Friday, May 7, 2010

[FEMA]

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED)

Significant National Weather

West
A high pressure system will remain in place across the region, bringing warm and dry conditions through Saturday. An advancing low pressure system will bring a chance of precipitation along with cooler temperatures across much of central California.Â* Red Flag Warnings will remain in effect for south-central Colorado through this evening.Â*
Midwest
Temperatures over the Northern Plains will be much below normal; record low temperatures are forecast from central Idaho to western Montana, with lows in the upper 20s for portions of southwest Montana.Â* Snow showers will continue across Montana into North Dakota throughout the day.Â* Snowfall accumulations of 4 to 10 inches can be expected for portions of southern North Dakota.Â* Showers and thunderstorms can be expected overnight tonight across much of Kansas into Nebraska. Some thunderstorms may be capable of producing large hail and damaging winds.Â* Thunderstorms will continue into the morning hours from western Illinois into eastern Indiana.
SouthÂ*
A few strong to severe thunderstorms will be possible tonight as a cold front pushes southeast through the Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi region.Â* Some of these thunderstorms will be capable of producing golf ball size hail.Â* Many area rivers will remain near or above flood stage across the Tennessee Valley over the next couple of days.Â* A much cooler and drier weather pattern will return to the eastern half of the U.S. this weekend with temperatures 10 to 15 degrees cooler than they have been this week.
NortheastÂ*
Today, most of the region will remain under a system of high pressure, with dry conditions and warm temperatures.Â* The exception will be portions of western Pennsylvania to western New York where strong to severe thunderstorms are expected later this evening.Â* A warm front approaches southern New England on Saturday with rain spreading across Maine and New Hampshire.Â* West northwest winds and cooler conditions are expected across the Northeast later this weekend through mid week when another low pressure system and rain begin to impact the area.(NOAA, National Weather Service, various media sources)Â*
Severe Weather Mississippi Valley & Southeast:

Federal Actions
FEMA Response Watch Center (RWC) is at Watch/Steady State (Enhanced Watch) and monitoring.Â* The FEMA NRCC is at Level III. FEMA Logistics established two Incident Staging Bases; one in Memphis, Tenn. and one in Nashville, Tenn. There are 250 trailer loads of water and meals (200 trailers of water; 50 trailers of meals) at the Memphis staging area for further distribution with 388,800 liters of water and 43,488 meals already provided to state logistics operations. An additional 160 trailers of water are Mission Assigned to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Six mobile Disaster Recovery Centers are on en route to Nashville.
Region IV
The FEMA Region IV RRCC is at Level II (Partial Activation), with ESFs 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, and 15 activated. The RRCC operating hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Region IV IMAT is deployed to Jackson, Miss. in support of FEMA-1906-MS. FEMA liaisons are deployed to the Tennessee and Kentucky State Emergency Operations Centers. Joint Field Offices are being established and damage assessments continue.

Oil Spill Response Update:

Unified Command / USCG Response:
The Unified Area Command is located in Robert, Louisiana with Incident Command Posts in Houma, La.; Mobile, Ala.; and St. Petersburg, Fla., and 12 additional staging areas are established. The U.S. Coast Guard reports 24 vessels continue skimming operations (21 offshore, 3 near-shore).Â* The Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Team reports there is sheen and pink emulsified oil on the south end of Chandeleur Island, in addition to a sheen on Free Mason Island. The Offshore Supply Vessel is on scene and lowering the first coffer dome. All shipping channels and ports remain open in the Gulf Coast Region. Subsea dispersant operations have stopped, awaiting approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to resume. The amount of dispersants applied to date is 239,860 gallons on the surface and 15,364 gallons subsea. So far 57,255 barrels (2,404,710 gallons) of oil and water mix has been collected and 739,560 feet of boom assigned. NOAA forecasts light winds today, seas at 2 feet or less with a 10% chance of rain today.Â*
Federal Actions
FEMA national and regional watch centers are monitoring. No FEMA assistance is requested.Â* 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*
Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG)

No activityÂ*(FEMA HQ) 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 Thursday, May 6, 2010:Â*
Initial attack activity: Light (57 new fires)
New large fires: 0, Large fires contained: 0, Uncontained large fires: 1
States affected:Â* HawaiiÂ*(NIFC) Disaster Declaration Activity

Tennessee
Amendment No. 3 to FEMA-1909-DR-TN adds 11 counties for Individual Assistance and debris removal and emergency protective measures (Categories A and B), including direct Federal assistance under the Public Assistance program. Amendment No. 4 to FEMA-1909-DR-TN adds 6 counties for Individual Assistance and debris removal and emergency protective measures (Categories A and B), including direct Federal assistance, under the Public Assistance program.
Maryland
The President declared FEMA-1910-DR for Maryland. Specifically, the President authorized Public Assistance for 21 counties and one independent city.Â* Emergency protective measures (Category B) including snow assistance, for 17 counties and one independent city and Hazard Mitigation statewide.(FEMA HQ)Â*


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