. While I should have spent more time in identification, which I take full responsibility for. Though I was not the only one to make this mistake it seems.

Moreover the size difference between these vessels really does not make that big of a difference nor is it misleading in any sense as Captain Dunsel notes. The wave actions vs. the ships maneuverability tells the real story, so does the crews and passengers. And that was the point!! It did not make a difference that day, any one of these ships would have encountered almost the same problems. Though the Aratere nearly capsized...

Thank You Captain Dunsel for your posting. I have made the corrections. Next time please have the courtesy to email me directly or send me a posting with both your email addy and your constructive criticisms....

RS

Bad weather, seamanship blamed for Pasha Bulker grounding: report

Bad weather, seamanship blamed for Pasha Bulker grounding: report

Posted Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:01am AEDT

• Map: Newcastle 2300

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has finished its draft report into the grounding of the Pasha Bulker off Newcastle, in the New South Wales Hunter, but expects to finetune the document before releasing the final paper in March.

NSW Maritime found the ship's grounding on Nobbys Beach was caused by horrendous weather conditions and poor seamanship by the ship's master.

The ATSB's probe is focusing on the conditions surrounding the event and the lengthy queue of ships off the Newcastle coast at the time.

A spokesman says the draft report will be sent to relevant stakeholders, including the Newcastle Port Corporation, allowing them to comment on the preliminary findings.

OTHER MARINE NEWS...

Hong Kong hydrofoils crash in fog

HONG KONG, China (AP) -- Two hydrofoils ferrying passengers between the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau collided Friday night in heavy fog, seriously injuring 19 people, a Macau government spokesman said.

One of the damaged high-speed ferries docks in Macau.

The poor visibility was also blamed for a number of other maritime accidents in the region. Parts of China's southern coast were enveloped in fog due to a warm, humid maritime air stream.

The 10 men and nine women passengers seriously hurt in the Hong Kong-Macau collision suffered mainly head injuries and bone fractures that were not life-threatening, said Alex Che, a spokesman for the government of Macau. Another 114 passengers suffered lighter injuries, Che said.

"All the glass shattered and the front of the ship fell off," a male passenger, identified only by the surname Chan, told Hong Kong's Cable TV.

Wong Soi Man, director of Macau's Maritime Administration, said the accident's cause had not yet been determined, but "heavy fog must be one of the key factors."

The accident occurred closer to Macau and the injured were being treated there, he said.

In another incident, thick fog blanketed China's commercial center, Shanghai, where an unlicensed river ferry carrying 22 people capsized Friday, leaving 10 missing, China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The ferry, one of many that operate in the area without proper safety equipment or certification, sank near the city's Wusong pier shortly after the accident, Xinhua said.

And 66 people were rescued from a ferry that ran aground near the coastal city Zhuhai near Macau, Xinhua said.

Hours earlier, another high-speed ferry traveling west from Hong Kong to Macau and carrying more than 370 passengers hit a small fishing vessel, said Hong Kong Marine Department spokeswoman Daisy Lo.

No one was injured and both vessels continued their journeys.

Ferry operator Turbojet scaled back its services to Macau to once every half hour -- from its usual peak frequency of every five minutes -- and said travel time would take half an hour more than the usual one-hour journey.

The foggy weather slowed traffic on a key route that transports gamblers to booming casino enclave Macau, which surpassed the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue in 2006

FROM MARITIME BULLETIN

m/v Sergiy Skadovskiy sunk in Azov sea - 1/19/2008 04:11

January 19, Azov sea – m/v Sergiy Skadovskiy sunk in 45.59.6N 036.47.7E between 06.00-08.00 LT. Crew evacuated at 02.40, total blackout, energy for pumps from tug Portovik. 06.10 – emergency pumps and salvage team evacuated, further salvage attempts believed futile. Icebreaker Kapitan Belousov with vessels convoy left scene for Kerch strait, tug Portovik standing by to monitor sinking. m/v Sergiy Skadovskiy was enroute from Mariupol port to Black sea with 3100 tonns of grain on board. No further details, but looks like vessel was holed while under icebreaker convoy, either by ice or by some other vessel.

Sergiy Skadovskiy – dwt 3346, built 1985 USSR, flag Ukraine, owner UKRAINIAN COMMERCIAL FLEET, IMO 8725058.

AND

ONE MO TIME!

