Before The Storm: How Hazards Impact Your Community – Text Version
Shallow Water Bathymetry
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Bathymetric data, like a map of the ocean floor, helps boats and vessels avoid obstructions and navigate safely.
- Bathymetric data are the basis of NOAA's nautical charts.
- Bathymetry records baseline data that can be used to establish pre-disaster conditions.
Who's Using These Products?
Mariners, harbor pilots, tugboat captains, shipping companies, cruise ship companies, Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and all types of boaters
St. Johns River Circulation Model
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Provides forecasts of water levels and currents for managing under-keel clearance and ship maneuvering.
- Determines currents for oil spill prevention and response and homeland security planning.
Who's Using These Products?
Mariners, harbor pilots, shipping companies, tug boat captains, Coast Guard, and U.S. Navy
Observation Systems
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Buoys, tide gauges, water level sensors, salinity measurements, and wind data are provided routinely to National Weather Service meteorologists to improve everyday forecasts.
- Routine data from buoys, tide gauges, and water-level sensors allow mariners to know ocean and weather conditions.
Who's Using These Products?
Meteorologists, fishermen, boaters, and scientists
Eco-Assessment Project
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Provides a comprehensive database of the toxic effects of pesticides and herbicides used in the area, including facts like application rates and likelihood of chemical interaction.
- Identifies geographic areas that might be contaminated with toxins washed from the land or spilled during and after a storm.
- Provides information to mitigate impacts, such as cleaning sediment traps in culverts, securing hazardous materials, and building retention ponds.
Who's Using These Products?
Natural resources departments, toxicologists, and other scientists
Data Access and Standards
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Forecast data are standardized and archived for use in disaster response and hazard mitigation planning.
- Forecast data are used to assist with routine operations of ports, shipping, fishing, and resource management activities.
- Provides greater quantities of more accurate data for modeling, which will enhance National Weather Service marine and meteorological forecasts.
Who's Using These Products?
Meteorologists, fishermen, boaters, and scientists
Improved Prediction of Winds, Waves, and Flooding
How Are These Products Being Used?
Wind and wave forecasts can be used to determine when it is safe to be on the water and when to engage in recreational activities such as surfing and diving.
Who's Using These Products?
Weather forecasters, mariners, the public, and recreational users (e.g., surfers, boaters, divers)
Risk and Vulnerability Assessment Tool
How Are These Products Being Used?
- Potential risks (e.g., location of storm surge zones in relation to your house) and vulnerabilities (e.g., populations that need help evacuating, such as hospitals and nursing homes; non-English speaking populations that may not understand the warnings) to coastal storm impacts can be identified. This information can be used to make informed decisions to lessen disaster impacts.
- The tool can be used to update mitigation plans, create outreach materials, and educate the public on potential hazard vulnerabilities.
Who's Using These Products?
Local officials, emergency managers, coastal zone managers, and the public
Flood Planning and Response Tool
How Are These Products Being Used?
- New river forecast and observation tools available within HURREVAC (can we include a phrase briefly describing what HURREVAC is?) can be used to update or develop inland flood-related evacuation and response plans.
- Exercises and drills can be conducted to practice, test, and refine plans.
Who's Using These Products?
Federal, state, and local officials and emergency managers
Outreach and Extension
How Are These Products Being Used?
- NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration conducted hazardous materials (HAZMAT) response training for local first responders.
- Protocols were developed to address potentially adverse impacts from HAZMAT (hazardous material) spills. These protocols were included in the area's contingency plans.
Who's Using These Products?
Coast Guard, fire departments and volunteer fire departments, police, and emergency medical services
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