Wednesday, May 19, 2010

[FEMA]

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED)

Significant National Weather

Â*MidwestÂ*
A major weather system will spread across the central U.S. the next few days, delivering thunderstorms and flash flooding from the Central High Plains to the Lower Mississippi Valley. Significant rain will fall across the area from western Nebraska to southeastern Kansas, and portions of western and southern Kansas may experience stronger storms containing hail, high winds, and tornadoes. Showers are possible across the extreme eastern Ohio Valley.
South
Storms containing damaging winds, large hail, and isolated tornadoes continue to impact the Southern Plains, particularly across the panhandles of Oklahoma, Texas and eastward into western Arkansas. A few scattered showers and thunderstorms are forecast for coastal areas of the Carolinas. None of these storms are expected to be severe.
Northeast
Steady rains continued to move northward along the eastern seaboard Tuesday night, but will begin to clear across much of the northern Mid-Atlantic States this morning and afternoon. Light showers may continue to fall from New York to West Virginia. Rain will increase for the Northeastern U.S. particularly along the New England coast, where rain could be moderate to heavy at times.
West
Widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected across much of the Northern and Central Rockies as well as the high plains. Precipitation across these areas will be moderate to light; snow is possible in the higher elevations. Portions of the Colorado Rockies above 8 thousand feet will see up to 4 to 8 inches of snow, and some of the storms in eastern Colorado could become severe late in the day. Another weather system will move into the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin areas, bringing rain and scattered showers to northwestern California and up the coast into Oregon and Washington.Â*(NOAAâs National Weather Service, the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center and media sources)Â*
Fires in the Au Sable State Forest Cause Evacuations in Northern Michigan

Crawford County
A 6,000 acre fire in Crawford County, Mich. caused the evacuation of residents within 10 miles west and 3 miles north of interstate M-18 Tuesday, May 18.
Kalkaska County
A 1,000 acre fire was reported in Kalkaska County, within the Camp Grayling National Guard base. Ten to fifteen homes were evacuated. Military personnel assisted with fighting the fire, and as of 8:30 p.m. EDT May 18 the fire was contained.Â*
Federal Response
FEMA Region V is at watch/steady state and monitoring the situation. The region provided the state of Michigan with technical assistance concerning the Fire Management Assistant Grant Program.
There have been no reports of injuries or fatalities and no requests for federal assistance.
(Region V)Â*
Severe Weather: Recovery Mississippi Valley/Southeast Update

Minor flooding is expected on portions of the Mississippi River at Tiptonville Thursday and Friday. Flooding will primarily impact farmland inside the Mainline Levee system in northwest Tennessee.
The Joint Field Offices in Mississippi and Tennessee are now operational. The Kentucky recovery continues to be managed from the Interim Operating Facility as their offices near completion. Preliminary Damage Assessments continue around the region.Â*Â*
Â*(Region IV)

Mississippi Canyon 252 Update

FEMA Actions
The lead federal agencies responding to the incident are the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Department of Interior. FEMA is providing the U.S. Coast Guard with radios for communications support for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Riser Insertion Tube Tool (RITT-1) is in place recovering an oil and gas mixture with no water at the separator. It is siphoning off approximately 84,000 gallons per day. Siphoned oil is being stored on board the Discoverer Enterprise drill ship, with the capability to separate the oil, gas and water mixture, burn off the gas, and eventually store or offload the recovered oil onto another vessel. Containment and sorbent booms and surface and subsurface disbursements and skimming operations resulted in the recovery of 7.6 million gallons of oil-water mixture to date. Controlled burns were conducted for the last two days to remove oil from the open water. Monitored injection of subsea dispersants near the RITT continued overnight.
Seventeen staging areas are in place to protect sensitive shorelines: Alabama (3), Florida (4), Louisiana (7) and Mississippi (3). All shipping channels and ports remain open. No large commercial vessels have required cleaning at decontamination stations. As of May 18, the area closed to commercial and recreational fishing encompasses slightly less than 19 percent of the Gulf of Mexico exclusive economic zone.Â* The majority (81%) of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico remain open to commercial and recreational fishing. Alabama waters including Mobile Bay, Mississippi Sound, Perdido Bay, Wolf Bay, and the Little Lagoon are closed to shrimping.Â*Â*
Â*(Deepwater Horizon JIC)
Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG)

No activity.Â*(FEMA HQ) Tropical Weather Outlook

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Earthquake Activity

A magnitude 4.5 earthquake occurred 13 miles southwest of Seeley, Calif. at 8:38 p.m. EDT on May 18, at a depth of 6.3 miles. The quake impact was light to moderate in Seeley, Calif. (population 2,000) and weak in El Centro and Imperial, Calif. (populations 38,000/10,000). No injuries or damages were reported as a result of this event. This earthquake occurred in the vicinity of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that occurred April 4, 2010, that was followed by hundreds of aftershocks, echoes, and main shocks of lesser magnitude, during the past 45 days.Â*
(USGS)
Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)
Wildfire Update

National Preparedness Level 1
National Fire Activity as of Tuesday, May 18, 2010: Initial attack activity was light with 117 new fires. There were three new large fires reported and no large fires were contained. There are currently two uncontained large fires affecting Arizona, New Mexico and Alaska.Â* (NIFC)
Disaster Declaration Activity

No new activity (FEMA HQ)


More...