Tsunami Detecting Buoys Program May See Budget Cuts

Do we really want to cut the funding of our own tsunami warning system? The GOP's proposed spending bill threatens to do just that, slashing the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by as much as $450 million. And that will effect the work of the National Data Buoy Center at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where tsunami-detecting and weather buoys are assembled and tested. The buoys are part of the DART (Deep Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) system, which monitors buoys deployed around the world, sounding the alarm if America's West Coast is threatened.

There are those who are critical of the DART system. I spoke to officials at NDBC about a report recently published by MIT questioning DART's reliability . Is it true that only 60 per cent of the buoys are operational at any given time? I was told that those number were taken from a report made a year ago based on data from a year before that. Since that time, improvements have been made. As of March 14th, when I sat in on a morning briefing, 90 per cent of the buoys are reporting back.

The buoys have to stand up to extreme currents and weather conditions. But they are more likely to be damaged by humans or sharks than the elements. Their solar panels have been stolen. Large fish congregate near their nylon ropes, which fisherman have been known to cut. Fish gnaw on the ropes, eating barnacles that attach themselves to it. Drug dealers have used them to stash drugs and those lost at sea, for refuge. On-site inspection, repair or replacement, to say nothing of the shipping costs, don't come cheap, but do we want to do without a tsunami early warning system?

Someone mans the National Data Buoy Center 24/7. On March 11, shortly after the earthquake struck Japan, DART analyst Tracy Bourdreaux woke up and checked the out the data right away. Life at the Center has been busy ever since, with the aftershocks continually setting off the tsunami buoys.

Images: Top: Tsunami detecting buoys being fabricated at the National Data Buoy Center / Helmut Portmann, director of the National Data Buoy Center, with a tsunami detecting buoy Bottem: Tsunami buoys being fabricated at the National Data Buoy Center /Satellites that receive information from tsunamis buoys at The National Data Buoy Center / Message shown at the end of a National Date Buoy Center morning briefing. In the bAckground, a buoy in the Pacific Ocean /DART analyst Tracy Bourdreaux's chart of the 39 tsunami buoys / Tracy Bourdreaux , a DART (Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis) analyst looking at data from the tsunami buoys in the Pacific Ocean/ A weather detecting buoy made in the 1960's at the National Data Buoy Center, much larger then the current models/ Nylon rope used in the fabrication of tsunami detecting buoys/ Broken tsunami buoys awaiting repair / Nylon rope to be used with the tsunami buoys . The thicker pink rope is fish-bite resistant and used at the top of the buoy/ Computer electronics that make up the "brains" of the tsunami buoys

Click here to see a video clip of Helmut Portmann explaining how the tsunami buoys work

Shooting the Revolution with a Point and Shoot in Cairo

and Why a Woman's Place is on the Front Lines story posted on wowOwow

I was in the Bahamas when the revolution in Egypt began. It was my first vacation in a long time. But while conversations about real estate and gossip swirled around me, I longed to be in Cairo. A massive protest there was nothing short of miraculous. Years back a friend who lives in Cairo, Yasser Alwan, told me Mubarak's regime ruthlessly quashed all dissent. I emailed him to check on his well being and see if I could stay with him as I watched events unfold on TV. With the internet down and the revolution in full swing, I hesitated before booking a ticket. In the streets, Mabarak's thugs were on the attack. At the airport, some photographers' gearwas confiscated on arrival. I finally heard from Yasser, who said I could stay with him. I decided, despite the risks, to go. I bought a ticket on February 9 and left the following day, stashing atiny point-and-shoot in my coat pocket and hiding a flip video cam inside a container of wet-wipes in my suitcase.I hoped my small rolling bag of professional gear would make it with me into Cairo but wasprepared to buy a new point and shoot if none of my gear made it into the country with me.

