As a result of the exercise and subsequent planning workshops, the state was supposed to develop “hasty plans” to address all these areas. He said although he had tried to get state officials to focus on these hasty plans before landfall, they would not do so. According to Wells, the state had also agreed to learn and exercise a unified command through the incident command system. Wells said the state did not do so, which led to major command and control problems during Katrina.
As an assessment and development technique, the Hurricane Pam exercise provided a template for action at all levels. Many of the action items were in progress with varying degrees of implementation. It appears that the biggest deterrent from full-scale action was a line of seamless communication between the participants, insufficient time to complete many of the infrastructure changes agreed upon in the first meetings, and a lack of political priority to expedite the process. Thus, the stage was set and the deficiencies were noted. Unfortunately, in human nature, imperatives are often driven by the expediency of realism. Katrina was real; Pam was not.
Hurricane Pam should not be forgotten. The discussions resultant for the task force teams in their assessments, followed by the actuality of Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, create a poster board for all entities at the federal, state and local levels to learn and improve. The hope lies with the learning and the non-emotional assessment of what could be done better next time. There will be a next time!
As the warm waters of the Gulf Stream move northward along the Mid-Atlantic, winding their way through the Caribbean, the warm weather of summer raises the temperatures of the surrounding waters. Prevailing seasonal weather patterns spurred on by the moisture of the warm waters create small tropical storm centers. Many of these small storms are brought into being, generate winds, rain, and frustrate tourists, only to fade away to brighter days, warm beaches, and pleasant weather.
Occasionally, some of these local tropical disturbances begin to nurse off of the warm waters, prevailing winds and weather. These are the children of hurricanes. They grow and pick up momentum. The warm temperatures of the Caribbean air and water become the devil’s milk for the child’s growth.
Hurricane season is considered the time beginning in mid-June and ending mid-September. During the season, the Northern Hemisphere experiences the summer months. Due the tilt of the Earth’s axis, the North Pole is a bit closer to the sun during this time of the Earth’s yearly cycle around the sun.
Extending from the equator northward, the waters of the Caribbean begin to warm. The currents of the Gulf Stream begin to speed up. The added warmth from the season begins to breathe energy into the waters. Global wind patterns over this area bring the colder prevailing winds streaming northward from the Antarctic.
The warming water and surface temperatures interact with the colder jet stream to create a cyclical interactive loop. The warm air rises and is cooled by the jet stream.
Ultimately, cyclic bands of pressure differences are generated.
So it goes with the changing of the seasons. The glory of Mother Nature proceeds as she endures her cycles. Sometimes she tends towards calm and at other times towards rage. Her cycles sometimes mixed with the tidal energies of the seas.
In the Northern Hemisphere, when conditions are right, a system of rotating energy can develop typified by low-pressure induced patterns rotating in a counter clockwise direction.
Interestingly, their equivalents in the Southern Hemisphere rotate clockwise. The rotational direction is said to be related to the weather momentum following the rotational axis of the Earth due to a tidal force called the Coriolis Effect.
Sometimes the energy cycles continue to be fed. As the pressure differences in the cycles increase, a tropical depression is formed. If she continues to be nursed, she grows requiring more warm water and moisture. She eventually enters adolescence as a tropical storm. She is a beauty now, and the eyes of the world fall upon her. Satellites track her movements, beaming images and snapshots of her majesty to the many global Hurricane Watch Centers. If the natural cycles are so inclined, she will grow into adulthood as a hurricane.
As she grows, she will continue her ravaging by sucking up the warmth of the water, taking the energy of warmer temperatures and translating that energy by growing in strength and ferocity. She will continue to grow until her food source is removed. If the waters she rages upon become regionally colder or shallower or if she stumbles off her water path and onto land, her energy will not be fed, and she will begin losing her strength and vitality. She will eventually fade away leaving only the path of where she had come behind her and possibly human memories of her existence, to be reborn with a new name and new temper as Mother Earth sees fit.
Hurricanes are classified by a rating system known as the Saffir-Simpson Scale, which is based upon the sustained wind speed generated by the storm. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale is a 1-5 rating based on the hurricane's wind intensity.
Category One Hurricane:
Wind speeds from 74 to 95 miles per hour. Storm surges are generally from 4 to 5 feet above normal. Typically, there is no real damage to building structures.
Category Two Hurricane:
Wind speeds from 96-110 miles per hour. Storm surges generally 6 to 8 feet above normal. Some roofing material, door, and window damage of buildings. Typically, there is damage to shrubbery and trees with some trees blown down and significant damage to mobile homes and piers.
Category Three Hurricane:
Wind speeds from 111-130 miles per hour. Storm surges are generally 9 to 12 feet above normal. Structural damage to small residences and buildings is typical.
Category Four Hurricane:
Wind speeds from 131-155 miles per hour. Storm surges generally 13 to 18 feet above normal. Complete roof structure failures on small residences. Shrubs, trees, and all signs are blown down. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Extensive damage can occur to doors and windows. Low-lying escape routes may be cut by rising water 3 to 5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane.
Category Five Hurricane:
Wind speeds greater than 155 miles per hour. Storm surges generally greater than 18 feet above normal. Complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings. Complete building failures common with small utility buildings blown over or away. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Severe and extensive window, door, and roof damage occurring.
Note that in terms of damage, the increasing categories in terms of destructive potential do not follow a linear progression. In fact, with increases of wind velocity the damage potential increases exponentially, i.e. a Category 5 storm has 500 times the damage potential of a Category 1 storm.
Sustained wind speeds represent a mean speed of the winds as measured across a cross-section of the storm and are usually calculated from a one-minute average. Gusts can surge well above the reported sustained wind speeds. Furthermore, the sustained wind velocities are far higher in the center of the storm near the eye-wall. As her reach extends radially away from her eye, her wind speeds decrease and her momentum is reduced.
Since Bienville’s time to the present, New Orleans and the many inhabited areas to the south and along the Gulf Coast have been plagued by hurricanes and floods. Indeed, flooding and storms have literally shaped the historical, cultural, and geographical evolution of these areas.
The National Weather Service has reported