Dillingham AK, Homeland Security

Homeland Security in Alaska? (click here)
Surveillance-camera installation in small fishing town causes clash between police, residents.
Date published: 3/13/2006
By ALEX deMARBAN
ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS
DILLINGHAM, Alaska--If Osama bin Laden ever makes a sneak attack on Dillingham, he might be in big trouble.
That's because the quaint fishing community in southwest Alaska, population 2,400, recently installed about 80 surveillance cameras at the port and around town, courtesy of a $202,000 Homeland Security grant.
Anchorage has fewer than 40 cameras to protect its port.
Dillingham Police Chief Richard Thompson, who came up with the idea of applying for the grant, said the cameras could stop terrorism in Southwest Alaska someday. More to the point, they also may put an end to the drinking, deaths and drug deals that go down at the port every summer when the town fills up with commercial fishermen.
If the system prevents even one death, Thompson said, "I don't care what's said about me."
But some townsfolk are outraged. The only thing being captured by the cameras, they said, are their civil liberties. The white, plastic devices, clustered atop poles at the port or perched on four city buildings, feel like the glaring eyes of Big Brother. Some, with dual lenses for different lighting conditions, even resemble storm trooper helmets from "Star Wars."...


Security for the Homeland, Made in Alaska (click here)
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: August 12, 2004
As the Pentagon shipped thousands of military police to Iraq over the last year, it had to move quickly to replace guards at important installations around the country, including Fort Bragg, N.C., and West Point. So it turned to the private sector and quietly awarded multimillion-dollar contracts without putting out competitive bids.
The winners hailed from Alaskan corporations representing native tribal groups that are uniquely eligible to win Pentagon contracts in unlimited amounts without having to compete against other companies. But perhaps the main beneficiaries were their minority partners, two big security firms, Wackenhut Services and Vance International.
The Pentagon has made no public announcements of the contracts, in which the joint ventures are being paid $194 million to protect 40 properties. If options to extend them are exercised, the contracts' value could reach $500 million,...


Security Grants Still Streaming to Rural States (click here)
By DEAN E. MURPHY
Published: October 12, 2004
ANCHORAGE, Oct. 10 - In the nationwide scramble for domestic security dollars, officials in Alaska are in a predicament that would be the envy of most other states. They must figure out how to spend $2 million in federal money.
The Department of Homeland Security rejected a proposal by Alaska to use the money to buy a jet, but indicated it would be "happy to entertain" further proposals for the $2 million. Officials are now obliging.
One of the nation's least populous states, Alaska is flush with domestic security grants, on a per-resident basis second only to Wyoming and about three times the amount allocated to New York over the past two years.
Money is so readily available that the Northwest Arctic Borough, a desolate area of 7,300 people that straddles the Arctic Circle, recently stocked up on $233,000 worth of emergency radio equipment, decontamination tents, headlamps, night vision goggles, bullhorns - even rubber boots.
Alaska's good fortune highlights what many critics say is a serious failing in the way that America is fighting the battle against terrorism at home. While there is consensus that the threat of an attack should supersede politics as usual, the billions of federal dollars for terrorism preparedness are being doled out to states in much the same way as money for schools, bridges and other routine federal projects....

Arctic Ice Shelves Crumbling Rapidly

September 3, 2008—Canada's polar scientists have had little time for summer vacation this year.
That's because they've been closely monitoring the country's Arctic ice shelves, which have crumbled at an alarming pace over the past few months.
Nearly 23 percent of the total area—more than three times the size of Manhattan—has disappeared since 2007, satellite images show (above).
In July the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf broke apart, followed by the surprise collapse in August of the Markham Ice Shelf, which is now adrift in the Arctic Ocean.
And the recently named Serson Ice Shelf has shrunk by 60 percent—an "incredible" loss, said Derek Mueller, the Roberta Bondar Fellow in Northern and Polar Studies at Trent University in Ontario.
Large swaths of open water surrounding the shelves near the northern coast of Ellesmere Island have allowed breathing room for the ice to disintegrate, Mueller told National Geographic News. (See map.) ...

This is quite an event. Four tropical systems spinning all at once.

Gustav still has a central pressure of 997 millibars and it is still a Tropical Depression this far inland. Interesting. Once these storms establish a water content they'll continue to have vorticity until the water vapor content drops from rainfall. There are still opportunities for tornadoes with this storm.


September 3, 2008
1830z
UNISYS Water Vapor GOES East Satellite

Hanna just can't get enough water vapor off the equator can it. WOW. Talk about thirsty.

I believe I stated when Gustav made landfall, Hanna would accelerate. To that conclusion I want to point to some facts that are rather interesting.

Gustav made landfall as a Cat 2 Hurricane on September 1, 2008 at 10:30 AM EST over Cocodrie, Louisiana. It is pushing a 12 foot (3.6 meter) storm surge. The central pressure of the storm was 955 millibars.

At the very same time, Hanna was building strength into hurricane status. The central pressure of Hanna was 994 millibars and falling. Within 30 minutes Hanna would have a central pressure of 985 millibars and rank as a Cat 1 hurricane, while Gustav was attaining the central pressure of 957 millibars as a low Cat 2 storm and would continue to rise, hence reducing its status to a Cat 1 storm.

This is where it really gets interesting though. Expecting Hanna to accelerate far faster into a greater storm, there was a building turbulence in the storm now known as Ike. Ike manifested into a Tropical Depression at the very time Gustav made landfall, hence blunting the acceleration of Hanna. At the time Gustav made landfall, Ike formed a centeral pressure of 1005 millibars.

