http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070103/ts_afp/australiaweatherstormcycloneind=
ustry
Western Australia braces ahead of "perfect storm" Wed Jan 3, 1:32 AM ET
Australian oil and mining companies have shut down operations as
communities battened down the hatches ahead of a "perfect storm"
experts feared would bring destructive winds and flooding to the
country's west.
As Tropical Cyclone Isobel rapidly closed in on Western Australia's
resource-rich north-west coast, Woodside Petroleum temporarily halted
activities at its 100,000 barrel-per-day Cossack Pioneer oilfield, the
country's largest.
Isobel, the first of the state's annual cyclone season -- which can
last until March -- also prompted Santos Ltd to cease production at its
50,000 barrel-per-day Mutineer-Exeter project in the Carnarvon Basin.
The closures followed resource giant BHP Billiton's decision late
Tuesday night to halt activities at its Nelson Point iron ore operation
at Port Headland, where the storm was expected to hit.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology expected gusts of up to 100
kilometres (60 miles) per hour as far away as Broome, 500 kilometres to
the north east, but said the category one tropical cyclone would weaken
as it moved inland.
However it said Isobel's remains were likely to merge in the next 24 to
36 hours with a low pressure system in the state's south west to create
the biggest summer storm in years.
"The deep low is likely to cause widespread damaging winds, locally
destructive, and could result in significant damage or destruction of
property," the bureau said in a statement.
"It's ... the perfect storm scenario," forecaster Grant Elliott said.
The severe weather was likely to deluge the south coast with between
100 to 150 millimetres of rain as well as bringing destructive gales,
he said.
"We're expecting some quite exceptional winds on Thursday, perhaps
reaching 100 to 120 kilometres per hour, so there'll be localised
damaging winds and the risk of quite significant livestock losses, with
the combination of rain and wind producing hypothermia."
Emergency services advised people living on the southern coast between
Bremer Bay and Israelite Bay to secure loose objects and remain inside
when the strong winds arrived.
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-hurricane3jan03,0,3253=
020.story?coll=3Dla-home-headlines
Hurricane center chief issues final warning
A departing Max Mayfield is convinced that the Southeast is inviting
disaster.
By Carol J. Williams, Times Staff Writer
January 3, 2007
Stepping down
click to enlargeMIAMI =E2=80=94 Frustrated with people and politicians who
refuse to listen or learn, National Hurricane Center Director Max
Mayfield ends his 34-year government career today in search of a new
platform for getting out his unwelcome message: Hurricane Katrina was
nothing compared with the big one yet to come.
Mayfield, 58, leaves his high-profile job with the National Weather
Service more convinced than ever that U.S. residents of the Southeast
are risking unprecedented tragedy by continuing to build vulnerable
homes in the tropical storm zone and failing to plan escape routes.
He pointed to southern Florida's 7 million coastal residents.
"We're eventually going to get a strong enough storm in a densely
populated area to have a major disaster," he said. "I know people don't
want to hear this, and I'm generally a very positive person, but we're
setting ourselves up for this major disaster."
More than 1,300 deaths across the Gulf Coast were attributed to
Hurricane Katrina, the worst human toll from a weather event in the
United States since the 1920s.
But Mayfield warns that 10 times as many fatalities could occur in what
he sees as an inevitable strike by a huge storm during the current
highly active hurricane cycle, which is expected to last another 10 to
20 years.
His apocalyptic vision of thousands dead and millions homeless is a
different side of the persona he established as head of the hurricane
center.
Mayfield attained national celebrity status during the tempestuous 2004
and 2005 seasons, appearing on network television with hourly updates
as hurricanes Charley, Ivan, Frances and Wilma bore down on the
Caribbean and the Southeast. His calm demeanor and avuncular sincerity
endeared him to millions of TV viewers seeking survival guidance.
And he argues that his dire predictions don't have to become reality.
The technology exists to build high-rise buildings capable of
withstanding hurricane-force winds and tropical storm surge more
powerful than those experienced in the last few years. Much of Hong
Kong's architecture has been built to survive typhoons, and hotels and
apartments built in Kobe, Japan, after a 1995 earthquake devastated the
city are touted as indestructible, he said.
What is lacking in the United States is the political will to make and
impose hard decisions on building codes and land use in the face of
resistance from the influential building industry and a public still
willing to gamble that the big one will never hit, he said.
"It's good for the tax base" to allow developers to put up buildings on
the coastline, Mayfield said in explaining politicians' reluctance to
deter housing projects that expose residents to storm risks.
"I don't want the builders to get mad at me," he said, "but the
building industry strongly opposes improvement in building codes."
Consumers also have yet to demand sturdier construction, Mayfield
added. A builder gets a better return on investment in upgraded carpet
and appliances than for safety features above and beyond most states'
minimal requirements, he said.
As a senior civil servant, Mayfield was prohibited from making job
inquiries in the private sector while still in the government's employ.
But he said on Tuesday, his last day in office, that he hoped to launch
a second career as a consultant in emergency planning and disaster
response. He has particular interest in a potential public-private
initiative to mine natural disaster scenes for their educational value.
He envisions a natural disaster assessment service like the National
Transportation Safety Board, which probes the causes and consequences
of aviation and other transport accidents.
"If the NTSB finds some structural problem is the cause of an air
crash, you would never see that plane continue to be built with the
same problems," he said.
With natural disasters, though, the same mistakes that put lives at
risk are repeated year after year in unsafe construction and inadequate
planning, he said.
Mayfield said he also was pondering collaboration with advocates of
tougher building standards and land use rules.
"It's not just about the forecasting. Whatever I do, I want to help
change the outcome," he said, conceding frustration with persistent
public disregard of federal and local government campaigns to boost
hurricane awareness and preparation.
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