At the airport in New Orleans, I read online that the story was rapidly changing. Rumor had it Mubarak was stepping down that day. On my Jet Blue flight to New York City's JFK Airport, I listened to reporters' speculations and watched as crowds in Tahrir Square began to celebrate in anticipation of Mubarak's resignation. Someone in the state department confirmed Mubarak would step down. It looked like I was going to miss a key moment in history. Waiting at the gate for my flight to Frankfurt, I heard Mubarak's speech on CNN; he would not resign. It seemed regime change would wait for me after all.

When I arrived in Cairo International Airport the next day, the customs officer confiscated my gear and that of ABC reporters Jim Dolan and Joseph Tesoro, Fox News' Courtney Kealy and ITN News reporters John Ray and Robert Bowles. Though Mubark's regime in recent days had pledged to allow freedom of the press, that proclamation had not made it out to the airport. I did my best to talk my way past the first Customs inspector saying I was going to the Red Sea resort of Sham el Sheikh (where, it turned out, Mubarak would end up), not Tahrir Square. But that didn't work. It was time to call the American Embassy. I got Adam Lefort, the press liaison, on the line. In the background, Nolan declared they'd have to put him in jail before he'd give up his equipment. Not what Lefort, wanted to hear. He'd been dealing with detained journalists over the last week. Could I please calm Nolan down, Lefort asked. He would send a fax to the airport that might free up our gear, but it became clear a fax was not enough. I'd have to try to retrieve my gear the next day. Nolan too finally gave up and watched as his gear was packed up in an empty Jack Daniels carton. My camera bag was sealed with a string slipped through a zipper and secured by a wax seal that was melted with a piece of paper set on fire. We were all asked to sign papers written in Arabic listing our property that would serve as our claim tickets. (My Arabic-speaking friends later looked at my paper and laughed. I had signed a statement saying I had left my gear at the airport on my own initiative and would pay a storage fee for the service.)

I got into town and headed for the foreign press office at the National TV Building with the Embassy fax and a letter from my photo agency, Corbis to start the process of getting a press pass. The building was under siege, surrounded by barbed wire, tanks and a massive, angry crowd. As night fell, the crowd suddenly erupted. Mubarak had stepped down. In an instant, Cairo turned into a massive party, the streets alive with singing, waving flags and jubilation. I took out my point-and-shot and flip video cam and went to work.

The next day I filled out a press pass application, but no one at the foreign press office could tell me when It would be approved. I needed a new letter from the Embassy saying I would take my gear with me when I left the country. (Why wouldn't I, I wondered.) The rules were evolving daily. And if I had all the proper passes and papers, properly stamped and signed, I had better go out to the airport's camera repository at the proper time. I learned from photographer Alan Chin, whose ordeal began on February 6th, that the storage room with its hundreds of cameras closes at 2 p.m.; he got there too late and returned to Cairo empty handed the day before. At the Embassy, Lefort gave me the new letter and said what was going on was unprecedented. There was no go-to guy as there would have been before the revolution to clear things up.

I called a the press office Sunday and was told my pass wasn't ready. I explained I had to get to a meeting at the pyramids for a press conference to help revive the tourism industry and how horrible it would be to go there without my equipment. Bingo. Suddenly I had the name and number of a senior official who would help. Back to the state TV building where another protest was in progress. I had to fight my way into the lobby, go through a metal detector (it beeped, but no one seemed to care). Once in the foreign press office I enquired about my pass again. No, it wasn't ready, but when I told my story about how I planned to cover the pyramids, everything changed. I was ushered into the office of the senior official. Press pass? he said. The Embassy said you needed one to collect your gear? You don't. Special stamps on special letters? No, I didn't need those either. He'd sign my letter from the Embassy with his own personal signature. Then I should go see Muhammad at the airport right away and if I made it before 2, maybe I'd be able to retrieve my cameras. No guarantee, he said. But the odds were 70%. Better than going to a casino, I thought, pushing my way through the protestors to get into a cab on a traffic-choked street.