Ike maintained a Tropical Depression status until Hanna obtained a central pressure of 983 millibars. At that point Ike became a Tropical Storm with a central pressure of 1000 millibars and Gustav was still decelerating with a central pressure of 966 millibars.

Basically, Earth's troposphere is so hot that even with some cooling occuring with these storms by exchanging heated air for heated water, the elevated warming component of Earth is never really reduced to the place where it was even in the days of Katrina. The year 2005 was a record number of storm, but, none of the storms were as frequent in manifestation as Tropical Depressions and Storms as this season. Earth's cooling capacity is lost and as a result the storms that are appearing in sequence are proof of the chronic heating of Earth's troposphere that is NOT relieved of that heat by these storms as in the past.

Earth's thermostat is broken along with the disappearance of the Arctic Ocean ice as a result of Climate Change due to Human Induced Global Warming.

But to continue, on September 2, 2008 at 0900 gmt, Gustav is increasing its central pressure to 985 and moving from Tropical Strom status to Tropical Depression status, Hanna is now at a central pressure of 978 and within the next thirty minutes will move from a Cat 1 storm to a Tropical Storm status and Ike is maintaining its Tropical Storm status but briefly rises to 1005 central pressure from 1000 millibars. Why is this significant? Because at that very moment, when Gustav, Hanna and Ike were all decelerating another storm would manifest into a Tropical Depression and that is now know as Josephine with a central pressure of 1007.

Getting the picture? It's called oscillation. These storms form and literally react to each other along a continum of heat and tropospheric available water vapor.

What is even more incredible is the 'reach' of these storms to maintain their status and maintain their ability to drive heat into the ocean. In the image above, Hanna is literally pulling 'sparse' tropospheric water vapor from every available source north of the Equator to sustain its presence. Hanna is getting assistance in that dynamic from the vortex over the North Atantic west of the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.

If one doesn't look at the entire dynamics of these system, global systems, it is easy to say "we are having a light hurricane season,' as if nothing is wrong. But, it isn't until the entire global dynamics of Climate Change is taken into consideration that observations relevant to that perspective can be supported.

We are observing a very dangerous and dry troposphere.

Traffic snarls into New Orleans

Traffic comes to stop on the Interstate 10 freeway over Lake Pontchartain between New Orleans and in Slidell, La., Wednesday Sept.. 3, 2008, as residents of New Orleans return home after Hurricane Gustav swept through the city.

(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

The traffic leaving New Orleans was accommodated by open lanes out of the area without allowing traffic to come in. The traffic returning is going to be considerably slower because the access to the city is halfed by the fact that the lanes are again flowing in both directions.

There needs to be a change in the access rate to the city otherwise the problems will compound until everyone is back in their driveways. Then there are the issues of access to driveways and city steets depending on any damage sustained.

My concern is that with other storm potential in the near future, delays and inconvenience will change the willingness of people to leave the city in the first place.

All checkpoints lifted, city reopens

What's going on with trash and debris cleanup (clean up)
by The Times-Picayune
Wednesday September 03, 2008, 2:17 PM
FRENCH QUARTER
-- Public works departments and private garbage haulers across New Orleans are already clearing streets littered with tree limbs, marquees, light poles and power lines.
-- Trucks with wood chippers caravaned along Interstate 610.
-- SDT waste trucks were out cleaning up debris and sweeping streets in the French Quarter Tuesday morning.
-- Outside of Harrah's Casino, workers trimmed back palm trees.

Unexpected consequence of Hurricane Gustav

Sick baby dies in Texas after family fled Gustav (click here)
By ANGELA K. BROWN – 11 hours ago
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A couple who fled the New Orleans area in advance of Hurricane Gustav will have to return home without their 7-month-old daughter, who died of a rare genetic disorder after becoming stricken at an amusement park.
Kaitlynn Foret suddenly stopped breathing at Six Flags Over Texas on Monday and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was later pronounced dead....
... Vidal said she does not regret evacuating their Harvey, La., home. Her daughter's death, while an unexpected tragedy, could have happened anywhere, she said.
"Right now, I just can't believe it," said Jason Foret, Vidal's fiance and the baby's father. "One minute she was here — the next minute, she was gone."

Anyone ever notice the skeptics are primarily Oil Folks. "Palin questions global warming science"

Sarah Palin with one of her daughters posing with a caribou she shot in Alaska.

Picture: AP

...Last month, the state of Alaska under Palin's guidance sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in an attempt to reverse his decision to list polar bears as a threatened species. Palin said that scientists' predictions that global warming would eliminate the ice where the bears live in summer were unreliable.

Arctic sea ice shrank to a record low by the end of last summer, and satellites now show that the ice has been reduced to a level very close to last year's with some days remaining before a new winter season begins.

The Anchorage Daily News reported in May that the head of the marine mammals program for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and two other marine mammal biologists on his staff agreed with nine studies the Federal Government cited to justify listing polar bears as a threatened species....

This is the way McCain chooses a Vice President?

Is McCain taking this nomination seriously? I mean for real. He has said odd things such as, "We are just having fun" and now this mess. Did he ever expect to be a serious candidate after Bush/Cheney ravaged the nation and its assets?

...A Republican with ties to the McCain campaign said the team of a dozen communications operatives and lawyers assigned to vet Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until last Friday - a day before presidential nominee Senator John McCain announced her as his running mate.
McCain had his first interview with her on the Friday and "offered her the job moments later", the newspaper said....