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National Situation Update: Friday, July 25, 2008

Homeland Security Threat Level: YELLOW (ELEVATED).

Tropical Depression Dolly

FEMA Region VI Actions
FEMA Region VI is activated Level I, 24-hour operations
All ESFs activated, along with infrastructure protection, DoD and USCG
3 PA PDA teams deployed / 2 PA PDAs on standby; 4 IA PDA teams deployed / 2 IA PDAs on standby
 Joint PDAs to begin today, July 25
MERS personnel and assets staged
2 LNO and DCE at Texas EOC

State Actions - Texas
TX State EOC fully staffed at Level I activation (Emergency Operations/Highest Level)
Major Disaster Declaration (FEMA-1780-TX-DR) signed July 24 for 15 counties for Public Assistance.
30 shelters; 3,396 occupants
1 injured, no reported fatalities
152,015 without power, representing approximately 2% of total Texas customers (Department of Energy, 10:47 p.m. EDT, July 24)
Boil water notice in effect for Laguna Madre Water District (Port Isabel, Cameron County) due to power outages
Levees and dams are being closely monitored
US Section of International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) crews conducted visual inspection of north levee on the North Floodway (Sebastian, TX); no levee break detected, no known problems
All fuel demands being met; no shortages reported(FEMA Region VI RRCC SITREP #3, 5:00 p.m. CDT, July 24)

Louisiana Oil Spill

FEMA Region VI Actions
FEMA Region VI is activated Level I, 24-hour operations
FEMA-State liaison has reported to the LA EOC 
FEMA currently has 30 truckloads (543,000 liters) of water prepositioned 70 miles from New Orleans in Carville
An additional 14 truckload (approximately 252,000 liters) are available in Purvis, Mississippi

State Actions
Estimated 419,286 gallons of oil released, Mississippi River closed from mile marker 98 to mouth of river
Approximately 200 vessels affected by closure of Mississippi River
Waterway estimated to be closed five-to-seven (5 - 7) days
Algiers and Chalmette Ferries closed
Water intakes in New Orleans (Orleans Parrish) and St. Bernard opened; drinking water deemed okay for consumption 
No damage reported to water intakes
Intakes in adjoining Jefferson and Plaquemines Parishes remain closed pending cleanup of boomed areas and completion of testing for oil and oil byproducts by US EPA and LA Department of Health
Economic impact expected due to MS River closure
State not expected to request Federal assistance.  (FEMA Region VI SPOT Report #4, 7:00 p.m. EDT, July 24)

New England Severe Weather

Summary:
Severe weather (including torrential rain, lightning, intense wind microbursts and reported tornadoes caused power outages, damage to homes and local road closures across northern New England, with peak activity July 24, 2008.
New Hampshire most heavily impacted.
50 - 100 homes damaged (Epsom, NH); 2 damaged homes (Bridgeton, ME).
1 dead, 13 injured (NH).
As of 4:00 p.m. EDT, July 24, 2,075 customer without power (NH); 6,000 meters (approximately 16,000 customers) without power (ME).
No significant road closures in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island.
Flood Watch in effect for Vermont until later this morning.  Rain totals are forecast to be between two-to-four (2 - 4) inches, with isolated amounts to 5 inches.
Rainfall over the previous week has saturated soils and increased water levels in rivers and streams, additional runoff from today's rainfall will increase the flood threat.

FEMA Region I Actions
Monitoring events and response activities.
ESF-5 activated at RRCC at 7:00 a.m. EDT, July 24, and is monitoring situation and facilitating communications internally.
3 PAs and 2 IAs ready to deploy.
Senior State Advisor (SSA) requested and is seated at NH EOC.
ESF-6 to activate today, July 25.
2 shelters opened:  Epsom Middle School (Epsom, NH) and Prospect Mountain High School (Alton, NH).
ESF-8 activated at RRCC at 1:30 p.m. EDT, July 24, 2008.
Early assessments indicate no significant health/medical issues or hospital infrastructure concerns, or likely requests for Federal Assistance.
ESF-9 activated at RRCC at 1:30 p.m. EDT, July 24, stood down at 5:00 p.m. EDT, July 24.

