Disaster Relief (and Other Uses) "Flying Cell Phone Towers"

"Flying Cell Phone Towers Go Mainstream" says Martin UAV and Fenix Group:

Fenix Group, a private VA based technology firm, has partnered with Martin UAV, a Texas based manufacturer of rugged utility drones to launch the world’s first drone capable of providing fully functional 4G cell phone service.

The feat may be a world’s first, and the company sees huge potential for government and industry with the flying cell phone tower, weighing in at under 55 pounds.

“When we first conceived the project, we knew we had to make it a priority,” said Dave Peterson, Fenix Group’s President & CEO.

“The market is just there for this right now and Martin UAV immediately understood that.”

“Beyond tactical closed networks for DoD at huge cost savings over what is currently being fielded, the marriage of unmanned systems with LTE core networks is representative of what Google was trying to do with their Loon program.”

“We beat Google at something, for very little money, and that feels great.”
***
In addition to providing a coverage area on the ground, the payload is also able to stream encrypted video from the drone’s camera system to anyone on the network.

In the future, soldiers, search and rescue teams, and first responders will have access to drone video from their phones. The Fenix team even went so far as to enable Internet access so that command centers could access the feed from anywhere in the world.

Yes, it's advertising, but the tech idea is great.

Disaster Preparation - The Two Basic Needs

Watching the mess in Puerto Rico unfold after the disasters in Texas and Florida, there is the need to once again emphasize that there are two major survival necessities around which everything else pales in comparison. These are the two basic needs that will make survival possible in a post hurricane tropical or sub-tropical environment:

1. Water
2. Food

Marines ready water for delivery on Puerto Rico.
U.S. Navy Photo by MC3 Jacob A. Goff

Yep, if you are stuck in an area where a hurricane is headed (whether by choice or otherwise), or if you live in an earthquake zone,  you need to plan on getting your own water and food for several days (I say 7 to 10, but 14 or 21 might be better).

You do not want to be one of those who plan on an immediate government or NGO rescue.

The logistics flow takes time to gear up, to find safe routes to where you are and to do its form of triage to allocate resources to the most devestated areas. Especially in an area with potentially disrupted transportation infrastructure (really - like a single highway on bridges running down to Key West - or an island 1000 miles off the U.S. coast like Pierto Rico - or say, Guam, which is almost 4,000 miles west of Hawaii which is itself 2500 miles from California - or New Orleans, which after Katrina really had only 1 bridge for access), you need to think that help might be some time in getting to you.

Ships need to be loaded with emergency supplies and equipment and then sail to get to islands. At 20

Food rations be loaded for deliver on Puerto Rico. U.S. Navy
Photo by MC3 Jacob A. Goff

knots, 1000 miles takes 50 hours of steady steaming by ship. That alone is 2 days and the loadout may take another day or 2 and the ship may have to wait for the storm that just hit you to clear before they can get to you. So that "3 day" minimum suggestion of food and water is long gone before any ship from outside can get to you. There may also be delays in getting port to open to receive the cargo and then delays in getting roads clear enough to transport the cargo to where it can be distributed.

Helicopters? They can get to place where the roads are gone, but they have limitations on range, lift capacity and need fuel and maintenance. Pilots need rest. While the Navy, Coast Guard, Marines and Army have lots of helicopters, getting them to the scene and supporting their operations is also a logistical challenge. In addition, the services use those helicopters to carry out their national security duties, so there are linits on the numbers that can be sent to a disaster area. Same goes for the Navy ships capable of supporting such operations - they are in high demand and short supply.

All of which is to say - if you are in a place where a disaster is likely (including California with its earthquake potential), plan on being without assistance for some period of time.

At a minimum, have some means of catching and purifying drinking water. A good list of emergency water purification is found at 5 Ways to Purify Water:

1. Boil it;
2. Chlorinate it;
3. Use purification tablets;
4. Distill it;
5. Filter it

Got no fire/chlorine/tablets?

You can distill even sea water into safe drinking water using scrap materials:




The key here is to be proactive.

If you planned ahead for disaster, then you should have chlorine bleach, tablets or water filters and containers and so forth, including means of catching rain water or transporting water from other sources.

What about food? In a perfect world, you've put aside emergency food stocks. Or you've decided that for a few weeks you and yours can tough it out with emergency ration bars like these from SOS Products:

Looking for an affordable and long-lasting disaster preparedness food? Stock up your emergency supplies with SOS food bars. With a five-year shelf life and an affordable cost, these wafers are the perfect emergency food rations.

This particular pack comes with nine food bars totaling 3600 calories. All nine taste like a coconut cookie and are delicious!

The SOS emergency food ration bar is US Coast Guard approved and is able to stand up to hot and cold temperatures. As such, they’re one of the best disaster foods on the market. Buy enough for the whole family today. You’ll be glad you did when disaster strikes.

For about $6 you get a 3-day supply for 1 person or $42 for a 21-day supply. If you have a family of 4 that's $168 for a 21-day supply.

Note that the SOS Bars are only one example of many similar products.

Now it may be that after several weeks of any emergency ration you will be tired of the taste, but consider the alternative.

It may be possible to live on other food that you already have or can gather. However, in the event of a disaster you will be competing with many other people for non-perishable food.

Yes, these lessons need to be repeated after evrey disaster.

By the way, have you got a bicycle? Preferably a sturdy one? Best emergency transport when there's no gas . . .

Disaster Relief: It's Always About Logistics

Logistics, logistics, logistics. Some excellent points about the problems of Puerto Rico and the issues faced in getting assstiance to the population at Breaking: Trump waives Jones Act for Puerto Rico which quotes a Bloomberg piece by Laura Blewitt Mountains of Aid Are Languishing on the Docks in Puerto Rico which, as the title suggests, states the issues concerning aid are not in the delivery to the island, but in the infrastructure of the island:

There are plenty of ships and plenty of cargo to come into the island,” said Mark Miller, a spokesman for Crowley, based in Jacksonville, Florida. “From there, that’s where the supply chain breaks down -- getting the goods from the port to the people on the island who need them.”
***
The buildings that would receive supplies are destroyed and without electricity, Miller said. The transport companies that have staff available and diesel on hand encounter downed poles and power lines while navigating 80,000-pound tractor-trailers on delicate washed-out roads.

“It’s one thing to move a little car through there,” Miller said. “It’s another to move a semi truck.”

