Coast Guard plucks lost hiker from canyon west of PA
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/sited/story/html/217496
2005-09-15
by ANDREW BINION
PORT ANGELES -- After three nights of being lost, hungry, exposed to the weather and without his
glasses in Olympic National Park, a missing hiker was rescued Wednesday.
Brian David Gawley, 39, of Port Angeles was found injured and hypothermic, but alive.
Gawley headed out Sunday afternoon for a day hike near Olympic Hot Springs in the north part of the park.
When he didn't show up for work as a reporter at Peninsula Daily News on Tuesday, he was reported as
missing by colleagues.
He was spotted at 2:20 p.m. by a contracted helicopter team as he limped down a canyon about 820 feet
away from the Appleton Trail.
A U.S. Coast Guard Dolphin helicopter then flew to the scene and hoisted him out of the canyon.
An avid runner who is training for a high-altitude marathon, Gawley took three energy bars and a quart of
Gatorade with him.
He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers.
Gawley said he survived by drinking creek water and stretching his arms and legs at night to stay warm.
He kept his spirits up by thinking about escaped prisoners of war and repeating the mantra: It's not my day
to die.
``Although, I did waver on that,'' Gawley said Wednesday from an Olympic Medical Center emergency
room.
About 35 people were involved in the search and rescue mission, said Barb Maynes, park spokeswoman.
Port receiving $3M for security
Portland marine facilities will receive more than $3 million in Department of Homeland Security grants to
increase security.
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/09/12/daily26.html
Sept. 15, 2005
The Port of Portland said Wednesday it is receiving $2,744,494 for security enhancement projects at port
marine terminals. Kinder Morgan will receive $302,865 in grants for its Portland marine terminals,
bringing the Portland-area award amount to $3,047,359.
The port will use the funding to improve security at terminal entrances and enhance terminal surveillance.
The port will provide $304,944 in funding for the projects, which represents 10 percent of the total costs.
The funding is part of round five of the Department of Homeland Security Port Security Grant Program,
which aims to fortify security at the nation's ports and maritime facilities.
The Port of Portland received $510,000 in security funding in the second round of grants.
9/11 Commission: President, Congress should refocus on fulfilling proposals
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3030250
Salt Lake Tribune
Former members of the 9/11 Commission say that the federal government has dropped the ball, that
Congress and the president have not put in place crucial reforms the commission recommended to
strengthen homeland security.
In the toxic wake of Hurricane Katrina, you might be saying to yourself, "Tell us something we don't
already know."
But bear with us. We believe that the president and Congress should pay attention to the warnings of the
former commissioners and focus again on their recommendations. If the nation's leaders had done so
earlier, the response to Katrina might have been better.
Going forward, these recommendations still can serve as a guide to improving the nation's response to
natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
In addition, the president should name a bipartisan Katrina commission, on the model of the 9/11
Commission, to investigate in depth what went wrong in the government response to the hurricane,
recognizing that it will take a year or more for such an investigation to be completed.
In the meantime, the nation's leaders should finish the unfinished business of implementing the 9/11
Commission's proposals.
For example, local police and fire officers still can't communicate with each other in a disaster. That was
a major handicap in the hurricane response, just as it was on Sept. 11, 2001. Yet Congress has failed to
create a unified emergency communications system. Some reports indicate that a portion of the broadcast
spectrum should be set aside for that purpose, but that the commercial broadcast industry has hobbled this
effort.
The former commissioners also fault the Department of Homeland Security for failing to prioritize the
weak points in the nation's transportation and infrastructure. Obviously, the nation cannot protect every
square foot of territory equally, and we believe it makes more sense to put most major resources into New
York, Washington, D.C., and major port cities - like New Orleans.
Border security also is still a major unsolved problem, particularly the ability to keep track of visitors and
know when they have entered or left the United States. Inspections of air passengers for explosives also
remains an unfulfilled priority.
Finally, the biggest obvious failure has been to create a smooth national chain of command that can
respond nimbly to emergencies.
We can't think of unfinished business that is more important.