Beset in ice, some of the crew rejected evacuation - 1/20/2008 04:33

January 19, signal from EPIRB-406 – S&R plane from Khabarovsk spotted two non-propelled barges and two crafts beset in ice, with 14 people on board, all from gold mining private company. With mining cargo on board, they’ve been heading for Cape Odyan, 155 nm SW from Okhotsk port. Plane dropped food and other supplies. January 20 – helicopter from Nikolaevsk-on-Amur took on board 6 persons, others decided to stay with barges and crafts, maybe till spring time, waiting for clear water.

January 19, 08.50 LT – EPIRB-406 signal from 56.21N 140.13E (about 200 nm north off Nikolaevsk-on-Amur port). Area covered by ice 1 meter thick. Several vessels in the area directed to the scene, no communications, no radio alert. EPIRB-406 – owner unknown, last data 5-7 years old, former owner Sakhalin Dalso Co Ltd now unexisted. Regualr passenger flight Nikolaevsk-Okhotsk searched area, but spotted nothing. Signal loud and clear, air search under way.

LASTLY FROM HOLLAND AND KNIGHT

DHS – National Response Framework

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a news release stating that the National Response Framework (NRF), which replaces the National Response Plan, will come into effect 60 days after the official notice is published in the Federal Register. The NRF informs emergency management practitioners by explaining the operating structures and tools routinely used by first responders and emergency managers at all levels of government. It is designed to be scalable, flexible, and adaptable; always be in effect; and articulate clear roles and responsibilities among local, state, and federal officials. (1/22/08).

RS

Are we really prepared?

I am continually amazed by reports like the following. We are entering 2008 and still there are many County and State Emergency Management Agencies that still lacking the proper funding.

I have just one question. What's it going to take?

Preparedness center lags on hiring, training Jan 12, 2008 @ 05:27 PM By JENNIFER FUSCO Observer-Dispatch WHITESTOWN — New York state is spending $3.4 million this year on a state Preparedness Training Center that’s fallen far short of meeting initial projections for both employees hired and emergency responders trained.

Total spent: Close to $3,000 per police officer, firefighter, correction officer, health official or National Guardsman trained in 2007.

SLOW TO PREPARE

WHAT * The State Disaster Preparedness Center was announced in December 2005 for the then-Oneida County Airport in Whitestown. * Its purpose is to train emergency personnel for situations dangerous to the public including terrorist attacks. THE GOAL * State officials said it could become a hub for anti-terrorism training in the Northeast. * Officials projected more than 25,000 trainees per year and the hiring of dozens of employees. THE REALITY * Fewer than 1,800 people have been trained, 641 in 2006 and 1,100 last year, the state says. * The center employs 10 people. * It lacks sufficient classroom space at the airport site and conducts some classes at Utica College. PARTICIPANTS * A total of 376 agencies used the center in 2007, according to the state Office of Homeland Security. * Groups included the Fire Department of New York, the Syracuse fire Department, the Broome County Department of Health and the National Guard. NEW HOPES * The state said it will double the number of classes from 40 to 80 in 2008, serving an additional 275 emergency responders.

Local and state officials say they remain committed to the center, which opened two years ago in the terminal building of the former Oneida County Airport.

Still, some are concerned with its slow growth rate.

“This program needs to start moving in the direction of strong activity,” said Legislator William Goodman, D-Whitesboro. “It’s not moving fast enough.”

The O-D reviewed records and interviewed state and local officials about the center, which was once touted as New York’s hub for emergency-response disaster training for first responders.

The O-D’s findings include:
* The 10 people employed at the center represent only one-sixth of hiring goals.
Now, instead of as many as 60 jobs added in Whitestown, officials are projecting only 20.

* The 1,100 public-safety and health personnel trained in 2007 represent less than 5 percent of the initial projection of 600 trainees per week.

* More than two years after the center was created, it still lacks sufficient space at the former airport and must conduct some classes at Utica College. Officials blame the delayed signing of a lease.

* The O-D repeatedly requested a list of the employees at the center, as well as their titles and salaries, but the state failed to provide it. The O-D has filed a Freedom of Information Law request.

State officials offered no clear timetable for meeting initial projections for hiring and training.

Dennis Michalski, a Homeland Security spokesman, said classes at the center will double from 40 to 80 this year, but would not predict how many people would be trained in 2008.

“That's the unknown,” he said. “We can't speculate on numbers.”

Later, another Homeland Security spokeswoman, Jody Ankabrandt, said the number of trainees would rise at least 20 percent this year, or by about 275 people.

Initially, the center was supposed to train more than 25,000 emergency responders per year.

Classes will be on subjects such as cybersecurity, bombs and weapons of mass destruction.

State Assemblywoman RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, said she follows the progress of the center closely, and is confident it will grow as projected.