Russel L. Honore, a retired Army lieutenant general who took over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the efforts in Puerto Rico require what he called "expeditionary logistics" -- ships, aircraft and trucks that can move goods onto and around the island.
“

Read it all.

By the way, while the government recommends 3 days worth of food and water per person (and pet), the reality is that you are far better off planning on 7 to 10 days without power, water and food from other than your own supplies.

About the photo:

170925-M-IZ659-0017 ST. CROIX, U.S. Virgin Islands (Sept. 24, 2017) U.S. Marines assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 26, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (26th MEU), cut branches from a fallen tree to clear a road in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sept. 25, 2017. The 26th MEU is supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the lead federal agency, and local authorities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with the combined goal of protecting the lives and safety of those in affected areas. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Santino D. Martinez/Released)

Tools for Looking for the Downed AirAsia flight 8501

Navy Times reports here:

USS Fort Worth (LCS3) hosting Navy divers and involved in recovery ops

The search has been hampered at times by bad weather, but divers with Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 have launched their Tow Fish sonar system from an 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boat.

"That is a fairly sophisticated piece of technology that allows us to map the ocean floor, at least to be able to find wreckage and debris," said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman.

"What," you might ask, is a "Tow Fish Sonar?"

First, let's look at what "side scan sonar" is. According to NOAA:

Side scan sonar is a specialized system for detecting objects on the seafloor. Most side scan systems cannot provide depth information.

Like other sonars, a side scan transmits sound energy and analyzes the return signal (echo) that has bounced off the seafloor or other objects. Side scan sonar typically consists of three basic components: towfish, transmission cable, and topside processing unit.

In a side scan, the transmitted energy is formed into the shape of a fan that sweeps the seafloor from directly under the towfish to either side, typically to a distance of 100 meters. The strength of the return echo is continuously recorded, creating a "picture" of the ocean bottom. For example, objects that protrude from the bottom create a light area (strong return) and shadows from these objects are dark areas (little or no return) as in the image at left above, or vice versa, depending on operator preference.

As noted above, the container that holds the active components of the side scan sonar being used is referred to as a "towfish" since it deployed by letting it sink to a predetermined depth and then towing it ("swimming" or "flying" it) along a path than allows the sonar to send its signals and return them to a receiver from which its electronic data is processed and converted into images of what the device was towed over.

For example, see the information at Tritech about its "SeaKing Towfish Sidescan Sonar":

SeaKing towfish from Tritech

The SeaKing towfish side scan sonar system is an extremely compact and low cost high definition side scan sonar system. The SeaKing towfish is designed for a wide range of seabed survey and inspection duties.

The fish combines the very latest Tritech DST (Digital Sonar Technology) electronics with industry leading transducer design and digital CHIRP signal processing techniques to dramatically improve range resolution and generate sonar images of unprecedented clarity.

The sonar 'fish' is designed to be easily deployed by hand with excellent stability under all towing conditions. Fitted with durable polycarbonate stabiliser fins, in the event of ground contact the fins will break away and are retained for recovery by a shock cord line.
****
As part of Tritech’s SeaKing range of sonars, sensors it is possible to run the SeaKing towfish with other SeaKing sensors over one communication link. All products in the SeaKing family (or third-party products within the ARCNET communications link), can be run simultaneously, using the same processor and display; such as Tritech’s Surface Control Unit (SCU) or a customer supplied PC or laptop. In addition to the display of side scan sonar data, the system will take position input from DGPS. This information is recorded with the side scan sonar data to allow a 'fix' of a target. The customer's own bit map chart may be displayed on the same screen as the sonar data.

All data produced by the subsea towfish is processed within the fish and transmitted to the surface in digital format. All data may be stored on the built-in hard disk drive, in the surface control unit. The post processing export facility will convert the logged data to XTF and CSV formats for third party software packages.

Processing the data is the job of software, such as SonarWiz from Chesapeake Technologies:

You work hard to get the data – make sure you see all that it has to show. SonarWiz sidescan and sub-bottom sonar mapping software helps with sonar mission planning, data acquisition and post processing to ensure you use your time on the water effectively and capture all of the data you need before heading back to port.
***
The new High Resolution capability for SonarWiz doubles the resolution of the earlier version, for sidescan waterfall, mosaic, and digitizer views of the data. Surveyors in all types of industries can use High Resolution mode to resolve smaller features and see finer detail to improve productivity, security, and safety.

An example of the combination of side scan sonar and SonarWiz borrowed from the Chesapeake site:

Useful tools.

Fighting Ebola: The National Guard Call Up Makes Sense

Photo Credit: Sgt. Joshua Ford, U.S. Army North PAO

It has been widely reported that President Obama has authorized the federal activation of National Guard units to respond to the Ebola problem - see here:

President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized the Pentagon to call up reserve and National Guard troops if they are needed to assist in the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Obama signed an executive order that allows the government to call up more forces and for longer periods of time than currently authorized. There is no actual call-up at this point.

This makes sense because some Army National Guard units have special training in such matters.

National Guard CERFP Teams

The Hidden Side of the U.S. Navy: Military Sealift Command

On Sunday 20 July 2014, we had a discussion on Midrats with Salvatore R. Mercogliano, Ph.D. about the "Military Sealift Command - Past, Present and Future." Many of you may have heard of MSC, but not know all that much about it. So, if you missed the show, here's a chance to catch up:

Online Military Radio at Blog Talk Radio with Midrats on BlogTalkRadio

Professor Sal also sent along this PowerPoint presentation that helps further the discussion:

MSC Background

Professionals talk logistics.

Because tactics and strategy are driven by it.

Disaster Prep Wednesday: "Managing Worker Fatigue During Disaster Operations"

During disaster recovery operations (and possibly during the period leading up to a disaster - the period while watching a hurricane track in, for example) there is a tendency for disaster workers to spend too much time on the job. Caught up the events, too many workers and leaders fail to take care of themselves in terms of rest and sleep.

A "technical assistance document" from the Center for Disease Control addresses this problem: Guidance for Managing Worker Fatigue During Disaster Operations (pdf):

NRT Fatigue for Emergency Workers

If you want the shorter version, here's a Navy video that makes the point - at some point, overly tired workers might as well be drunk:



It is also vital that those victims affected by the storms and other disasters be given quiet places to rest as part of their disaster recovery. The importance of quiet shelters, the availability of food, water, showers and friendly faces cannot be overstated.