State Actions
New Hampshire EOC activated at Level III (High Intensity Even).
New Hampshire Declaration of Emergency declared by Governor for five counties:  Merrimack, Strafford, Belknap, Carroll and Rockingham; communities most of affected include Epsom, Barnstead, New Durham, Wolfeboro and Alton.
Maine EOC at Level I (Monitoring); proper staff for Level II Activation standing by, as needed.  (FEMA Region I SITREP #1, July 24)

Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG)

Nothing significant to report. (FEMA HQ)

Tropical Weather Outlook

Atlantic/Caribbean:
Tropical Storm Dolly
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has issued its final advisory on Tropical Depression Dolly.

At 5:00 a.m. EDT, per the National Hydrometeor logical Prediction Center, Tropical Depression (TD) Dolly was located near the Texas/Mexico border, just to the south of the big bend, approximately 100 miles south-southeast of Marfa, Texas.

Maximum sustained winds were near 20 mph, with gusts to 30 mph.

The minimum central pressure was 1004 mb...or 29.65 inches.

TD Dolly is expected to continue to move west-northwest along the Texas/Mexico border today.

Rainfall amounts of one-to-three (1 - 3) inches are possible over southwest Texas and northeastern Mexico, with isolated heavier totals possible over the higher terrain of northeastern Mexico during the next 24 hours.  These rains may produce flash flooding.  (NWS, Hydro meteorological Prediction Center)

Eastern Pacific:
Tropical Storm Genevieve
At 5:00 a.m. EDT, the center of Tropical Storm (TS) Genevieve was located near about 565 miles south-southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

TS Genevieve is moving toward the west-northwest near 9 mph, with a continued motion toward the west-northwest (with a slight increase in forward speed) expected during the next couple of days.  On this track, TS Genevieve will remain well offshore from the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Maximum sustained winds are near 65 mph, with higher gusts.  Slight strengthening is forecast during the next 24 hours, and TS Genevieve could be near hurricane status today or tonight, but a weakening trend is forecast to begin July 26.

Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 70 miles from the center.

Estimated minimum central pressure is 994 mb (29.35 inches).

Western Pacific:
No tropical cyclone activity.(NOAA, National Hurricane Center, Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center)

Earthquake Activity

At 8:29 p.m. EDT, July 24, 2008, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurred in the Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, approximately 1,360 miles west-southwest of Anchorage, Alaska, at a depth of 34.9 miles.  There were no reports of damages or injuries, and no tsunami was generated. (USGS, Earthquake Hazards Program, Alaska Earthquake Information Center, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Centers)

Preliminary Damage Assessments

No new activity (FEMA HQ)

Wildfire Update

National Fire Activity as of Thursday, July 24, 2008:
National Wildfire Preparedness Level: 4
Initial attack activity: Moderate (222 new fires)
New large fires: 7
Uncontained large fires: 35
Large fires contained: 6
States with Large fires - CA, MT, NC, ND, TN, TX, UT, VA and WA

Warmer and drier conditions will develop across the West as a high pressure ridge builds over the area.  Thunderstorms will decrease and move east across the Continental Divide and the Four Corners states.  The southeastern half of Texas will see scattered showers and thunderstorms.  (National Interagency Fire Center, National Incident Information Center)

Disaster Declaration Activity

The President signed a Disaster Declaration for Texas for Severe Hurricane Dolly from July 22, 2008 and continuing.  The Disaster Declaration grants Public Assistance (PA) category B (emergency protective measures) for 15 counties (Aransas, Bexar, Brooks, Calhoun, Cameron, Hidalgo, Jim Wells, Kenedy, Kelberg, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio, Starr, Vitoria, and Willacy  Counties) with Hazard Mitigation statewide.(FEMA HQ)

Last Modified: Thursday, 04-Jun-2009 16:34:38 EDT