“As far as I’m concerned, the future is very bright for the Homeland Security center,” she said. “If I have any disappointment, it’s the time frame in which it’s been moving.”

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said it’s too early to tell if taxpayer money is being well spent at the Whitestown center.

“I don’t feel I can answer that right now,” Picente said. “If a year from now the same numbers exist, then it’s not.”

‘A model for the nation’
When then-Gov. George Pataki announced Whitestown would get the center in December 2005, officials hoped it would be the type of economic boost the area needed.

“Our goal is to develop this training facility into a federally recognized and accredited center, which will serve as a model for the nation and the training hub for the first response community from across the Northeast,” Pataki said at a Dec. 5, 2005, news conference. “The selection of the Oneida County Airportwill ensure that this important training begins as soon as possible.”

Leaders said the center would create jobs, boost local businesses and raise Oneida County's profile. The Convention and Visitors Bureau spoke of hotel rooms filled with hundreds of trainees each week.

Some trainees did come – from the New York Police Department, from Niagara County Emergency Management, from the Oneida Indian Nation. But they did not come in nearly the numbers initially expected.

On Friday, a sign declared the old airport terminal to be the home of the State Preparedness Training Center, but the building sat amid a vast expanse of empty parking lot, with only a few vehicles parked next to the structure. The center did conduct training, but at Utica College, which had available classroom space that the former airport site lacks.

Spitzer spokeswoman Jennifer Givner said the state is committed to the center and its growth.

“Clearly, I would say emergency preparedness is the utmost priority for the governor in this administration,” she said. “We’re definitely meeting the same numbers last year, with hopes to exceed that.”

Budget details sought
The center’s projected 2007-08 budget is $3.4 million, according to the state’s Budget Office. The O-D has filed a Freedom of Information Law request to learn just how the money is being spent.

The center employed nine people a year ago, and 10 now. Their names and salaries are also the subject of an O-D FOIL request.

The former airport ultimately should see about 20 employees working at the center, Destito said.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Amy Bonanno said there are 64 positions on the books for the center.

Some of those jobs will be in Albany, not Whitestown, but Bonanno said she was unsure of the breakdown.

Whatever the number, Picente said the center was never about the number of jobs. It was about making the region a hub for Homeland Security training and about an economic impact from high volumes of trainees traveling here.

“It’s going to take a couple of years to grow that much,” Picente said. “There’s no question it’s moving much slower than we thought, and I hope in this new year it will begin to move.”

Hope for progress
Why hasn’t more occurred?

Leaders cited the change in gubernatorial administration a year ago, as well as lease issues.

The lease between the county and the state was signed several months ago, which gives the center more space for additional programs and more training.

“I would hope we would see those numbers by June or so,” Picente said, referring to an increase in training numbers.

State Sen. Joseph Griffo, R-Rome, acknowledged the center hasn’t met its projections, but said part of that is due to the change in administration from Pataki to Spitzer — which happened shortly after the center first opened.

“Each administration has to pursue the direction they want to pursue,” he said.
Protecting the public remains a priority in the post-9/11 era, Griffo said. Having the center in Oneida County meets that need and also creates the potential for a greater economic impact locally, he said.

“I’ve got to give the benefit of the doubt to the administration,” Griffo said.
EDGE not involved

Mohawk Valley EDGE is the region’s main economic-development arm. It did not have a role in bringing the training center to the Mohawk Valley, spokesman Rob Duchow said.

He would not comment on the initial goals for the center.
“This is an investment that New York state wanted to make,” he said. “And for
them to invest in our community is good for us, opposed to investing in another
part of the state.”

The center is worth having as long as the state manages it right, Goodman said.
As for Legislator Goodman, he retains some optimism.

“The state itself will hopefully move more rapidly to make sure the goals are achieved that were presented in the past,” he said. “I think the concept is very good.”

Still, he said, he’d be watching.

“It should be an ongoing monitoring system,” he said.

MARITIME NOTES

Ministry of Transport requires report on Vanessa sinking

17 January 2008 | 13:31 | FOCUS News Agency

Sofia. Bulgaria’s Ministry of Transport sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requiring the Ukrainian part to introduce the report, worked out by the Commission engaged with the investigation on the Bulgarian Vanessa ship’s si1qazzzzzzz1qa1qa On Wednesday, the Commission, established by Ukraine’s PM Yulia Timoshenko, has a sitting in Kiev. Bulgarian experts from the committee on ship accidents and failures to the Ministry of Transport and representatives of the Bulgarian embassy to Ukraine took part in the sitting.

RS