It took an additional five hours to get my gear. Muhammad at the airport had me call Madame Laila who walked me through the process. First I had to pay the Egyptian equivalent of $1.50 to get a badge to enter the Customs area a few feet away . I put it in my pocket; no one ever asked to see it. Then I went to Madame Laila's office where I waited with another female journalist. I paid another dollar for a Customs document and a $2 storage fee. I signed form after form, all in Arabic, hoping I didn't put my name to something I would later regret. I passed time watching another woman in the office shuffling papers, matching receipts to documents. There was a log book in front of her I had to sign before my stuff could be released. I saw that CNN, PBS, CCTV, ABC and the New York Times had all been there before me. At last I was brought into the storeroom and retrieved my camera bag. The room remained packed with gear. Another hour passed as my bag's contents were inspected. I was the last journalist they dealt with that day. "You'll have to come back tomorrow," a Customs official said. It took me a second to realize he was joking. I took my bag and headed out the door into another taxi and spent the rest of the day in Cairo's rush hour traffic.

The protestors risked everything for what they believed in. The risk I took to cover the revolution pales in comparison. I got off easy compared to journalists who covered the story from its inception. The Kafkaesque bureaucratic process i dealt with to get my gear back is something Egyptians deal with daily. I salute the people of Egypt for toppling a brutal, repressive regime and all those who put their personal safety on the line to report this story. It was an honor to photograph the jubilant crowds who cheered when Mubarak's VP announced his departure and the millions who turned out the following Friday to celebrate their victory.

Here is a link to my coverage on the Atlantic's Website on the night of the 11th shot with point and shoot camera and a link to the celebration and clean up the following days.

A link to my work shot in Eygpt available through Corbis

and a set of images on Flickr and video clips on utube and my website www.jsdart.com

image below shot on Febuary 19th in Tahrir Square on a day of Victory Celebration

Ken Feinberg says "I don't work for BP". He gets paid by them tough.

Oil spill claims chief Ken Feinberg has held three town hall meetings in January, one in Mississippi and three in Louisiana, to explain new guidelines that impact on all claims against BP. On Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 300 people attended the meeting at the Lafitte Community Center in Jean Lafitte, LA. Feinberg listened to their concerns and answered questions during an emotionally charged hour long meeting. There was a line of frustrated people who didn't get to address him, but Feinberg promised he'd be returning. Former congressman Anh "Joseph" Cao, now a consultant to Feinberg, is helping the Vietnamese community that has been having a lot of trouble navigating the claims process. Feinberg told the crowd that Cao and other locals were recently hired to make the claims process run more smoothy. But those in attendance expressed their disbelief. Elmer Rogers from Empire came to the meeting with his claim in hand. At a meeting earlier in the year when he had a brief private audience with Feinberg, he was told his claim was valid and he would be paid. Addressing Feinberg once again, he asked if it would help to beg and got on his knees. "I just need money to live," he exclaimed. Diane Pochie of Lafitte got so agitated when stating her case, security stepped in and made her back up. Issues raised at the meeting ranged from personal pleas, complaints about the wrong people receiving payments, to wanting to know when and how the lump sum payout that is one of the options claimants can chose will be determined. Feinberg explained the three option: emergency payments, quarterly payments or getting a lump sum and giving up ones right to sue BP. That option has angered people. Many asked if it was legal to have people give up their right to sue if they take the payment. Feinberg made clear that he is neither encouraging or discouraging anyone from taking the lump payment, and reminded the people he works for them, not BP, though BP is paying him.
Images: Top- Hung Viet Tran, a fisherman from New Orleans east wear a sign on his forehead that saw "I Fish Therefore I am." , Ken Feinberg, administrator of the BP Oil Spill Victim Compensation Fund, Bottom-Tracy Kuhns, wears her message on a pin and sticker, Crowd at a town hall meeting filled to capacity
To see more images from the meeting click here.

link to wwl's coverage of the meeting- they did a great job capturing the drama. And an article on the Huffington post about-$950 an hour paid out of BP Claims fund to a Law Professor to consult . And one more link - the oil commission report and a video my Mediastorm that has a bunch of my images in it. One of my images is in the final report to which is free to download.

