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12/1/2012

Photographs of Hurricane Sandy's Impact in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania Needed for Research by the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary

A Message from the Science Director of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary:

Staff at the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary are currently working to assess the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. To help us with this assessment, we welcome any photos, stories, videos, or storm-related data you may have. Please share them with us on facebook or send them to SRothrock@DelawareEstuary.org.

We are particularly interested in the natural lands and waters of coastal Delaware, New Jersey's southern bayshore, and Southeast Pennsylvania. We hope to learn new lessons about which habitats and resources survived best. We will then apply those lessons using new projects, like our living shorelines.
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Hurricane Sandy made landfall within 50 miles of Delaware Bay, sparing millions from the destruction others are suffering in the Northeast. We are extremely lucky. Damage could have been far worse. That's why it's imperative we take the necessary steps to prepare for the future. Your photos, stories, and videos can help.

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11/16/2012

Storm Surges

Sea Foam, Surf, and Surges

Why does Dr. Kate Connors worry about beach water quality in Nocturne, Opus 1: Sea Foam? First of all, she is the mother of a precocious three-year-old daughter and she loves her dearly. Which parent among us wouldn't pay attention to our child's surroundings, especially in new places like on vacation at the beach? But how many of us also see this standard beach scene through the microscopic and macroscopic eyes of a scientist?

Kate Connors is a scientist, a medical researcher studying the effects of bacteria on the human body. Specifically, she studies Bacillus nocturne, a normally passive, estuary bacteria that floats harmlessly in rivers, bays and oceans. Why does she study this bacteria? Because the organization that hired her, the Institute for Public Policy and Safety, knows that someone has genetically altered Bacillus nocturne. Kate sees danger where we see children laughing and tumbling in the surf.

But after Hurricane Sandy and the Nor'easter that followed it, we may also see danger in sea foam, surf, and surges. Knowing that bacteria do exist in our coastal waters, it is important to think about where all that surge water that entered people's homes came from. Whether back bay surges, ocean surges, or river surges, that water was filled with waste water, chemical and biological residue, and decaying matter. People wading through it to help others and to secure their possessions may have come in contact with materials hazardous to their health. Any one with cuts and abrasions that were exposed to the surge water could be very vulnerable to an infection. In the Delaware area, television stations were reminding people caught in the flooding or clean-up to review their tetanus injection records to see if a booster injection might be prudent. Furthermore, the television stations announced that anything porous which had come in contact with the flood waters, although dry now, should be disposed of, rather than cleaned and kept.

Safety first . . . material possessions last.

We are reminded through events like storm surges that life is what is important, because we can replace water-logged things, but we cannot replace a life.

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11/8/2012

Nor'easter

YET ANOTHER NORTHEASTER STRIKES THE DELAWARE AND MID-ATLANTIC COASTLINES

For those of you who are new to the Mid-Atlantic Coast, you may have wondered what all the discussions of Nor'easters were about the last few days. They are one of the more serious and dangerous storms that strike the Mid-Atlantic Coast, and they strew damage in every direction along the path of their landfall.

Nor'easters usually originate as a low pressure area with a center of rotation off the East Coast. The winds from the storm in the left forward quadrant rotate onto land from the northeast, thus the name Northeaster.

The storms can cause excessive amounts of rain, leading to coastal flooding, dune breaks, and very damaging erosion of the beaches and inland water banks. Hurricane force winds can whip snowfalls in the winter into blizzards with heavy icing of roads. They can occur at any time of year, but are devastating during the winter season when they often pull very cold air down from the Arctic air mass.

The convergence of Arctic cold air and warmer ocean air over the Gulf Stream can set up a very nasty storm. Last week's Hurricane Sandy, for example, became a superstorm when it united with a cold air mass stalled over the Northeast and a warm air mass just off the Atlantic Coast.

What makes this Nor'easter so devastating is that few residents have had time to recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy, and now they will be inundated with either more rain or snow, and certainly more coastal flooding. Let us all keep our recovering coastal friends and neighbors in our prayers.