U.S. Navy and the Philippines Relief Effort - Logistics, Logstics and More Logistics

U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Class Ricardo R. Guzman

I am not going to replicate the excellent coverage of Operation Damayan, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps efforts in the Philippines as they "assist" with post-typhoon recovery efforts. For many great stories, the very best site is the Navy.mil Home Page.

It appears that about 1/10 of the U.S. fleet eventually will be participating in these efforts. Unlike a hurricane hitting a major land mass in which over land transport may be restored, the Philippines presents a challenge since it consists of a huge number of islands and water transport is the key to normal life as well as to disaster relief efforts.

As with the "Christmas Tsunami" in 2003-2004, it's "logistics, logistics, logistics" that is the issue, and the U.S. fleet seems to be everyone's "first responder." While it is encouraging that Japan and so many other countries are pitching in their resources, the "international community" could, as I noted about 10 years ago, should really do some advance work in anticipation of what are, after all, common and frequent disasters:

The UN seems incapable of learning from its past failings. Why are there not ships preloaded with the sorts of emergency equipment that might be needed if a major earthquake hits Japan or the Philippines or Nicaragua? Why does the UN not have the humanitarian equivalent of the U.S. military's prepositioned ships? Load up their hulls with water purifiers, medicine, cranes, backhoes, fuel, generators, tents, food, heavy lift vehicles, jeeps, helicopters, field hospitals, etc. Then wait for the inevitable disaster. Have two or three sets of ships - South America, Asia, Africa.

Surely the expense is well within the budgets of the nations who support the UN. If such a system were in place, the only issues would be sailing the ships and arranging to have the necessary aid personnel arrive to marry up with their equipment. Instead, we have the incredible delays caused by the UN having to seek emergency funding from donor nations and then arranging for ships and then loading the ships and then sailing the ships.

I understand the way the UN operates that it is rarely necessary to justify the high salaries of UN employees, but if it was necessary, it would be interesting to see if they have a disaster contingency plan worth a portion of that pay that involves something other than, "Announce disaster in horrific terms. Wait for the U.S. to respond. Claim credit for responding."

From UNICEF progress report on Philippines relief:

UNICEF is working with the government and partners to identify air cargo capacity for the transportation of humanitarian personnel and life-saving supplies.

More from the UN here:

The humanitarian situation in the areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) is catastrophic. Almost 13 million people are affected, including some five million children. 4 million men, women and children have been displaced, many desperate for food, safe drinking water, basic shelter and sanitation.

And the elements of the UN "Action Plan" here:

Existing information and field observations suggest that the most immediate threats to life are (in rough order of urgency):

- Lack of safe drinking water
- Lack of shelter
- Trauma injuries, especially if untreated
- Other acute medical conditions (including contagious diseases) if left untreated
- Disruption of treatment for severe acute malnutrition and for severe chronic disease
- Insufficient food
- Lack of sanitation and personal hygiene items
- Lack of household items and supplies (like fuel), especially for preparing food

U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Peter Burghart

Key capabilities immediately needed to enable fast action to address these include:

- Air and sea transport of relief goods and personnel
- Emergency telecommunications
- Temporary electrical power and fuel
- Debris removal


Medium-term threats to health, dignity and security include:

- Lack of access to primary and specialised health care
- Moderate acute malnutrition
- Psycho-social malaise
- Disruption of education, entailing loss of protective daytime environment for children
- Disruption of livelihoods, which will worsen general deprivation and add to humanitarian needs as soon as coping mechanisms have been exhausted.

My highlights are to point out the key logistics issues.

I attach the plan because I'll be darned after my hasty reading if I can find any reference to the U.S. ( or any other country's) civil-military contribution in the Plan. I am prepared to be corrected.

2013 Philippines Typhoon Haiyan Action Plan

Teaching Disaster Realities

A statistic from 5 Ways to Educate People About the Realities of Disaster Recovery caught my

attention:

A 2010 American Red Cross survey found that an alarming 75 percent of 1,058 respondents expected help to arrive within an hour if they posted a request on a social media site.

I have occasionally volunteered to give presentations on disaster preparation. One part of the standard spiel talks about how many days a family should be prepared to wait for help. The standard speech refers to "3 days" not 1 hour. However, as the article linked above notes, the practicality of major disaster relief logistics is that 5 to 7 days is a far more realistic time period (depending on the scope of the disaster, of course).

I use the 5 to 7 day period and back it up with tales of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

Oh, and failing to evacuate elderly citizens from highrise retirement communities when a storm is expected is a form of malpractice. See here.

Plan accordingly.

Hurricane season is upon us.

Hurricane Sandy Recovery: Navy Orders Some Amphibs to the New York Area to Standby

Navy Chief of Information, Rear Adm. John Kirby, clarifies:

USS Wasp (LHD-1)

There have been a number of media reports today discussing the Navy’s role in providing support to those affected by Hurricane Sandy. I wanted to take a minute to clean things up a bit. Right now, the only official tasking the Navy has received is to provide contract support in obtaining industrial size pumps for the Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to dewater areas of New York City.

It is true that the Navy is moving ships to be closer to the areas affected by the hurricane; however these ships have not been officially tasked to provide support.

USS San Antonio (LPD-17)

Yesterday, the helicopter carrier USS Wasp (LHD 1), which was already at sea riding out the storm, began to head north to be better positioned. And today the Fleet Commander ordered two other amphibious ships, USS San Antonio (LPD-17) and USS Carter Hall (LSD-50), to get underway and likewise head north.

USS Carter Hall (LSD-50)

These decisions provide national and local decision makers maximum flexibility and options should there be a need for Navy support. Most importantly, this will allow our forces to be best postured to minimize the amount of time it will take these forces to get on station if tasked.

Any and all such support will be coordinated through U.S. Northern Command. While the military plays an important role in disaster response, all our efforts are in support of FEMA first and foremost.

Department of Defense Assistance Following Hurricane Sandy

Here's a portion of a DoD press release on what is happening, found at DOD, FEMA, Other Agencies Aid Storm-affected Areas:

***
Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta has directed that the Department of Defense provide any available disaster response resources requested by FEMA and state authorities as states throughout the Northeast begin to recover from Hurricane Sandy, the FEMA release said.

DOD continues to coordinate with FEMA, U.S. Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau on providing lifesaving and life sustaining assets to FEMA and governors, as requested, the release said.
***
FEMA and the Department of Defense established Incident Support Bases in Westover, Mass., and Lakehurst, N.J., to pre-position supplies, including water, meals, blankets and other resources closer to potentially impacted areas, should they be needed and requested by states, according to the FEMA release. FEMA has moved roughly 245,000 liters of water, more than 174,000 meals and thousands of blankets and cots to Westover Air Reserve Base; and more than 400,000 liters of water and more than 390,000 meals and thousands of cots to Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, N.J., and more commodities are en route, as weather conditions permit.

