[TN-Bird] Guide To Hurricane Safety -- Ivan post #2
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 19:28:35 -0400
GUIDELINES FOR BIRDING, AND NOT BIRDING, IN TROPICAL CYCLONES
1) When the storm is still more than 24 hours from AFFECTING your area OR the
area you possibly intend to COVER following the storm, it is enough to keep
aware of the storm's projected track and position every few hours. You will
be best able to do this by watching the Weather Channel, listening to a NOAA
Weather Radio station (not all areas served, but many areas can pick
up 1-2 stations), or by downloading information on one of the several
internet sites.
2) When the storm is closer than 24 hours (and/or, to set an arbitrary
standard, your local coastal winds have picked up to more than 30 mph
sustained as a direct result of the storm's advance), your monitoring should
be more frequent, both for the purposes of monitoring possible fall-out of
seabirds and other birds AND for the purposes of ensuring your own personal
safety.
3) YOUR SAFETY IS YOUR FIRST PRIORITY. Safety is neglected for many reasons
in storms --With all the advance warning time, death by hurricane in the United
States
should, in most cases, be a matter of choice, not "tragedy." If the
authorities say evacuate, then do so. Period. If the authorities say stay out
of flooded or dangerous road rockslide area. Do exactly that. This means you!
A direct hit by a Category 4 hurricane will flood massvie low lying areas.
Keep in mind that Ivan has been projected by Louisiana Emergency Prepardeness
authorites as capable of killing 10,000 people in the New Orleans area alone.
On the east side of Ivan's passage sea walls may be reaching 10 to 16 feet. So
there is a real problem with heavily populated areas on the gulf coast. But
what the masses do at the last minute and what you (and family and pets, etc.)
do during a storm's
approach do not have to be the identical. If you have a serious storm
projected in your area, ABIDE BY THE BEST ADVICE OF THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES. Is
it worth your life to see a blurry streak going by in heavy rain that
looked like it may have been a Sooty or Bridled Tern?
3) Most people on this net, and most people in the eastern United States,
would not be confronted with a direct coastal hit but rather a storm passing
inland and usually deteriorating. But recall Hazel, 1954, a Category 4/5,
which passed inland and had sustained winds over 100 mph all
the way up to ONTARIO. There will be more storms like that one. IF
IN DOUBT ABOUT THE DANGERS OF THE STORM IN YOUR AREA INLAND, CONSULT
AUTHORITIES. Most will tell you to stay inside during a storm and to stock
up well ahead of time on nonperishable groceries, batteries, candles, and the
like. You may wish to buy a generator if you want to stay on-line during
frequent power-losses -- or if your family likes to watch videos, etc.
Tennessee is in the direct path of this powerful and dangerous Hurricane Ivan.
4) It is not possible to find birds during the passage of a storm's rainy
outer edges in most cases, so there is no point in standing out in heavy rain
and high winds in any case. It can be difficult to stand up in winds over 45
knots, and torrential rains are just miserable. It is possible to bird in
the eye, but most desirable birds will departed as the
southern edge of the eyewall passed over.he was standing.
ONE IS PUTTING ONESELF AT RISK OF ENCOUNTERING
FLASH FLOODS SEVERE ENOUGH TO WASH ONE'S VEHICLE AWAY, ELECTROCUTION BY DOWNED
POWERLINES, FALLING TREES AND TELEPHONE POLES, FLYING OBJECTS OF EVERY
DESCRIPTION, AND DRIVING CONDITIONS OF THE WORST IMAGINABLE KIND, ENOUGH TO
MAKE ACCIDENTS INEVITABLE. Use your best judgment during these storms. Recall
the images from Andrew and Hugo -- enormous boats tossed around like
leaves, whole neighborhoods and forests that looked like spilled boxes of
toothpicks after the storms' passage. The human body cannot withstand
bombardment with the equivalent of wooden shrapnel, as some Florida residents
found. IF IN DOUBT, STAY INSIDE.
5) Immediately following the storm is the best time to be afield in any case.
RESPECT ALL CLOSINGS AND ALL AUTHORITIES' DECISIONS. To do otherwise
causes nothing but frustration. When travelling, be cautious about water in
the roadways, downed electrical wires, people and animals (and foreign
objects) in the roadways, weakened roadways (supporting banks and the like
washed out) and bridges. Try not to travel during downpours; pull off to the
side or under an overpass and wait out the last of the feeder bands' rain.
Keep hazard lights blinking whenever you think it might help other motorists
to see you.
6) With all this safety material in mind (most of it is common sense now that
forecasting is so advanced), where you bird is a matter of personal calculus.
Large inland lakes are obviously places where many seabirds choose to drop
out of the eye. Most terns do not stay long -- a few hours at most --
whereas tubenoses may remain longer. Very little information exists for
storm-driven seabirds in large coastal sounds of the southeast, but in
October 1971, Ginger pushed two White-faced and eleven Leach's Storm-Petrels
inside Oregon Inlet, NC. Likewise, the coast is worth checking following
the inland passage of a storm, as following
Hugo's passage -- large numbers of jaegers, tropical terns, and
shearwaters. Areas to the east and northeast of the eye's path of passage
appear to be the most productive, but we have seen White-tailed Tropicbird in
well west of the eye's passage. There is no reason not to check inland areas
thoroughly as well. I am including some comments for our many subscribers in
Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
It is very important to take digital cameras and video cams into the field to
document anything and everything possible. Our state records committee will
want to see as much evidence as possible. Keep detailed and extensive notes on
where everything is found. Don't get so swept away in just trying to find good
birds that careful documentaiton is not carried out.
Gray Graves of the Division of Brids, National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, has told me in the past that a significant fraction of
the shearwaters, petrels, and storm-petrels driven inland by tropical storms
and hurricanes presumably die. Gary has suggested that someone collate the
information on salvaged
hurricane specimens (listing the species and the museums they are deposited
in). This specimen material may eventually shed some light on the breeding
origin of some species (e.g., Black-capped Petrel).
Please report quickly to TN-Birds the progress of the storm in your areas and
what you see.
We need information about how bird species flock, feed and take cover in such
strong storms. We need whatever information we can about how hummingbirds at
feeders feed and interact as the storm approaches, durning and afterwards.
Any dead rarities you can pick up need to be placed in freezers as quickly as
possible. Maybe other birders of friends can supply storage. If you need help
make an appeal on TN-Birds for how to salvage such specimens and someone may
come to your help.
We are trying to prepare all TN-Birders to deal with the potential of this
storm for birders.
Make sure that first and foremost is your safety. Do not do anything that is
dangerous. Constantly make judgements on the best side of safety.
Remember that we may experience enormous flooding, especailly in the mountain
counties and major drainage of East Tennessee. Make sure you are well informed
before driving into low-lying areas along watercourses, even in the foothills
of the Great Smoky Mountains and almost anywhere in the Appalachians for the
coming week.
This can be very dangerous.
Let's go birding....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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