assistance. While FEMA, the SBA, the American Red Cross, and others offered essentials such as bottled water and safe shelter, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration’s (NOAA’s) Offi ce of Coast Survey responded to the urgent need to restore safe navigation. In addition to threatening people
and property, hurricanes have the potential to alter navigational chan- nels, litter the ocean fl oor with wreckage, and damage harbor facili- ties. When the safety of commercial and military vessels is at stake, the Coast Guard has no choice but to close ports. In the wake of a major storm, reopening them is essential. “Right after a hurricane, the impetus is to get the shipping channels open because typically that’s where a lot of the relief supplies come,” says NOAA Corps Capt. Steven Barnum, former director of the Offi ce of Coast Survey. Opening ports also is critical to the
nation’s economy, which relies heavily on the marine transportation system. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. overseas trade travels through the nation’s nearly 400 ports; waterborne cargo contributes more than $742 billion to the country’s GDP and is responsible for more than 13 million jobs. The economic value of the Hous-
ton ship channel alone is astronomi- cal. “It’s almost $400 million a day,” says Coast Guard Capt. Marcus E.
DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
Learn more about Coast Survey’s recovery efforts. Click here to watch a video
about the agency’s work in the Gulf of Mexico after the 2005 hurricane season.
Woodring, commander, Sector Hous- ton-Galveston. “When you break it down, it’s about $15 million an hour or about $300,000 a minute.” Fog in Houston can be enough to push gas prices higher at the nation’s pumps. In the event of an emergency, Woodring says, “We have to be very concerned and act quickly and in a cooperative manner, otherwise the whole thing will just grind to a halt.” Fortunately, when Hurricane Ike
scattered debris across Galveston Bay, battered the Houston Ship Channel, and left almost 150 tankers, cargo ves- sels, and container ships waiting off- shore, Coast Survey was ready.
Responding to disasters
Coast Survey’s nimble navigation response teams (NRTs) were not cre- ated to aid in emergency recovery op- erations — they just happen to be good at it. Each of the six regional teams functions as a highly mobile hydro- graphic fi eld unit equipped with the latest technology, allowing it to rapidly — and accurately — assess storm dam- age beneath the waves so safe naviga- tional access can be restored. Each three-person team works out of a mobile trailer, lives in hotels 365 days a year, and moves every time NOAA Cmdr. Lawrence Krepp, chief of Coast Survey’s Navigation Response Branch, says there’s work to be done. “It really does take a spe- cial breed of person,” Krepp says. Krepp admits his job generally re-
quires a bit of explaining at cocktail parties. Hydrography — the scientifi c study and charting of seas, lakes, and rivers — isn’t necessarily the most well-known profession. But Krepp
Bathymetry is used aboard an
oceanographic survey ship to locate a possible aircraft underwater (left). Multi-beam sonar (above) measures the depth of the sea floor.
IMAGES: LEFT, CHITOSE SUZUKI/AP; ABOVE, COURTESY NOAA COAST SURVEY
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