Soldiers prepare UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters for further search and rescue missions on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., Oct. 30, 2012, following the passing of Hurricane Sandy. The soldiers are assigned to the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion, New Jersey Army National Guard. U.S. Air Force photos by Master Sgt. Mark C. Olsen

States, localities and the American Red Cross continue to operate emergency shelters along the East Coast. In addition, the following federal activities are also being coordinated in support of Hurricane Sandy response and recovery efforts, according to the FEMA release:

-- U.S. Northern Command Regional Defense Coordinating Officers and portions of the Defense Coordinating Element deployed in advance of the storm remain on the ground to validate, plan and coordinate potential Department of Defense support of FEMA's response operations and to facilitate DOD support of life-saving and response operations.

-- There are now more than 7,400 National Guard forces on duty supporting the governors of New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maryland. These forces are providing assistance to local first responders and FEMA by providing assistance at evacuation shelters, conducting route clearance and search-and-rescue missions, and delivering of essential equipment and supplies.

-- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mobilized temporary emergency power resources to provide support to areas affected by Sandy. These resources consist of teams with technical expertise to assess critical facility generator requirements and private sector contract support to install and operate generators. Other planning response teams remain on alert for debris management, infrastructure assessment, temporary roofing, water planning, and un-watering. Additional temporary power teams have also been placed on alert status.

-- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and FEMA activated ambulance contracts to support state requirements to evacuate patients as needed and requested. HHS has personnel deployed in support of state response efforts, including two 50-person Disaster Medical Assistance Teams providing triage and basic care in shelters in New Jersey. Additional medical teams are on alert. HHS also has personnel supporting 350 ambulances in New York that were activated through FEMA’s ambulance contracts. An additional Disaster Medical Assistance Team remains pre-staged in the mid-Atlantic, prepared to deploy quickly along the East Coast if needed.

-- The U.S. Department of Energy is working closely with FEMA, and in support of state and local officials who are responsible for working with utilities as they prepare for storms, deployed emergency response personnel to FEMA Regional Response Coordination Centers in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, and additional personnel are on standby to assist. DOE is working with states and local partners as the electric industry engages in power restoration efforts.

-- National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster remains in close communication with the East Coast state VOAD's to coordinate on a regional, multi-state level. Currently 15 states have activated their VOAD networks for readiness actions; the National VOAD is sharing their activities and needs with all VOAD members and partners.

-- FEMA activated its National Business Emergency Operations Center. More than 330 representatives from retail, transportation, food and groceries, building management, and other industries receive daily briefings on key federal response efforts. These briefings assist in federal and private sector planning efforts, and provide a forum to discuss response efforts and challenges that may arise for maintaining business operations and provides the opportunity to collaborate on innovative solutions.

-- In preparation for the storm, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission placed inspectors in all nuclear power plants that could potentially experience impacts from the storm. Inspectors independently verify that plant operators are making the proper preparations and taking actions to ensure plant safety before, during and after the storm. Out of an abundance of caution, three reactors were shut down during the storm while another plant, Oyster Creek in New Jersey, is being closely monitored due to high water levels in its water intake structure. The NRC will continue to coordinate with other federal and state agencies prior to the restart of the affected plants.

-- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hydrometeorological Prediction Center is now tracking the remnants of Hurricane Sandy and providing regular forecast updates. NOAA National Weather Service weather forecast offices in the affected areas are working closely with local emergency management officials. NOAA navigation response crews are staged and ready to commence waterway surveys in the affected areas.

-- The U.S. Coast Guard has teams along the East Coast to conduct search-and-rescue missions, respond to and mitigate threats to public health and the environment, and it continues to assess and advise status of ports along the East Coast.

-- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is coordinating with FEMA and affected states to identify housing providers who may have available housing units, including public housing agencies and multi-family owners. HUD is also speeding federal disaster assistance to New York and New Jersey to provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes in the most heavily impacted areas. The president’s major disaster declarations for New York and New Jersey allow HUD to offer foreclosure relief and other assistance to some families in the designated counties.

-- The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s regional Food and Nutrition Service leadership is working with state commissioners and program administrators in the affected areas to meet food needs for emergency shelters and feeding sites and to assist with Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program requests.

-- The U.S. Postal Service is prepared for a quick response before, during and after a hurricane, and it has procedures in place to expedite recovery efforts, including making sure there is timely delivery of mailed ballots.

According to the National Weather Service, dangerous weather conditions continue to exist in many parts of the Mid-Atlantic, according to the FEMA release. Individuals should continue to monitor NOAA Weather Radio and their local news for updates and directions provided by their local and tribal officials.

State, Tribal and local officials make determinations and announcements about evacuations, according to the FEMA release. States, localities and the Red Cross have emergency shelters open in many affected communities. To find a shelter, people can download the Red Cross Hurricane app, visit the Red Cross web site, or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).
***

For those most affected by the storm, the arrival of assistance will seem too slow. As you can see, though, delivering aid involves a huge logistics problem and such things simply take time.

Help is on the way. There is a plan.

For those of you who may have missed it, a month or so ago we had a discussion about the military's NORTHCOM and the role in plays in disaster relief on Midrats in an interview with Brigadier General Donald A. McGregor, the Deputy Director of Operations for Domestic Operations, Headquarters, United States Northern Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. You can find the show at Episode 140: NORTHCOM and Disaster Response or at our iTunes page here, Episode 140.

"Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics."

Waffle House Index Measures Hurricane Recovery:

The company fully embraced its post-disaster business strategy after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Seven of its restaurants were destroyed and 100 more shut down, but those that reopened quickly were swamped with customers.

The company decided to beef up its crisis-management processes. Senior executives developed a manual for opening after a disaster, bulked up on portable generators, bought a mobile command center and gave employees key fobs with emergency contacts.

In a recent academic paper, Panos Kouvelis, a business-school professor at Washington University in St. Louis, pegged Waffle House as one of the top four companies for disaster response, with Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Home Depot Inc. and Lowe's Cos.

Hmmm. Pecan waffles.





