{"id":169057,"date":"2016-10-12T05:47:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T09:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noaacoastsurvey.wordpress.com\/?p=169057"},"modified":"2016-10-12T05:47:57","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T09:47:57","slug":"noaa-helps-four-ports-recover-from-hurricane-matthew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/noaa-helps-four-ports-recover-from-hurricane-matthew\/","title":{"rendered":"NOAA helps four ports recover from Hurricane Matthew"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew became a hurricane on Thursday, September 29, and it was soon clear that NOAA\u2019s navigation services would be called into action. Coast Survey knew they would be needed for the maritime transportation system\u2019s rapid recovery operations, to search for underwater debris and shoaling. That Saturday, while Hurricane Matthew was still three days away from hitting Haiti, Coast Survey was already ramping up preparations for assisting with reopening U.S. shipping lanes and ports after Matthew\u2019s destruction. By Monday, as NOAA\u2019s National Hurricane Center zeroed in on a major hit to the southeast coast, Coast Survey\u2019s navigation service personnel began moving personnel and survey vessels for rapid deployment. Calling in survey professionals from as far away as Seattle, teams were mobilized to locations outside of the hurricane\u2019s impact zones, so they would be ready to move in and hit the water as soon as weather and ocean conditions allowed.
\n
\n

\"Survey<\/a>
NOAA Ship Ferdinand R. Hassler<\/em>‘s survey technicians are on duty 24\/7 while the ship\u00a0surveys port areas after Hurricane Matthew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nCoast Survey prepared two navigation response teams<\/a> \u2013 small vessels with 3-person crews \u2013 and NOAA Ship Ferdinand R. Hassler<\/em><\/a> for survey work prioritized by the U.S. Coast Guard, in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ports, terminal operators, state officials, and local emergency responders. Two navigation managers<\/a>, Kyle Ward (Southeast) and Tim Osborn (Central Gulf of Mexico), were augmented by Lucy Hick and Michael Davidson, navigation services personnel in Silver Spring, Maryland, to coordinate personnel safety, property protection, and navigation service delivery before, during, and after the storm.
\n
\"Hassler
NOAA Ship Hassler<\/em> surveyed channels in the Charleston Harbor and Port of Savannah, using multibeam echo sounders. Shown here are Lt. Cmdr. Steven Kuzirian (left) and Lt. Cmdr. John French surveying in Charleston.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
\"Two<\/a>
Two of Coast Survey’s navigation response teams helped reopen ports after Hurricane Matthew. Photo of NRT4 at Port Canaveral, by Tim Osborn.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Port Canaveral, Florida<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Tim Osborn, who deployed to Port Canaveral from Baton Rouge, is a veteran of NOAA\u2019s many hurricane responses in the Gulf of Mexico ports. Osborn lent his expertise and experience to the Port Canaveral pilots, port officials, and U.S. Coast Guard, as they quickly resumed operations. While the port re-opened on October 8 for cruise ships during daylight hours, they needed a Coast Survey navigation team, working in coordination with a private survey company contracted by the port, to search for dangers to navigation for the deeper draft vessels. Navigation Response Team 4 (Dan Jacobs, Mark McMann, and Starla Robinson) worked through the day on October 9, and the port was subsequently opened for full operations.<\/p>\n

\"chartlet_canaveral-sub_nrt4-1\"<\/h3>\n

\"chartlet_canaveral_channel-1\"<\/a><\/em><\/h3>\n

Port of Charleston, South Carolina<\/strong><\/h3>\n

As luck would have it, NOAA Ship Ferdinand R. Hassler, <\/em>commanded by Lt. Cmdr.\u00a0Matthew Jaskoski, was surveying the approaches to Wilmington<\/a>, North Carolina, this fall. They broke off survey operations and headed to Charleston as Hurricane Matthew approached, so they were in position to assist with reopening that port. Knowing they would need additional technical help for around-the-clock operations, physical scientist James Miller drove from his NOAA office in Norfolk to Charleston (the normally six-hour trip taking over 14 hours, due to flooded roads) to augment Hassler<\/em>‘s normal complement of scientists. As soon as conditions were safe, on October 9, Hassler<\/em> went to work. From 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Hassler<\/em> surveyed 50 nautical miles. They processed their data, checking it for dangers to navigation, and got their report to the U.S. Coast Guard by 6:40 that evening. Armed with Hassler<\/em>\u2019s report, along with data from the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard was able to reopen the port with restrictions by about 7:00 p.m.
\n\"fa-charlestonoverview-matthew\"<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Port of Savannah, Georgia <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Ferdinand R. Hassler<\/em>\u2019s next assignment was to assist with survey operations at the Port of Savannah. After waiting for safe transit conditions in departing Charleston, they arrived in Savannah in the late afternoon of October 11, joining Coast Survey\u2019s Navigation Response Team 2 (James Kirkpatrick, Lucas Blass, and Ian Colvert), who had been surveying there since October 9. The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) also surveyed, as shown below. With offshore conditions too choppy for small boat survey operations, Hassler<\/em> went to work surveying Savannah\u2019s entrance channel, planning to survey for about\u00a0ten hours\u00a0into the night. They hope to deliver their report to the Coast Guard before daylight on October 12.
\nUPDATE (10\/13\/2016)<\/strong>: Hassler<\/em> finished the Savannah survey at about 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 11, and started transiting to their next assignment ten minutes later. The\u00a0ship’s\u00a0physical scientists continued working on the Savannah data, and were able to deliver their report to the Coast Guard at about 11:45 p.m.
\n

\"hurricanematthewresponsesavannah\"
(Not for navigation)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Port of Brunswick, Georgia <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Next, Hassler<\/em> will join with Navigation Response Team 4 for surveying at the Port of Brunswick, to work with the Georgia Port Authority, the U.S. Coast Guard, the harbor pilots and the USACE to reopen the port to commercial vessel traffic. \u00a0NRT4 completed inshore survey operations on October 11, and Hassler<\/em> will survey the offshore area on October 12.
\nUPDATE (10\/13\/2016)<\/strong>: Hassler<\/em> arrived at Brunswick at about 3:00 a.m. on October 12, but the sea was too rough for surveying the approach and entrance channel. Ultimately, conditions did not improve during the day, and Hassler<\/em> had to demobilize and return to Charleston.
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\"brunswickresponse\"
UPDATE 10\/13\/2016: Due to unfavorable ocean conditions on October 12, Hassler<\/em> was not able to survey the area shown in green.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Hurricane Matthew was still three days away from hitting Haiti, Coast Survey was already ramping up preparations for assisting with reopening U.S. shipping lanes and ports after Matthew\u2019s destruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,55,11],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-169057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emergency-response","category-ferdinand-r-hassler","category-navigation-response-teams","tag-hurricane-matthew"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nauticalcharts.noaa.gov\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}