All-depth halibut season reopens today
http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050915/OUTDOORS/509150361/1034
September 15, 2005
Statesman Journal
The all-depth halibut season between Cape Falcon and Leadbetter Point, Wash., will reopen today.
During a conference call Wednesday between the National Marine Fishery Service, International Pacific
Halibut Commission and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the parties transferred 6,000 pounds
of the quota from the Central Coast subarea allocation to the Columbia River subarea.
The remaining quota for the Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain all-depth fishery is 22,200 pounds. The
fishery is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
In addition, the nearshore fishery between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain is open seven days a week
inside of the 40-fathom curve. The sport fishery also remains open seven days a week in all-depth waters
south of Humbug Mountain. These fisheries close when the quota is reached or Oct. 31, whichever comes
first.
The daily bag limit for Pacific halibut is one fish, and the annual limit is six fish. There is no minimum
length requirement.
When Pacific halibut are onboard a boat, groundfish species, except sablefish (black cod), are prohibited on
all-depth halibut days north of Humbug Mountain. The high-relief area of Stonewall Bank (located
approximately 15 miles west of Newport and defined by waypoints) is closed to Pacific halibut fishing at
all times.
New devices would aid water flow, city reassures
By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/240956_water16.html
Seattle's salvation after a significant disaster in part could take the form of a tube that's 3,000 feet long and
cobalt blue, with a gaping mouth 12 inches in diameter.
"It's essentially just a big hose," said Jim McNerney, a distribution supervisor with Seattle Public Utilities.
The huge hose, a flexible pipe, was one of four emergency devices on display Thursday at the Beacon Hill
Reservoir.
Hurricane Katrina's assault on the Gulf Coast, which left much infrastructure destroyed and hundreds of
thousands of people without water for consumption or firefighting, has prompted local officials to assure
Seattle residents that measures have been taken to ensure the continued flow of water, Mayor Greg Nickels
said.
The demonstration, which Nickels led, follows other public events focused on emergency preparedness. On
Wednesday, Nickels went to the home of police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who used his own preparations to
model how others should prepare.
A meeting is planned to hear from volunteers returning from the Gulf Coast, and discussions will be held to
learn what lessons can be gleaned from how officials there handled preparations and the aftermath.
Utility workers and firefighters showed off the massive hose, an emergency water distribution system, a
"hardened" fire hydrant and a filter that allows crews to draw water from lakes, Puget Sound or even
swimming pools to fight fires.
Two of the emergency systems, one of them comprising the so-called hardened hydrants, were funded by
the $167 million fire facilities levy, approved by voters in 2004.
The hydrants, painted gray with red caps, are essentially like any other fire hydrant, but they will be
installed near reservoirs. Fire Battalion Chief Molly Douce said that proximity will reduce the chance that
an earthquake could damage the line feeding the hydrant. At the same time, they are far enough away so
drinking water won't be contaminated by a fire hose tapping into the system. Two such hydrants have been
installed, one of them at the Beacon Hill Reservoir. Six more are planned.
The crew from Engine 13 also showed two lengths of hard suction hose lines that won't collapse and can be
placed into a body of water, such as Puget Sound, to pump water into an engine's water tanks. Bright
orange filters that can float, also bought with levy funding, are used to keep debris from clogging the lines.
To make sure residents have water to drink, SPU workers collaborated with a local company on a unique
device: a length of plastic piping with valves that can fill six plastic sacks at once. In the event of an
emergency, SPU would set up six stations in various locations around the city. Using either hydrants or
water blivets filled at the reservoirs, workers at the stations would fill plastic sacks, each holding six quarts
of water.
Patricia O'Brien, a neighborhood liaison for SPU, said the city used a $250,000 grant from the Department
of Homeland Security to construct the devices and buy 100,000 of the small plastic bags.
The water stations, she said, are self-contained, and two workers would be able to distribute as much as
1,700 gallons of water in an eight-hour period.
"We can crank out a lot of water," she said.
And then there was the titanic hose. Purchased just two months ago with $400,000 from another
Department of Homeland Security grant, the hose is kept coiled on large reels mounted on a trailer.