Hat tip: The Kid Sister

Naval War Gaming Issues of Humanitarian Issues Raised by Environmental Disasters

The title says, "The Coming Conflicts of Climate Change", but really it was about "natural disasters" and the consequences thereof:

The case of Pakistan reflects how natural disasters can weigh on U.S. national security considerations. Interest in these types of contingencies is such that the U.S. Navy recently conducted a gaming exercise at the Naval War College in Newport, RI, to study scenarios where the Navy might have to support U.S. or international relief efforts to help maintain regional and global stability. In each scenario, a climate-induced disaster (or disasters) triggered catastrophic death tolls, migration, and panic affecting regional or global security and spurring the UN Security Council to issue a humanitarian response resolution. This was the first time the Navy had conducted a gaming exercise to determine how to respond to climate-induced challenges. This unique effort brought together climate scientists, water experts, health practitioners, logisticians, diplomats, aid workers, and military officers to think through possible response options.

The exercise follows a real world trend of Navy support for humanitarian aid missions and responses to natural disasters at home and abroad.

I leave it to you to decide about the "climate change" aspect of the report, but I note that the U.S. Navy was heavily involved in two massive relief efforts caused by the shifting of the earth's crust - earthquakes - with its work in the Christmas Tsunami and Haiti. Closer to home, the Navy also provided assistance following the San Francisco earthquake and fire and many other such events.

See here, here, and here and the post found by clicking on the "Disaster Relief from the Sea" label below.

Still, nice to see an exercise devoted to the topic.

Photo info: PANO AQUIL (Sept. 4, 2010) An aerial view of flooding in Pakistan taken from a an CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter assigned to the White Knights of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM-165) Reinforced. The squadron is embarked aboard the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5). Peleliu and embarked U.S. Navy and Marine Corps units are conducting humanitarian assistance missions in flooded areas of Pakistan. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Capt. Paul Duncan/Released)

"Pakistan Sucks," Says a NY Times Op-Ed and "It's all America's fault."

Yes, well, ignore billions of dollars of U.S. Aid humanitarian aid poured into the sink hole that is Pakistan and in the midst of a flood, blame the Americans for a failing state, and you have an NY Times op-ed piece by Ali Sethi "Pakistan, Drowning in Neglect":

“That is not advisable,” he said. There were soldiers on the highway, and they wouldn’t want to be on camera. What were soldiers doing on the highway?

The answer came in evasive, fragmented sentences: there was an airbase on the Sindhi side of the highway. This was where the military’s newest F-16 fighter jets were parked. But local residents believed that the base also housed the notorious American drones used to kill Islamist militants in the mountains. If true, this meant that the military was getting tens of millions of dollars a year in exchange, none of which trickled down to the local population.
***
But there is at least one other way of looking at the country revealed by this natural disaster. This is a place where peasants drown in rice fields they don’t own, where mud-and-brick villages are submerged to save slightly less expendable towns, and where dying villages stand next to airbases housing the most sophisticated fighter jets in the world. Such a country is owed more than just aid, it is owed nothing less than reparations from all those who preside over its soil.

This includes politicians and bureaucrats, who are already being brought to account by a rambunctious electronic media, but also an unaccountably powerful military and its constant American financiers, who together stand to lose the most when the next wave comes.

How much aid? How about $17 billion dollars from FY 2002 to FY2011.

President Obama authorized $7.9 billion in October 2009.

Was some of this money spent to further U.S. interests?

I sure as hell hope so.

We are, after all, a country and not a charity.

Even with that, which country has hundreds of members of its military engaged in difficult rescue missions? Who will match the following (as of 16 Aug - I'm sure the totals are higher now)?

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2010 – Four U.S. Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters arrived today and U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo aircraft began transporting international aid within Pakistan as part of the continued U.S. humanitarian assistance in support of flood relief from the monsoon floods.

The four helicopters are part of the contingent of 19 helicopters urgently ordered to Pakistan last week by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. They bring to 11 the total number of U.S. military aircraft in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, two Air Force C-130 aircraft from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing in Afghanistan flew to the Pakistani air force base Chaklala in Rawalpindi this morning in response to a Pakistani government request to pick up and transport international relief supplies stored there for delivery to flood-stricken areas. These flights are scheduled to continue daily to assist with getting out urgently needed relief supplies. An estimated 52,000 pounds of relief supplies were delivered today to Sukkur for distribution by Pakistani government and military authorities.

To date, the United States has pledged to provide about $76 million in assistance to flood-affected populations in Pakistan. Support includes both financial assistance and the immediate provision of urgently needed supplies and services, drawing on unique U.S. capabilities and resources.

U.S. military helicopters have rescued 3,555 people and transported 436,340 pounds of emergency relief supplies in spite of bad weather. In addition, within 36 hours of the initial flooding on July 29, the United States began delivering thousands of packaged meals to Pakistan from U.S. stocks in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region. In all, 436,944 meals that conform with Islamic law were provided to civilian and military officials in Pakistan for distribution to Pakistanis in need.

Two shipments of heavy-duty, waterproof plastic sheeting to be used in construction of temporary dry shelter arrived in Karachi over the past two days. The 770 rolls bring the number of sheeting materials rolls brought to Pakistan to 1,870, an amount expected to help in providing shelter for 112,000 people. Some 14,000 blankets were brought along with the sheeting last week.

“Our experience has shown that plastic sheeting is urgently needed for temporary shelters, and we know it is urgently needed in Sindh as the flood waters continue to move south,” said U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson. “It will be supplied along with locally purchased materials that can be easily moved when people are able to return home.”

The sheeting material will provide dry shelter for 46,800 people in Sindh province. The cargo is immediately being sent to a logistics hub in Sindh and will be distributed by local and international organizations.

Other U.S. contributions to date include:

-- A month’s emergency food rations to more than 307,000 people through a partnership with the World Food Program.

-- About $11.25 million for the United Nations Refugee Agency, $5 million for the International Committee of the Red Cross, $3 million to the World Health Organization and $4.1 million for Save the Children.

-- A total of 436,944 meals delivered to civilian and military officials in Pakistan within 36 hours of the initial flooding via U.S. Air Force airlift, a contribution of about $3.7 million.

-- Emergency relief items totaling about $4 million delivered to the National Disaster Management Authority. The items include: 18 Zodiac rescue boats, six water filtration units, 10 water storage bladders, 30 concrete-cutting saws and 12 pre-fabricated steel bridges. A 25-kilowatt generator was provided to the Frontier Scouts-KPk to support their flood relief efforts.

You want more? Go review this, which includes only the DoD involvement.

