Straight Talk:
When Courage is Commonplace

This past week one of the many faces of courage on the NBC Nightly News was NWS forecaster Robert Ricks at the Slidell WFO.

Robert is the forecaster who used his local expertise to edit prepared impact statements and issue the now famous Hurricane Local Statement from Slidell that predicted: "MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS. PERHAPS LONGER...WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS."

Anchor and NBC Nightly News Managing Editor Brian Williams trekked back to New Orleans last week to interview Robert about his forecast. In the interview Robert said, "I would much rather have been wrong in this one. I would much rather be talking to you and taking the heat and crying wolf. But our local expertise said otherwise."

As a native of the hard hit Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Robert put a human face on the weather warnings issued by the NWS for Hurricane Katrina. Robert issued that dire warning of human suffering from an impact statement prepared for a category 5 storm. Robert knew from his local forecasting expertise, that Katrina making landfall as a category 4 or 5 storm would have a devastating effect on the Big Easy.

While there was great suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina, stories of the heroic actions of the entire NWS team before, during, and after the storm will long be told by our families, friends, and the Nation. Let it be said that advance planning in the way of generic impact statements, close partnerships, local weather expertise, and indeed courage all played a role in saving lives.

Our forecasts and warnings need to be communicated so they are believable. What some called overly alarming before the storm turned out to be right. This is one of the best examples I have seen of the value of the human forecaster providing local expertise.

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Ask the Director:
Center Weather Service Units

by General D.L. Johnson
NWS Director

I recently received some questions relating to the Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) program and the status of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA)/NWS Interagency Agreement, the FAA's use of services provided by CWSUs, and the FAA's relations with Weather News Incorporated.

The new Interagency Agreement is currently being reviewed by the Department of Commerce General Counsel. Once completed, we will finalize coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

We are aware of FAA's FY 05 congressional earmark for a contract with Weather News Incorporated. This is an internal FAA matter and it would be inappropriate for us to comment on it.

Technology is changing and that changes services. Ultimately, FAA is the customer, and who provides their weather information is their decision to make. As with any customer, we must listen, and adjust, to their evolving requirements in order to provide the services they need. For the CWSUs to remain relevant, the CWSUs must strive to provide just the information FAA needs, in the format FAA needs, before FAA knows they need it.

FAA has just begun an Activity Value Analysis of the CWSU, which is being performed by contractor Booz Allen. One of the main purposes of the analysis is to determine what is important to the primary consumers of CWSU meteorological products and services. NWS will be attending bi-weekly updates with the FAA and Booz Allen during this process. Plans call for the analysis to be finished by November 30th.

We believe CWSUs provide a valuable service to the Nation. We recently invested in additional training for the CWSUs and included forecast office meteorologists so they can better understand the needs of the CWSUs. We are all working to sustain our partnership with the FAA for now and in the future.

The CWSUs are a vital part of a future National Weather Service that is relevant to Congress and the American public and one that provides superior, focused incident response on short-term and high impact events. I see a future NWS promoting organizational efficiency and optimal use of staff across all levels, allowing employees to experience a high quality of work life and a strong, collaborative labor management team. The Corporate Board fully shares this vision and in order to achieve it, we developed teams to look at three issues: 1) developing an organization-wide concept of operations, 2) consolidating information technology management, and 3) developing a plan to secure our role in the provision of aviation products and services. The third team will be led by Kevin Johnston, Chief of the Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, Aviation Services Branch.

In addition, the FAA is engaged in multiple analyses to meet the growing demand of increased traffic in the National Airspace System (NAS). We believe the FAA is evaluating, as they should, their current and future capabilities and services. That is why Norman Mineta, Secretary, Department of Transportation (DOT), established the Joint Program Development Office (JPDO). This is a cabinet level program that is seriously looking at the air transportation needs and capabilities of the future while searching for efficiencies and better ways to manage the NAS. Specifically, the JPDO is evaluating how the NAS will function in 2025. This is not business as usual. It represents a giant leap forward in technology and therefore in services. NOAA/NWS will partner with FAA to provide weather information to the NAS and we will continue partnering with them as we all plan for the future.

If you have a question for the Director, send it to NWS.Focus@noaa.gov. While we won't be able to get to all the questions all the time, we'll try to answer the "hot" ones and the ones that enable the most people to gain understanding and perspective.

