ARRL: Hurricane Watch Net Keeping Eye on Tropical Storm Barry

From the Amateur Radio Relay League:

Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) Manager Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, said the net is “keeping a very close eye” on Tropical Storm Barry, which could develop into a Category 1 hurricane. The HWN has announced no plans to activate, however, and remains at Alert Level 2 — monitoring mode.

At 2100 UTC, the storm’s center was 90 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi and some 175 miles southeast of Morgan City, Louisiana. The storm is generating maximum sustained winds of 40 MPH with higher gusts and is moving to the west at 5 MPH.

“Although hurricane watches and warnings are now in effect, the National Hurricane Center states that Barry could become a hurricane prior to landfall,” Graves noted. “Even if Barry does not reach Category 1 hurricane status, wind gusts to hurricane force are possible in the warning area. Regardless, if Barry becomes a hurricane or not, this system is looking to be a major rainmaker.”

Forecasters concur that the storm will continue to intensify until making landfall. A danger exists of life-threatening storm surge along the coast of southern and southeastern Louisiana. The storm’s slow movement will result in an extended period of heavy rainfall and the threat of flooding along the central Gulf Coast and inland through the lower Mississippi Valley through the weekend into early next week, forecasters said.

Here is the standard HWN activation plan:

When activated, you will find us on 14.325 MHz (USB) by day and 7.268 MHz (LSB) by night. If propagation dictates, daytime operations will be conducted on both frequencies simultaneously. Why do we state these frequencies without a plus or minus amount? Because those who are operating using marine radios have to program in the frequencies – marine radios do not have a VFO or RIT. Furthermore, these two frequencies come preprogrammed into many marine radios. Many non-hams listen in via shortwave radio and know this is where to find us when we are activated…

NOTE: During any Net activation, operations on 7.268.00 MHz will suspend @ 7:30 AM ET to allow the “Waterway Radio and Cruising Club Net – WRCC” (aka, the Waterway Net) to conduct their daily morning Net. If required, due to poor daytime propagation on 14.325.00 MHz, operations on 7.268.00 MHz may be required at the conclusion of the Water Way Net, generally around 8:30 AM ET.

Whenever the Hurricane Watch Net is not active, you can hear the latest information on 14.300.00 MHz.

As a special note to those who monitor when the net is active, we ask that you please honor our request for you remain quiet unless specifically called upon for assistance.

NatGeo: New Orleans Braces for Major Flooding from Tropical Storm Barry

Barry, the first storm of the 2019 hurricane season, is expected to make landfall in the New Orleans area on Saturday, bringing with it a 19-foot storm surge that threatens to overtop the 20-foot levees protecting parts of the city.

If the surge doesn’t flood the city, then the possible 20 inches of rain that Barry is forecast to dump on the area could do it. In fact, thunderstorms associated with the outer bands of the storm turned New Orleans streets into rivers on Wednesday.

“If you get a couple of inches of rain an hour for several hours even the pumps can’t keep up,” says Mike Efferson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in New Orleans-Baton Rouge about Wednesday’s 8-inch rainfall. New Orleans has a world-class drainage system that uses 120 pumps to keep the city dry.

Following the devastation Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans in 2005, Congress approved a $14.5 billion upgrade to the city’s flood defenses. Those easily withstood Category 1 Hurricane Isaac and its ten-foot storm surge in 2012.

Barry is expected to be a weak hurricane, not much more than a tropical storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale and pretty typical for July, according to Efferson. But there’s nothing typical about this year’s record flooding of the Mississippi River.