Let's turn the question back to the internal politics of Pakistan:
"Why did not Pakistan invest in more flood control instead of nuclear weapons?" After all, floods have happened for years:

Yet, little attention has been focused on why the flood and other natural hazards that have struck Pakistan have done so much damage. Pakistan has suffered from earthquakes, droughts and floods in recent years. In each case, the cost in terms of human life, suffering and material damage has been magnified by the country’s underdeveloped physical and social infrastructure. Previously, floods occurred in 1950, 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992 and 1993, washing away homes, crops, livestock, roads, schools and clinics. Mercifully, the extensive system of dams, embankments and canals—partly built with U.S. foreign assistance in the 1960s—has permitted some management of the downstream water flow, but this system was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the current flood.  (emphasis added)

I guess, though, to follow the popular phrase, "it would have been worse" without that aid from the 1960s. And, it also follows that if the Americans are willing to pay for flood control, that frees up Pakistani money for things like developing nuclear weapons technology.

Oh, wait, there was a disruption in aid to Pakistan?

But actual U.S. development assistance to Pakistan has been minimal since the large aid programs of the 1960s and early 1970s (the hey-day of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship). At that time, U.S. development assistance helped build roads, power stations and a vibrant agricultural economy. Since then, Pakistan has seen little cash for development projects from the United States.

Let's see, the liberal Brooking Institute couldn't bring itself to identify why the aid dropped, but I will (with the help of Wikipedia):

On the surface as well, Carter's diplomatic policies towards Pakistan in particular changed drastically. The administration had cut off financial aid to the country in early 1979 when religious fundamentalists, encouraged by the prevailing Islamist military dictatorship over Pakistan, burnt down a US Embassy based there. The international stake in Pakistan, however, had greatly increased with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The then-President of Pakistan, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, was offered 400 million dollars to subsidize the anti-communist Mujahideen in Afghanistan by Carter. General Zia declined the offer as insufficient, famously declaring it to be "peanuts"; and the U.S. was forced to step up aid to Pakistan. (emphasis added)

Of course, there was that "Symington Amendment" thingie:

The Symington Amendment (to the aforementioned Foreign Assistance Act) prohibits delivering or receiving economic assistance and military aid unless the President certifies that Pakistan has not obtained any nuclear-enriched material. The Glenn Amendment requires the termination of U.S. government economic assistance and military transfers due to Pakistan's testing of a nuclear device in 1998 (this applies to India as well). It also prohibits U.S. support for non-Basic Human Needs lending at the International Financial Institutes. The Pressler Amendment calls for sanctions on government to government military sales and new economic assistance unless the President certifies that Pakistan does not possess a nuclear device.

The Symington Amendment was first activated against Pakistan in 1979 because of Pakistan's importation of equipment for the Kahuta uranium-enrichment facility, a facility which is not subject to IAEA safeguards. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghansitan in 1979 led to a shift in U.S. proliferation policies towards Pakistan, and in 1981 Congress waived the Symington Amendment, citing national security concerns.

Until 1990, the United States provided military aid to Pakistan to modernize its conventional defensive capability. During this period the U.S. allocated about 40% of its assistance package to non-reimbursable credits for military purchases, the third largest program behind Israel and Egypt. The remainder of the aid program was devoted to economic assistance.

Soon after the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, in 1990 the Bush I Administration declined to make the certification that Pakistan does "not possess a nuclear explosive device and that the proposed U.S. assistance program will significantly reduce the risk that Pakistan will possess a nuclear explosive device." As a result the Pressler Amendment went into effect against Pakistan, ending all government to government military sales to Pakistan.

Speaking of Pakistan's "friends," how about explaining The Pakistan Taliban has threatened to attack foreign aid workers hampering efforts to get relief to the eight million people affected by the flooding?

In the meantime, forgive my lack of sympathy for the picture painted by Ali Sethi. Some beds you make all on your own.

Pakistan flood map from ReliefWeb. Click on it to enlarge.

Haiti Logistics: What the DLA Did

An under-reported story behind the U.S. military aid to Haiti concerning the Defense Logistics Agency as told by the - DLA's Sara Moore:

Immediately after the quake hit, DLA began coordinating with USSOUTHCOM, which had partnered with the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development to assess the need for humanitarian support. In the following weeks, DLA deployed a support team to Joint Task Force Haiti, and the Agency’s field activities worked around the clock, filling hundreds of thousands of requests for ready-to-eat meals, bottles of water, medical supplies, health and comfort items, fuel, maps, repair parts for military equipment and construction materials.

The Agency established two DLA support teams to assist relief workers on the ground. Twelve logisticians forming DLA Support Team – Haiti were deployed to Haiti, and two members of the separate seven-member DLA Support Team – Migrant Ops were at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, doing preliminary work in case Haitian refugees were sent there.

Additional DLA representatives were aboard the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort, and others worked with USSOUTHCOM in Miami, including members of DLA’s Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office who helped establish a contracting office and evaluate contracting approaches.

As of March 12, Defense Supply Center Philadelphia had filled more than 9,000 requisitions valued at $76.5 million, including Meals, Ready-to-Eat, group rations, bottled water, ice, produce, commercial pre-packaged meals, tents, uniforms and construction supplies. Notably, DSCP provided 2.7 million ready-to-eat meals in support of the World Food Program, coordinating its effort with the U.S. Agency for International Development. The meals were allocated by USAID to support the World Food Program’s plans for 15 distribution sites, including orphanages and hospitals.

DLA also coordinated with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to replenish FEMA stocks of 1 million ready-to-eat meals FEMA sent to Haiti.

In addition to providing food, DLA sourced construction material in support of Port-au-Prince pier reconstruction. DLA also provided hundreds of tents and cots to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which was used as a hub for humanitarian supplies headed to Haiti.

Employees are DLA’s field activities have spent countless hours supporting the Haiti relief efforts.

The Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service provided more than $74 million in supplies like sleeping bags, generators and medical supplies, while the Defense Energy Support Center provided more than 500 drums of diesel fuel and 250 drums of motor gasoline.

Defense Supply Center Richmond, Va., provided more than 68,000 maps and charts for U.S. forces operating in and around Haiti, and additional tie-down straps that were used to secure loads on aircraft and helicopters as they flew supplies into Haiti.

The Defense Distribution Center’s Supply Chain Transportation Division ran an around-the-clock operation to support disaster-relief efforts in Haiti. DDC SCT is responsible for coordinating transportation requirements for the DDC’s vendor base, including providing carriers, documentation and guidance as freight moves to its destination.

