Page 64: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2005)

The Atlantic zone does not have just hurricanes, it has a "hurricane season," which like hunting and fishing sea- sons has a formal closing. It's at the end of November.

Katrina, in the final days of August, left plenty of time for an encore.

Not every storm for the season of '05 has been a hurri- cane, of course. With winds under 75, they're just "trop- ical storms." But they're impressive enough to get names, and to recommend against moving high objects through the ocean. There was, for example, Ophelia, and the

Donjon 1,000-ton crane Chesapeake 1000. With the tug

Atlantic Salvor, the crane sat in the bay of its name for well over a week. The tug Powhatan with the Columbia, a 400-ton revolving derrick barge, was similarly confined by the elements. With the Powhatan and the Columbia moving on for Alabama, the Chesapeake 1000 finally arrived at Venice on September 29. "The Captain of the Port of New Orleans had antici- pated the hit," said Kevin Teichman, representing a sec- ond generation at T&T. "Before the storm had hit, they'd moved to Alexandria - I assume they expected to have quite a lot of damage - and requested our 53-ft. command trailer." Just after the storm, the Coast Guard requested helicopters, and Teichman found himself on his first of several flights over Venice, and the tip of another finger in the Louisiana Gulf, Port Fourchon, "taking note of how many vessels were beached or sunk. I remember the first time I flew over there, and the destruction and devasta- tion was just overwhelming - it's something I'll never for- get."

On Sept. 2, they moved the trailer to Belle Chasse "and used it for the air ops at the navy base, where the power had gone out. Meanwhile we were preparing our barges to come over. We didn't expect to find services or hotels where they were headed, so we put quarters by Martin

Quarters of Galiano on with complete systems to be total- ly self sufficient, bunks and showers, and provisions for large supplies of diesel and gasoline. It took about a week to get the barges ready, and we mobilized at Venice on

September 10."

The wind has an accomplice. If the tide raises all boats, so does the storm surge. The wind-whipped water becomes a cascade, blown out of its bed into the land- scape. Depending on where, by whom, the description is of a wall or a mountain, twelve to thirty feet high (Camille's in 1969 is given at 24 feet), the bearer of bad tidings from everything loose, and much fastened-down that was fragile. How can the surge place vessels beyond both the east and the west banks of the river? "The wind blows from the west," the old pilot explains patiently, "then from the east."

It's a big river around the 50-mile marker, a couple miles wide and deep enough for ocean tankers. There's plenty of water for churning. The wind subsides and the surge subsides, and the objects are dropped as the flood recedes.

They look quite mysterious where they sit, great curiosi- ties, but with the facts known, the force of hydraulics is easy to picture. Where it stretches the imagination is fur- ther north, at New Orleans proper. The river's still mighty, but twisty and looking civil. The Industrial Canal looks calmer yet, hard to imagine enraged. But drydocks akimbo suggest its mood swing, and then there was Miss

Darby, who took a spin from Bollinger shipyard at Algiers up to Gretna - and she was not alone. 64 MTR November 2005

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COMING IN THE JANUARY 2006 EDITION

Feature: Marine Science Institutions

Product: Underwater Camera & Lighting Systems

Directory: Electronic Charting & Vessel Management (Continued from page 32) parting shot

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