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Courage, Perseverance Characterize NWS Involvement with Hurricane Katrina

Many Americans are unaware that local National Weather Service employees do not evacuate during deadly storms such as Katrina, but continue to provide critical life-saving local forecasts and warnings. Through this local heroic effort, media, emergency management, first responders, government agencies, and the public remain informed throughout a storm and recovery.

This was the case for Meteorologist-In-Charge (MIC) Paul Trotter and Hydrologist-In-Charge Dave Reed and their teams who continued to provide critical hurricane information even though the eye of a historical storm passed over the office. America was kept apprised of critical information from the National Weather Service's New Orleans/Baton Rouge Weather Forecast Office (WFO)/Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, LA, before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina's deadly rampage.

The eye of the storm, its core area for wind destruction, took aim on the staff in New Orleans. On generator power and without communications, the staff listened to the wind ripple across the roof top as water began to pour onto the operations floor. The staff scrambled to get buckets to keep the water from doing any damage. The noise on the roof echoed as if some hand from the sky took one end of the roof and flung it upward making a rippling sound that traversed from one end to the other. In an instant, all was calm. The staff watched the radar as they spent 10 minutes in the eye of Katrina.

The back edge was the worst according to the New Orleans staff as wind gusts near 140 miles per hour slapped the office snapping trees and damaging or destroying employee's homes.

The office sheltered over 25 employees along with many of their families throughout the storm. Several families still reside in trailers in the office parking lot. At least a dozen NWS staff have uninhabitable homes, some under water. Hydrometeorological Technicians led by Gil Barton, the Data Acquisition Program Manager, continue to work long hours to provide critical upper air information through weather balloon releases. Gil's group's spirit and ethic never diminished as they launched critical balloons immediately following the storm's devastation. Without communications, they collected their upper air data, hand typed it, satellite faxed it to the Mobile Weather Forecast Office, and Mobile hand entered the data for transmission.

Upon seeing their upper air data on the weather charts the Slidell employees cheered "We made the charts!" The office was staffed the entire time to ensure local emergency managers and first responders involved in the rescue and recovery effort were provided critical weather information. MIC Randall McKee of the Mobile Forecasting Office along with his National Weather Service team are still maintaining backup operations for New Orleans until full communications and stability are restored. (The forecast offices in Lake Charles, LA, and Jackson, MS, were impacted by Katrina in terms of lost communications through the MCI outage (severed fiber optics) in the region. Houston, TX, began backing up Lake Charles' forecast and warning services, and Huntsville, AL, began backing up Jackson's operations; Lake Charles sent some staff to Houston, and Jackson sent some staff to Huntsville to assist with backup operations. In the past few days, Lake Charles and Jackson have resumed their operational responsibilities.)

Southern Region Director Bill Proenza offered the office as a "safe refuge" for employees and their families. With that in mind, our National Weather Service sheltered family would soon run out of food, water, and other supplies. They were tired, shocked, and in need of resupply.

A National Weather Service Southern Region Headquarters team (Ken Graham, Gary Petroski, Charlie Lake, and Mike Asmus) convoyed to Slidell in trucks, a motor home, and a pop-up trailer. On board was food, water, tarps, and personal items for the staff and their families. When they sighted the first Southern Region convoy, the trapped office staff ran into the parking lot as if they were stranded on a desert island. Gasoline had to be brought in from Jackson, MS, or Fort Worth as shortages plagued the area the entire week. A second convoy (Martin Garcia, Joe Villescaz, and Sue Johnston) brought additional tarps, plywood, food, water, and supplies. The Internet team (Rusty Billingsley) set up a satellite dish at the Slidell office for Internet access.

Several times, looters were run off by Slidell police and the National Guard just a quarter mile from the office. Even when some violence was reported on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, the staff stuck to the mission as a retired New Orleans police officer stood guard at the door. Not only were plywood and tarps placed on employees homes, nearly a half mile of trees were cleared for Wayne and Lori Hall. Wayne is the Electronic Systems Analyst for the Weather Office and Lori is a Hydrologist for the River Forecast Center. With hundreds of trees knocked down, they could not even see their home.

In the face of hardship, NWS employees put service above self -- a value demonstrated again and again by these and other National Weather Service heroes.

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Texas Office Hosts Spanish-Language Hurricane Workshop

The Brownsville, TX, Weather Forecast Office (WFO) recently hosted a Spanish-language hurricane workshop, providing tropical weather training to Spanish language media from both the United States and Mexico.