Photo:

BIREY, Haiti (Jan. 30, 2010) Sailors assigned to the amphibious dock-landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) unload a truck bed of meals-ready-to-eat (MREs) at a Birey, Haiti school. Carter Hall is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage in and around Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 12. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Monique Hilley/Released)

Haiti: Hospital Ship USNS Comfort Coming Home -Emergency Service Done

USNS Comfort, one of two  massive hospital ships of the U.S. Navy, is coming home:

Hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) completed its mission and will depart the Joint Task Force-Haiti area of operations March 10.

Over the course of seven weeks, the ship's U.S military and civilian medical personnel treated 871 patients, receiving at the height of the recovery effort one patient every six to nine minutes. But now, thanks to more field hospitals ashore and fewer patients in need of specialized care, the ship has not had patients on board for more than a week.

Comfort departed its homeport in Baltimore Jan. 16, and arrived three-and-a-half days later and immediately began supporting humanitarian relief efforts in Haiti. Prior to anchoring off the coast of Port-au-Prince Jan. 20, Comfort was already receiving patients in transit via airlift. During portions of the relief effort, nearly 1,300 medical personnel from the U.S. military and various non governmental organizations (NGOs) were embarked and treating earthquake survivors.

Medical personnel aboard Comfort performed 843 surgeries during their mission in Haiti. According to the ship's Director of Surgery, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Tim Donohue, Comfort had more than 540 critically injured patients on board within the first 10 days. During the initial phase of its mission, the ship ran 10 operating rooms at full capacity to care for severely injured earthquake survivors. The ships medical crew also delivered nine infants during the relief mission.

Patients treated aboard Comfort included injured Haitian and U.S. earthquake survivors, as well as U.S. and international military personnel transferred to the ship by physicians on the ground for surgical and non-surgical care.

Volunteer experts from the Orthopedic Trauma Association, Project Hope, Operation Smile, United Nations Nurses, John Hopkins Emergency Medicine and other NGOs provided the ship's medical team with orthopedic trauma, surgical, nursing and anesthesia support.
***
By early February, as relief efforts increased and medical treatment facilities ashore expanded in their ability to treat more patients and provide greater care, the amount of earthquake victims requiring transit to Comfort naturally declined. Comfort's last patient was transferred for follow-on care to a recovery facility in Haiti Feb. 27.

Apparently not everyone understands that Comfort was provided for "emergency service" - as set out in this article:

The need for Comfort's capabilities declined significantly during the final weeks of its mission, as medical facilities and field hospitals in Haiti assumed a greater role addressing the health care needs of Haitians," officials said in a statement released Tuesday by the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees American military operations in Haiti.

Yet doctors who have worked at some of those field hospitals are calling the ship's departure premature.

When it sails away today, they say, the Comfort will take with it the only modern, well-equipped treatment facility available to most of the island's struggling population.

Dr. Andrew N. Pollak, a University of Maryland orthopedic surgeon who returned from Haiti recently, described military and civilian doctors in Port-au-Prince scrambling last weekend to find treatment for a patient with a potentially life-threatening injury - while the Comfort sat empty in the harbor, preparing to depart.

"They're just completely punting," Pollak said of Pentagon officials who decided to pull the ship out of Haiti.

"Without the Comfort, the country is going to have no critical-care capability to speak of," he said.
***
Meanwhile, relief workers have encouraged the Navy to leave the Comfort in Haiti, even offering to staff it with civilian physicians, nurses and technicians. Pollak was among a group of key civilian doctors who appealed directly to top officials at the Pentagon.

"You can't expect the Comfort to bring the entire country up to the standards of the U.S. health care system, but there has to be some bailout capacity," Pollak said.

Military physicians say privately that the Haiti relief mission was complicated by the endless need for advanced care for patients whose conditions were unrelated to the Jan. 12 disaster.

In Haiti primarily to treat fractures and crush injuries from the earthquake, the crew was inundated with patients suffering from diseases, heart trouble, infections and other ailments that owed more to the country's lack of development than to the earthquake.

Navy officials declined to address questions about the continuing health care needs in Haiti, while praising the Comfort's accomplishments over the past seven weeks. (emphasis added)

The distinction between emergency service and becoming the "critical care" health service of Haiti on a permanent basis almost defines the difference between "disaster relief" and "nation building." Or, as they say in the disaster management business, the move is an indication that the shift has come from the "response" phase to the "recovery" phase.

Well done, Comfort! Welcome home.

Haiti: Port and Air Update

From Situation Report (Consolidated) - 01 March 2010 — Humanitarian Logistics Information:

Air Operations
Port au Prince Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport

* The management of PAP airport has been handed back to the Haitian authorities and commercial handlers, and all offload of international humanitarian cargo is now being done by commercial entities.
* The Logistics Cluster has compiled a list of forwarding agents available at: http://www.logcluster.org/ops/hti10a.

Air Operations PAP

* More than 3,600 passengers from over 250 UN agencies, NGOs, governments and media institutions have used the UNHAS passenger service between Santo Domingo and Port au Prince.
***
Sea Transport

Port au Prince

* Management of the port has been handed back to the APN (Autorite Portuaire Nationale) and all handling is being done by commercial handlers. Requests for berthing slots must now be submitted to APN with 72 hours notice.
* The US will continue support at the port in a coordination and management role for the coming month.
* The majority of the assets currently available at the port have been provided by the US Military, and are likely to be redeployed over the course of the month, including the two floating docks currently serving as the principal point of unloading. While the repairs to the south pier are expected to be complete by the second week or April, full repairs will take some time, and available equipment may not be sufficient to meet the current increase in demand.
* All incoming vessels must be self-sufficient in terms of equipment and to have their own cranes.

Hat tip: Lee and Charles


Photo info:

HAITI (March 1, 2010) Rear Adm. Samuel Perez shows Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) the Honorable Ray Mabus earthquake damage to the port facilities in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Sailors and Marines are conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake caused severe damage in and around Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 12. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin S. O'Brien/Released)

Chilean Earthquake and the Pacific Tsunami Warning System

 UPDATE: Some people seem to have been expecting a 30 meter wall of water to be breaking against the hotels of Waikiki Beach. They should count their blessings that it didn't turn out that way.

Below is the reading from DART #51407 showing the increase in the water column as it neared Hawaii:

The blue arrow below points to that location:

UPDATE: Don't be fooled by television coverage from Oahu - it's 200 miles from the big island of Hawaii to Oahu so the tsunami will take 1/2 or more to travel that distance  - and tsunamis slow as they near land shallower water....

