Monday, May 3, 2010

[FEMA]

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED)

Significant National Weather

South:
After flooding Tennessee over the weekend with over a foot of rain in some areas, the heavy rain and severe weather will shift out of the Tennessee River Valley and into the Southeast today.Â* Downpours and some severe thunderstorms will impact the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, southeast Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle.Â* The main severe threat will be damaging wind gusts and possible tornadoes.Â* Rainfall accumulations will range from 1-5 inches, with 8 inches possible across the western side of the Florida Panhandle.Â* Lingering showers will gradually end from Tennessee to Louisiana. River flooding will be ongoing in the Tennessee River Valley.Â* Southerly onshore winds will weaken along the northern Gulf Coast, slowing the oil slick's northward progress.Â* Flood and Flash Flood Watches and Warnings remain in effect across most of Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, as well as the Florida Panhandle.
Midwest:Â*
Severe weather will continue today across Ohio, southeast Indiana and Kentucky, with very heavy rainfall expected.Â* Hail, damaging winds and tornadoes are also possible.Â* The weather system bringing heavy rain to the region over the weekend will continue moving east today, though River flooding will be ongoing, especially in Kentucky.Â* A secondary cold front moving east across the region will produce scattered thunderstorms from the Great Lakes to the Ozarks.Â* A few of the thunderstorms could turn severe, and possibly produce damaging wind gusts and hail across portions of Lower Michigan, Illinois and Indiana.Â* Flood and Flash Flood Watches and Warnings will remain in effect across portions of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
Northeast:
Thunderstorms from the eastern Great Lakes and Ohio Valley have been moving into the region overnight.Â* These thunderstorms may be severe with the potential for hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. Parts of New England, Upstate New York, western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and western Virginia could pick up 1 to 2 inches of rain.Â* The showers and thunderstorms will gradually taper off or end from west to east across the region today as a weak cold front moves through. The heaviest rain and a few strong thunderstorms may be over southeast Virginia.Â* On Tuesday, a second cold front will move through the region. Scattered thunderstorms, some with hail and strong wind gusts, will move eastward across New York and New England, but a few thunderstorms could stretch southward, impacting Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
West:
A strong weather system moved onshore in the Pacific Northwest overnight, and will continue to move inland today, producing rain, mountain snow, wind and scattered thunderstorms.Â* Snow levels will drop to 3000 feet across western Washington. Additional rainfall could locally top 1 inch on the favored mountain slopes from Washington and northwest Oregon into the northern Rockies.Â* High Wind Warnings will remain in effect through this evening across the mountains of Washington and Oregon, as well as most of Montana.Â* Sustained winds of 25-35 mph are expected, with gusts to 60 mph.Â*Â*(NOAA, National Weather Service, various media sources)Â*
Severe Weather Mississippi Valley & Southeast:

Federal Actions:
The FEMA RWC is at Watch/Steady State and monitoring.Â* FEMA Region IV is at Level III (Partial Activation), and Regions V, VI and VII are at Watch/Steady State.Â* All Regions are monitoring and maintaining communications with affected states.Â* The Region IV IMAT is deployed to Mississippi.
Massachusetts â Water Main Break:

A major water main break occurred Saturday afternoon in Weston, MA.Â* The pipe rupture affected the City of Boston and 27 other communities (approx. 1.6 million people) and the Governor requested an Emergency Declaration on May 2, 2010. Boil Water Advisories were issued and emergency water conservation measures are being implemented until further notice for all impacted communities. The Region I FEMA Liaison and Logistics personnel are supporting the State EOC. Operational control of the incident will transfer to the JFO for FEMA-1895-MA on May 3rd. Oil Spill Response Update:

Unified Command / USCG Response:
The Department of Homeland Security reports this incident was declared a âSpill of National Significanceâ (SONS). Surface cleanups and oil skimming operations continue. The U.S. Coast Guard has not received official confirmation of the oil spill making landfall.Â* To date, the oil spill response team has recovered 23,968 barrels (853,146 gallons) of an oil-water mix.Â* Approximately 243,200 feet of boom (barrier) has been deployed to contain the spill. The Drilling Rig commenced drilling the relief well on May 2.Â* Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ) Louisiana placed 1,880 National Guard members on Title-32 status due to a request for assistance (RFA) from the US Coast guard (USCG).Â* Eight staging areas are located throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and FloridaÂ*
Federal Actions:
The FEMA NRCC/RWC is at Watch/Steady State and monitoring.Â* FEMA Region IV RRCC is at Level IV (Steady State).Â* There have been no requests for FEMA assistance. NORTHCOM has deployed a Defense Coordinating Element to the Louisiana state EOC.
(Region IV, Region VI, Coast Guard Command Center and DHS National Operations Center SLB)Â*
Tropical Weather Outlook

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Earthquake Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Wildfire Update

National Preparedness Level 1
National Fire Activity as of Friday, April 30, 2010:
Initial attack activity: Light (106 new fires)
New large fires:Â* 1
Large fires contained:Â* 2
Uncontained large fires:Â* 0
States affected:Â* Minnesota and MontanaÂ*(NIFC)Â*
Disaster Declaration Activity

Mississippi
Amendment 3 to FEMA-1906-DR-MS was approved May 2, adding Oktibbeha County for Individual Assistance.Â*(FEMA HQ)Â*


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