The fourteen attendees included Spanish-language media from American affiliates such as Univision and Telemundo from McAllen. Additionally, media from two Mexican newspapers in Reynosa, Mexico, and network affiliates such as Televisa and Canal De Las Estrellas from Matamoros, Mexico, also attended.

Workshop Speakers included Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jesus Haro and Hydrometeorological Technician Alfredo Vega, of WFO Brownsville, and Meteorologist-In-Charge Armando Garza, of WFO Corpus Christi, TX. The workshop was conducted exclusively in Spanish and covered topics such as basic tropical meteorology, tropical cyclone climatology over south Texas, and NWS tropical cyclone-related products.

Spanish-language outreach efforts have long been a focus of the NWS in Brownsville due to the demographic breakdown of the region it serves. Approximately 90 percent of the population of Deep South Texas on the United States side of the border is of Mexican descent. Approximately 50 percent speak Spanish exclusively at home. Therefore, NWS staff have proactively engaged in outreach events that serve this large demographic. A Spanish-language hurricane workshop seemed like a natural progression, given the recent work of the Weather Forecast Office.

Participants in the Deep South Texas Spanish Media Workshop held on August 3, 2005, in McAllen , TX .

"For years, our office has aggressively pursued outreach opportunities with the primarily Hispanic population of the area," said Haro. "But, we noticed that a disparity existed between the tropical weather expertise of our English-language media partners and our Spanish ones. Thus, we decided to hold this workshop to try and address specific educational needs that had been lacking to these professionals in the past."

Haro also feels that media partnerships are crucial in order for the NWS to have any success connecting with this population segment. "The NWS has recently created wonderful innovations geared toward Spanish-speakers, such as web pages and NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards transmitters. But, we cannot rely solely on technological advances that in many cases may be out of financial reach for this consumer. We need the help of the Spanish media for us to not only gain exposure with this population segment but also to help promote these innovations."

These outreach efforts and the corresponding strong professional friendships that have formed paid handsome dividends during the recent landfall of Hurricane Emily over Tamaulipas, Mexico, with effects over south Texas. Spanish-language television and radio affiliates aggressively tapped Brownsville WFO staff to handle live and taped Spanish interviews. All of the interviews conducted by the Televisa network were broadcast either regionally or nationally in Mexico to a potential audience numbering in the millions, in addition to the substantial audience served by these affiliates on the American side of the border.

"The educational goals of this workshop were certainly achieved. Moreover, it very clear that our Spanish media partners in Deep South Texas will enthusiastically continue to assist WFO Brownsville in promoting hurricane awareness and preparation," added Andy Patrick, Meteorologist-In-Charge, WFO Brownsville.

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NOAA Flag Flies on Russian Icebreaker During Arctic Ocean Climate Change Research Cruise

Last month the NWS presented a NOAA Service Flag to the Russian Icebreaker Kapitan Dranitsyn. The flag will fly aboard the icebreaker during an upcoming arctic research cruise. Presenting the flag was John Dragomir, Meteorologist-in-Charge of the Fairbanks, AK, Weather Forecast Office. The flag was received by Igor Dmitrenko, Chief Scientist of the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational Systems, and sea captain Rob Chadwell of the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF).

John Dragomir, MIC of the Fairbanks, AK, forecast office (center), presents the NOAA Service Flag to Dr. Igor Dmitrenko (left) and Captain Robert Chadwell (right).

NOAA's Arctic Research Office is co-sponsoring a summer school "Climate Change in the Arctic Ocean" cruise in cooperation with the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Arctic Research, the UAF-IARC, Laval University (Canada), the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (Russia), and the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Russia). The cruise runs from September 6-28, 2005 aboard the Russian icebreaker. Seventy scientists representing numerous arctic countries are expected to participate in this unique cruise, which will provide opportunities for learning and professional training in the study of the fast-changing Arctic environment.

Visit the Cruise website at http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/NABOS/summer_school/index.php.

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Also On the Web...
Air Quality Forecasts Operational in Fifteen States

NWS and the Environmental Protection Agency have moved air quality forecast guidance from an experimental effort to operational status in an additional fifteen states. Read the NOAA news story here.

Snapshots

Click here for a look at photos we've received from around the NWS.