Such hoses are common in other earthquake-prone cities, said McNerney, and would serve as a temporary
replacement for ruptured water pipelines so crews could focus on repairing the damage without interrupting
the flow of water.
ARE WE READY?
This story is one in a continuing series on how prepared Seattle is to protect itself from and respond to
disasters.
Fish used to assess environment damage
By GARRY MITCHELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Katrina%20Environment
&searchdiff=&searchpagefrom=
ABOARD THE NANCY FOSTER -- Scientists harvested fish off the Mississippi coast as part of the latest
effort to assess environmental damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina's monstrous storm surge and toxic
floodwaters.
Researchers hope to determine whether the hurricane caused any contamination from chemical spills, sewer
overflows or other poisons that washed into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Nancy Foster, a research vessel operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
began gathering fish Monday off the Florida Panhandle. By Thursday, the vessel was near Horn Island, off
the coast from Biloxi, Miss., dipping its net for samples.
Steve Murawski, chief science adviser at NOAA, described the project as "the first scientific effort posthurricane to look in a very systematic way at what's going on in offshore waters."
During the voyage, the crew spotted hurricane debris that included refrigerators, televisions and power
poles. As the vessel surveyed the gulf, state and local agencies were checking rivers, inlets and bays for
contamination.
Aboard the ship, Tracy Collier of NOAA's Seattle lab said the Katrina situation is "so new, we don't know
what we're looking for."
He said tests of fish tissue should give some indication of how marine life fared during the hurricane.
Sediment samples were also being tested, particularly for any effect on seafood safety.
Lewis Byrd, director of seafood quality assurance for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said
workers took samples from shellfish-growing areas. He had been worried that silt would cover oysters and
kill them, but workers have not found that.
"They are telling me the oysters are pretty," he said.
Also Thursday, the Coast Guard released figures that indicate Hurricane Katrina may have spilled more
than 7 million gallons of oil from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast
Louisiana.
That amount is about two-thirds as much oil as spilled from the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989. But unlike
the oil from the Valdez, which poured from a single source, the oil spills caused by the storm were
scattered at sites throughout southeast Louisiana.
The oil could threaten the region's fragile coastal marshes, but three-quarters of it was not posing a danger
to wetlands. The Coast Guard figures showed more than 1.3 million gallons had evaporated or dispersed.
Crews had recovered nearly 2 million gallons and had contained another 2.3 million gallons behind booms
and other barriers.
Teams working to open shipping channels
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Hurricanes%20Waterways&s
earchdiff=&searchpagefrom=
WASHINGTON -- Navigation survey teams have been posted to the mid-Atlantic to begin checking
shipping channels as soon as Hurricane Ophelia has passed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration said Thursday.
The agency said navigational surveys along the Hurricane Katrina-damaged Gulf Coast should be
completed by Saturday. Many ports and channels in that area have been reopened to ship traffic by the
Coast Guard.
"Our teams have been working around the clock to help restore safe navigation channels," said NOAA
Corps Capt. Roger Parsons, director of the Office of Coast Survey.
NOAA is the agency responsible for providing the nation's nautical charts.
Making sure the waterways are safe for navigation requires cooperation between NOAA, the Army Corps
of Engineers, the Coast Guard, the Navy, local port authorities and state officials, Parsons said.
Prior to Katrina striking, the agency sent teams to the Gulf area in preparation for the storm's aftermath.
They included the hydrographic survey ship Thomas Jefferson; the coastal oceanography research ship
Nancy Foster, temporarily outfitted with hydrographic survey equipment; and a contract hydrographic
services provider to scan the sea bottom.
These teams use small survey launches equipped with side-scan sonar to survey waterways for underwater
hazards to vessels.
Hurricanes can cause major changes in the sea bottom, rendering the depths and obstruction listings on
nautical charts obsolete.
The NOAA findings are reported to the Coast Guard, which has authority to open and close waterways,
mark shipping channels and advise mariners on safe waterways.
The NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It
operates aircraft and ships as part of NOAA's activities and includes people trained in engineering, earth
science, oceanography, meteorology, fisheries science and other areas.