Thoughts of Flo McGarrell a Year After the Earthquake in Haiti

Flo McGarrell was on my mind a year ago today, and is again today, the anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Flo died in the collapse of the Peace of Mind Hotel in Jacmel. His sudden death stays with me. I feel powerless to ease the pain of Flo's parents, who miss him immeasurably. Flo's room in the McGarrell's Vermont home has been left as it was the last time Flo visited in December 2009. His work lives on, as his friends continue to offer assistance to the artists he was mentoring at FOSJA, a Jacmel art center. Sue Frame who was with Flo at the time of the earthquake, started Jakmel Ekspresyons to carry on Flo's work to help contemporary artists in Jacmel. A memorial exhibition at AVA in New Hampshire included many of Flo's inflatable sculptures as well as the work of many of Flo's friends. This link it to AVA's post on the show.In an interview, Flo said, "I am extremely lucky to have an amazingly supportive family who puts up with all my crazy schemes. They seem to understand, respect and trust my drive. I am so thankful I was born into them, and do not take this for granted. This is where all my freedom really comes from. I don’t have to really sell any work because, if worst comes to worst, I can always go home." Here is a link to read interview by Georgia Kotretsos.

Today I added 23 previously unreleased images to a set on flickr of images shot three weeks after the earthquake along with a set of Haiti 11 months after the earthquake.

Image descriptions: Top- Haitian beads and small bottle of Haitian spirits on the door of Flo's room, Flo's bedroom, as he left it ,Shrine in Flo's room

Bottom- Zaka ( Claudel Chery) , Flo's protoge, visiting the memorial in the McGarrel's backyard where Flo's ashes are buried,Window sill in Flo's room, Flo's book shelf

First Pictures of the New Year 2011

New Year's Eve in New Orleans was a foggy affair, Click here to see a set of images of the fireworks over the Mississippi River.
New Orleans' Superintendent Ronal Serpas held a press conference on New Year's Day sharing good news: There were no reports of injury due to stray bullets during the celebration.
No murders in New Orleans either, though there was one across the lake in Mandeville, where there was also a birth. Baby Carmelo O'mari Ard, son of Ta'kia Ard, was delivered five-seconds after midnight at Regional Medical Center in Covington making him the first baby born in Louisiana in 2011. The hospital thought he might be the first born in America, but a babies in Chicago and New York beat him out.

NGO's Keep the Cholera Epidemic Under Control in and Around Port-au-Prince, but for How Long?

I went to Haiti to cover the elections and the cholera epidemic on November 25th- Dec 4th.
Here are links to my multimedia work on the Atlantic's website about the elections-

Haitian Voters Brave Chaos and Cholera

Haiti's Elections: Images From Campaign's Final Days (Jude Celestin's Campaing)

How Easy Was IT to Commit Voting Fraud in Haiti's Election?
and a photo essay featuring Samaritan's Purse's cholera clinic's-the organization hosting Sarah Palin on her visit to Haiti

Cholera cases in and around Port-au-Prince have stabilized. That's what I was told the week ending on December 2nd when I visited five cholera clinics. But Licia Betor who runs the Real Hope for Haiti Clinic in Cazel warned this positive news could change at any time. The decrease in new cases is due to education which is a positive sign, but Betor fears people will grow complacent, tire of the stringent hygiene measures they have been encouraged to practice and go back to their old ways. Haitians now know they need to get to clinics early if they have cholera's main symptoms: vomiting and/or diarrhea. In some cases a patient who goes for help immediately can be rehydrated, given antibiotics and sent home the same day. Most are discharged in two days; young children and the elderly with weaker immune systems get hit the hardest and often stay five days or more. On November 29th when I visted Cazel, the 25 bed clinic had eight patients; on Nov 14th it housed 48. As I was leaving a team of 15 people carried a 72 year old woman on a bed frame padded with cardboard up a steep hill to get to the clinic, a reminder that the epidemic is far from over.


Samaritan's Purse has two cholera clinics, one in Cabaret, a small town 45 minutes north of Port-an-Prince and one in Cité Soleil that opened on November 30th. By the end of its second day, 60 patients had been treated and 35 beds were taken in the new 200 bed facility made of plywood and plastic. In the tent city next to the clinic the displaced people living there are unhappy with the clinic's proximity. They say they are helpless to do anything about it. Dorsius Gefrard complains the smell of chemicals used at the clinic can't be good for them. They are worried their families are now in greater risk of disease.

Doctors Without Borders has 30 cholera treatment centers in Haiti, including 13 in Port-au-Prince. They are seeing approximately 1,200 new cases a day. New cases are expected to rise around the holidays since cholera is a socially transmitted disease. Empty beds are being made ready now in anticipation of a spike in cases. Patients often arrive in a coma, caused by a rapid loss of fluids and electrolytes. They come to the clinics by wheelbarrow, tap-taps (pickup trucks converted into public transportation) or carried by friends, family and neighbors on stretchers, beds and sometimes doors. Often there are multiple infections within families. Fedline Charle's mother, who stayed at her bedside, was later admitted to the same clinic and treated in a tent for adults. Fedline, like the other patients, rests quietly: cholera leaves its victims with little energy.

Wharf Jeremy, one of the poorest parts of Port-au-Prince, has a high rate of fatalities. The neighborhood illustrates the difficulty in irradicating the disease. Cholera cases spiked there after Hurricane Tomas, when a creek that passes through the area flooded homes with contaminated water. An NGO recently installed a unit of portable toilets on the stream's banks where people defecate out in the open. Ilna Lorna, whose job it is to clean them, has had rocks thrown at her by residents. She says she has given up trying to persuade people to use them.

The Haitian Ministry of Public Health has a phone number to call if you find a cholera victim's body. Body collectors arrive within 48 hours. They stuff the mouth with cotton, wrap the head in gauze, tie the arms together and spray the body with bleach before putting the corpse into a body bag, Bodies are taken by truck to a mass grave in Titmayn. The site is near the mass graves of earthquake victims who were buried in January. Charite Charle's body was removed while her two children watched. They are now orphans with nowhere to go. They were living on the street with their mother across from the National Cathedral where she died. The Haitian government estimates that cholera has claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people so far.

The prediction that Haiti would be plagued by disease after the earthquake is now a reality. Despite stabilizing new infections in a handful of clinics, cholera is killing people every day. The disease threatens to become a disaster as deadly as the earthquake. Though the elections have taken the spotlight off public welfare, cholera remains Haiti's biggest threat.
How you can help- visit the website of these NGO's and contribute
Real Hope For Haiti Rescue Center -

Doctors without Borders
Samaritan's Purse

to see more on the cholera epedemic check out photo essay featuring Samaritan's Purse's cholera clinic's-the organization hosting Sarah Palin on her visit to Haiti

Photo captions: top: Jeff Kalason, 9 years old, recovering in cholera treatment center in the Tabarre section of Port-au-Prince run by Doctors Without Borders/
Charle Fedline recovering rests alone after her mother who had been at her bedside had to be admitted to the same clinic run by Doctors WIthout Borders/ Patients recovering at cholera clinic/ Board of Health workers prepare to remove cholera victim from the street to take her to a mass grave north of Port-au-Prince
Bottom- starting from top: Felisse, a 72 years old woman, waits for help at the Real Hope for Haiti Cholera Clinic/ Charle Fedline recovering from cholera/ Licia Betor, who runs the Real Hope for Haiti cholera clinic, cares for Edner Ramo, 52/ 15 people carry Felisse, a 72 years old, woman on a bed frame padded with cardboard to get to the Real Hope for Haiti Cholera Clinic/ Mother and son at a Doctors Without Borders cholera clinic in Port-au-Prince/ Waterway near a cholera clinic in Tabarre/ Solancia Celestin, 11, recovers at the Real Hope for Haiti Cholera Clinic in Cazel/ Gerard Nerulus, 6 years old, at the The Real Hope for Haiti Cholera Clinic