Louisiana's coast is particularly vulnerable to
hurricanes - nothing new there. What you may not know is
why.
Dr. Greg Stone, Director of Louisiana State University's
Coastal Morphodynamics Lab, noticed a severe gap in hurricane
monitoring stations off the state's coast. That translates to
an inferior advanced warning system for residents.
So he went to Washington.
"We had absolutely no information on storm surge or storm
waves. I [went] to Senator Breaux and said, 'I would like to
get your support.' It turns out that our entire delegation in
Washington has been very supportive of this program," said
Stone.
The $5 million program is the joint effort of Louisiana
State University, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and
Texaco to name a few. The goal is to fill the gap.
"We're pampering [Louisiana] a little bit more because we
have a serious problem here. Residents are very complacent
about hurricanes. It's because they've only been impacted by
weak hurricanes for the past few decades," Stone said.
These efforts are devoted to installing buoys that are
anchored on the sea floor as opposed to the stations which
float on the water's surface. This simple modification makes a
world of difference in the game of forecasting.
"One of the biggest concerns for New Orleans and eastern
Louisiana is storm surge. None of the [existing] buoys can
measure storm surge because they're floating on the water's
surface," said Stone.
According to Stone, even the National Hurricane Center is
only able to make estimates from current data. The Acoustic
Doppler Current Profiler will change that. This component of
the stabilized buoy allows for an apparatus to measure surge
from the sea floor. This breakthrough, combined with virtually
instant access on the Web makes for much improved warnings for
vulnerable residents.
"We're putting these stations offshore as we speak. If
there's an offshore hurricane, we'd want this to go into
emergency mode," he said. "Every 15 to 30 minutes, we'd have
information on waves and storm surge."
Surge is a big concern for the city of New Orleans. Most of
the residents have grown accustomed to the city's altitude -
or lack thereof - of 6 feet below sea level. With its
bowl-like shape, its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and its
position between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain,
the city is a sitting duck for a major hurricane.
"Louisiana is so vulnerable that we need to use our
expertise and mitigate some of these problems. We don't do
forecasting. We leave that to the experts. We forward the data
to the National Hurricane Center to give them additional
information," said Stone.