 UPDATE: Estimated tsunami travel times:

With the distressing news of a major earthquake in Chile, tsunami warnings have gone out across the Pacific Ocean - including Hawaii and California.

How do scientists predict and track any tsunami activity? They use an important tool - buoys mounted in the path of tsunamis as part of the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART®) system - as set out at the NOAA DART website and reproduced below:

Background

To ensure early detection of tsunamis and to acquire data critical to real-time forecasts, NOAA has placed Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART®) stations at sites in regions with a history of generating destructive tsunamis. NOAA completed the original 6-buoy operational array ... in 2001 and expanded to a full network of 39 stations in March, 2008.

Originally developed by NOAA, as part of the U.S. National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), the DART® Project was an effort to maintain and improve the capability for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. See DART® development for more info.

DART® presently constitutes a critical element of the NOAA Tsunami Program. The Tsunami Program is part of a cooperative effort to save lives and protect property through hazard assessment, warning guidance, mitigation, research capabilities, and international coordination. NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) is responsible for the overall execution of the Tsunami Program. This includes operation of the U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers (TWC) as well as leadership of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program. It also includes the acquisition, operations and maintenance of observation systems required in support of tsunami warning such as DART®, local seismic networks, coastal, and coastal flooding detectors. NWS also supports observations and data management through the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC).
System Overview

DART® systems consist of an anchored seafloor bottom pressure recorder (BPR) and a companion moored surface buoy for real-time communications (Gonzalez et al., 1998). An acoustic link transmits data from the BPR on the seafloor to the surface buoy.

The BPR collects temperature and pressure at 15-second intervals. The pressure values are corrected for temperature effects and the pressure converted to an estimated sea-surface height (height of the ocean surface above the seafloor) by using a constant 670 mm/psia. The system has two data reporting modes, standard and event. The system operates routinely in standard mode, in which four spot values (of the 15-s data) at 15-minute intervals of the estimated sea surface height are reported at scheduled transmission times. When the internal detection software (Mofjeld) identifies an event, the system ceases standard mode reporting and begins event mode transmissions. In event mode, 15-second values are transmitted during the initial few minutes, followed by 1-minute averages. Event mode messages also contain the time of the initial occurrence of the event. The system returns to standard transmission after 4 hours of 1-minute real-time transmissions if no further events are detected.

The first generation DART® (DART I) systems had one-way communications from the BPR to the Tsunami Warning Centers (TWC) and NDBC via the western Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES West) (Milburn et al., 1996). DART I became operational in 2003. NDBC replaced all DART I systems with the second generation DART® systems (DART II) in early 2008. DART I transmits standard mode data once an hour (four estimated sea-level height observations at 15-minute intervals). For information about the development of DART® technology, click here.

DART II became operational in 2005 (Green, 2006). A significant capability of DART II is the two-way communications between the BPR and the TWCs/NDBC using the Iridium commercial satellite communications system (Meinig et al., 2005). The two-way communications allow the TWCs to set stations in event mode in anticipation of possible tsunamis or retrieve the high-resolution (15-s intervals) data in one-hour blocks for detailed analysis. DART II systems transmit standard mode data, containing twenty-four estimated sea-level height observations at 15-minute intervals, once very six hours. The two-way communications allow for real-time troubleshooting and diagnostics of the systems. The DART® buoys have two independent and redundant communications systems. NDBC distributes the data from both transmitters under separate transmitter identifiers. NDBC receives the data from the DART II systems, formats the data into bulletins grouped by ocean basin (see the NDBC - DART® GTS Bulletin Transmitter List, for a listing of the bulletin headers used for each transmitted identifier), and then delivers them to the National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) that then distributes the data in real-time to the TWCs via NWS communications and nationally and internationally via the Global Telecommunications System.

The map near the top of this post shows the location of DART buoys and other buoys placed by other countries in this international effort to detect and warn of tsunamis and comes from here.

More on DART and tsunamis here:

In the deep ocean, a tsunami is barely noticeable and will only cause a shallow and slow ripple on the sea surface as it passes. As it approaches the land, however, tsunamis become much more of a hazard. When a tsunami approaches shallower waters near the coast, the waves slow down and become compressed, causing them to grow in height. Under the best case scenario, the tsunami comes onshore like a quickly rising tide and only causes gentle flooding in low-lying coastal areas. Under the worst case scenario, however, walls of water more than 100 feet high rush ashore causing large scale destruction and flooding — a cycle which may repeat itself many times before the hazard finally passes.

Tsunamis typically cause the most severe damage and casualties near their source (i.e., earthquake) where the waves are the highest. Nearby local coastal populations — often disoriented from the violent earthquake shaking — may have very little time to react before a tsunami is generated and should move inland and to higher ground immediately.

Larger, more powerful tsunamis can cause destruction and casualties over a much wider area — even across the entire Pacific Basin. However, because they are generated by more distant earthquakes and will make landfall several hours (as opposed to minutes) after an earthquake, NOAA and its partners are able to warn the public about these large regional tsunamis several hours before they strike, thus allowing adequate time for evacuation.
***
The NOAA Weather Service operates two tsunami warning centers — the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska, which has warning responsibility for Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California; and the Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, which conducts research and monitors tsunamis for Hawaii and both U.S. and international interests in the Pacific Basin. Both centers were established in 1967 and 1949, respectively, after damaging tsunamis hit those states. Together they are the operational centers of a vigilant 24-hour U.S. tsunami warning system for the Pacific Rim.

Both centers work closely with state emergency managers, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mitigate potential tsunami hazards. The NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers continuously monitor data from seismological and tidal stations, evaluate earthquakes that have the potential to generate tsunamis and disseminate tsunami information and warning bulletins to government authorities and the public. Despite this, however, it was not until DART that NOAA was able to accurately detect, assess and forecast the threat tsunamis pose to coastal communities.

Map showing Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting on Tsunami Buoys.Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting on Tsunami
In 1997, the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program provided funding for DART development. The DART project was developed by the NOAA PMEL and brought into operational use by the NOAA NDBC in October 2003. The DART project is an ongoing effort to maintain and improve the capability for the early detection and real-time reporting of tsunamis in the open ocean. DART also reduces costly false alarms — 75 percent of all warnings issued since 1948 have been for non-destructive tsunamis yet the evacuation of Honolulu in 1986 cost $40 million .

UPDATE: Some buoy data, first from a buoy off Chile and then from one closer to Hawaii: