Alabama Power crews were out in full force Tuesday following perhaps the most devastating storm in the company’s history. Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to infrastructure and could result in extended outages across the state.

As of 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, 355,723 customers were without power statewide, down from a peak of 636,891.

Katrina is the second-worst storm in Alabama Power history in terms of outages. Initial assessments indicate that the storm caused more damage to the Alabama Power system than Hurricane Ivan, which left more than 825,000 customers without power in September 2004.

Restoration of power following Ivan took eight days. In comparison, restoration efforts following Hurricane Frederic, which left 239,400 customers without power in 1979, took 21 days.

Although crews have quickly restored power to nearly 45 percent of customers who lost power during Katrina, company officials warn that remaining outages may take longer to restore.

Alabama Power currently has about 4,000 people in the field. Crews will continue to work until the restoration is complete.

The company has commitments from outside utilities as far away as New York and Ohio to support our restoration efforts. However, resources are limited and are also needed in hard hit areas in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, which could potentially extend outages here.

PNSBMX
ALZ011>015-017>050-310500-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
842 PM CDT TUE AUG 30 2005

...UPDATE OF DAMAGE FROM KATRINA...

...F1 TORNADO CONFIRMED IN NORTHEAST CALHOUN COUNTY...

A SURVEY TEAM FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS DETERMINED THAT
AN F1 TORNADO OCCURRED BETWEEN 353 PM CDT AND 356 PM CDT IN THE
NANCES CREEK COMMUNITY OF NORTHEAST CALHOUN COUNTY.

THE TORNADO FIRST TOUCHDOWNED NEAR KINGS GAP MOUNTAIN ROAD...JUST
NORTHWEST OF DUGGER MOUNTAIN AT 353 PM CDT. THE TORNADO MOVED
NORTHWEST...DOWNED TREES NEAR KINGS GAP MOUNTAIN ROAD...MOVED
ACROSS STATE HIGHWAY 9...A CORNFIELD...THEN HOLLINGSWORTH ROAD.
AFTER IT MOVED ACROSS HOLLINGSWORTH ROAD...IT CAUSED ROOF DAMAGE
TO A HOUSE. ALSO...IT CAUSED A LARGE TREE TO FALL ONTO THE HOUSE...
DESTROYING IT. THE TORNADO CONTINUED NORTHWEST...DOWNING MORE
TREES...BEFORE LIFTING AROUND 356 PM CDT...JUST SOUTHEAST OF
CHOCCOLOCCO MOUNTAIN.

THE PATH LENGTH OF THE TORNADO IS 1.5 MILES LONG. THE WIDTH OF THE
TORNADO IS 30 YARDS WIDE. NO INJURIES OR DEATHS WERE REPORTED WITH
THIS TORNADO.

EARLIER THIS AFTERNOON...ANOTHER SURVEY TEAM DETERMINED TWO OTHER
TORNADOES OCCURRED MONDAY AFTERNOON...ONE IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY...
AND THE OTHER IN MACON COUNTY.

ADDITIONAL STORM SURVEY TEAMS MAY BE DISPATCHED TO INVESTIGATE
WIND DAMAGE IN EAST CENTRAL ALABAMA ON TUESDAY. ALSO...AN AREAL
SURVEY MAY OCCUR ON TUESDAY TO BETTER ASSESS THE DAMAGE IN THE
EASTERN HALF OF THE STATE.

IF ANYONE HAS ACCURATE WIND RECORDING EQUIPMENT...WE WOULD LIKE
TO RECEIVE YOUR HIGHEST WIND REPORTS AND TIME OF OCCURRENCE.
PLEASE SEND THESE REPORTS TO SR-BMX.WEBMASTER@NOAA.GOV

ANYONE NEEDING INFORMATION ON EVACUATIONS...RESCUES OR CRITICAL
NEEDS IN LOUISIANA...MISSISSIPPI...OR ALABAMA...PLEASE CALL
225-925-7708...225-925-7709 OR 225-925-3511. ALL CALLS FOR CHECKS
ON FAMILY MEMBERS SHOULD EB DIRECTED TO THE RED CROSS HOTLINE AT
866-GET-INFO (866-438-4636).

From the WWL Blog:

8:04 P.M. - Mayor Nagin: Unhappy that the helicopters slated to drop 3,000-pound bags into the levee never showed up to stop the flow of water. Too many chiefs calling shots he says.

Pumps at 17th street canal have failed and water will continue pouring into the city. Nine feet of water is expected on St. Charles Avenue that will be nine feet high. Water is expected to spread throughout the east bank of Orleans and possibly Jefferson Parish.

The mayor is saying that the water in New Orleans will rise to the level of Lake Pontchartrain. This will put much of the city under 9 feet of water. This will also put the French Quarter under water.

Read their blog here:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

I have a very limited connection to the Internet so I'm going to make this short and try to share a couple of pictures!

USS Alabama with an unknown sailboat. Alabama is listing at 8 degrees as a result of storm surge!

Inside the Aviation Pavillion at USS Alabama!

Ramp up to USS Alabama!

I will try to do some more as I can get a connection.

-Brian-

Alabama Power crews were out in full force Tuesday following perhaps the most devastating storm in the company’s history. Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to infrastructure and could result in extended outages across the state.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, 424,561 customers were without power statewide, down from a peak of 636,891.

Katrina is the second-worst storm in Alabama Power history in terms of outages. Initial assessments indicate that the storm caused more damage to the Alabama Power system than Hurricane Ivan, which left more than 825,000 customers without power in September 2004.

Restoration of power following Ivan took eight days. In comparison, restoration efforts following Hurricane Frederic, which left 239,400 customers without power in 1979, took 21 days.

Although crews have quickly restored power to roughly one-third of customers who lost power during Katrina, company officials warn that remaining outages may take longer to restore.

Alabama Power currently has about 4,000 people in the field. Crews will continue to work until the restoration is complete.

The company has commitments from outside utilities as far away as New York and Ohio to support our restoration efforts. However, resources are limited and are also needed in hard hit areas in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, which could potentially extend outages here.

David Black posted a shot of a tree down at his place this morning... here is a picture of a tree down on Atkins-Trimm Blvd. in Hoover this morning:



Will try to post more viewer pictures a little later...

Scott McClellan sent in these images he captured along the Mississippi coast in May of this year.

The pictures will show a little of what more than likely, and sadly to say, isnt there anymore.  They are of the front of the Beau Rivage, shot from Highway 90, the Bell Tower in front of the Hurricane Camille monument, and one of the monument itself.

The Tuesday afternoon map discussion is on the server:

http://beta.abc3340.com/weather/video.hrb

We are getting back into service here, and the regular schedule will begin again for our map discussion video updates...

Katrina is near Clarksville, TN, and is now a tropical depression. The system will be in upstate New York tomorrow, and into Canada by Thursday.

Bottom line is that we will be dry for the next three to five days, with daytime highs near 90, and morning lows near 70. We could use a few quiet days here in the weather office.

TROPICS: A wave 1,500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles could develop into a depression in coming days; model output suggests a general northwest movement, and it does not look like it will be in a position to threaten the Gulf of Mexico. A decent chance it will recurve before impacting the U.S. mainland if it develops at all.

UPWELLING: I cannot access the NOAA Buoy site at this time... but I imagine there was considerable upwelling from Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico. Sea surface temperatures should be cooler over the next week or two thanks to cooler water pulled up to the surface by Katrina's wave action. This is good news for a ravaged part of the United States.

Watching video coming in from New Orleans and Mississippi... makes me think of that riveting special weather statement issued by the National Weather Service in New Orleans Sunday morning. I don't know who wrote that, but he was right on target:

http://www.jamesspann.com/bmachine/post/wxtalk/1854/A-Very-Very-Scary-Message

Lets all pray for these people tonight.

Next discussion will be posted by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.

I was amazed at how many people send notes to me yesterday saying Katrina was a "bust". If you believe this was not a hurricane of historic proportion you are blind.

Perhaps it was the initial reports from some of the network people who reported from the French Quarter that everything was "fine" and there were "few problems". At this time 80 percent of New Orleans is underwater and water is rising in the downtown area right now. The death toll in Mississippi and Louisiana is rising, and I am afraid will go much, much higher. Bodies have been seen in floodwaters in New Orleans.

This was indeed the "big one".

After working with hardly any sleep for a few days, I got home early this morning sometime during the pre-dawn hours to find a huge tree down, just missing our house. No power.

This morning, I got up with my small 16" chain saw and started cutting down limbs and branches just trying to get to the big part of the tree. Within minutes, five neighbors were over with chain saws and the entire tree was cut up and cleaned up in 15 minutes. That was quite an encouragement after a very high fatigue level and getting the usual array of nasty e-mail messages from people who are mad about something we did or didn't do, like this:

"You people are real ***holes. I am trying to watch a football game and you idiots are taking up most of the screen on a bunch of worthless information.

99.99999 of the people are not effected by the bull*** information you keep diplaying over and over again.

I'm never going to watch abc 33/40 news again.

Thanks
Mark"

Mark is a very pitiful person. I hope you read J.B.'s post below... I saw the WKRG video late last night of the man and the two boys who had just saw their wife and mom swept out to sea. I sat down and cried like a baby. The human disaster on the Mississippi gulf coast and in New Orleans is beyond belief. I have no problems compared to these victims. None at all. And, my friend Mark has no problems as well. Too bad he is so self centered he doesn't understand that. If a football game is the Lord of his life in the midst of one of the greatest natural disasters in our nation's history, he needs our prayers.

The afternoon map discussion and blog update will be posted by 3:30 today... I am back at the station now doing radio work.

Early indications are that Hurricane Katrina has caused extensive damage to the Alabama Power system and customers should expect extended outages.

Katrina is the second-worst storm in Alabama Power history in terms of outages, leaving 636,891 customers without power at its peak. Company officials anticipate that restoration efforts may take far longer than those following Hurricane Ivan, which left more than 825,000 customers without power in 2004. Ivan restoration took eight days.

In comparison, Hurricane Frederic in 1979 left 239,400 customers without power, but restoration took 21 days due to the level of damage to the system.

Emergency crews worked through the night. Damage assessment teams were out at first light today. The company hopes to have a full assessment of the damage later today. Early reports indicate there has been significant damage to the company’s transmission system and other infrastructure.

Alabama Power has commitments from outside utilities to support our restoration efforts. However, resources are limited and are also needed in hard hit areas in Mississippi and Louisiana.

As of 10 a.m., 551,455 customers were without power statewide. Outages by division were as follows:
- Birmingham: 182,153
- Anniston: 32,632
- Montgomery: 8,538
- Tuscaloosa: 132,405
- Mobile: 195,716
- Eufaula: 11