[Coral-List] Hurricane Dean & Discovery Bay, Jamaica

[Peter Gayle]

Dear Listers 

Despite ominous forecasts, Jamaica has escaped serious damage yet again from
another joust with nature. The general concensus seems to be that Hurricane
IVAN caused more damage island wide in 2004 than DEAN was able to do this
time. The South coast of the island took the brunt of the impact while the
North coast experienced mostly gusty winds and a little rain. 

As per Jim's note to the list yesterday, the CREWS station located on the
Discovery Bay West Fore Reef withstood the winds and an approx. 1.5 m wave
surge, and has provided some interesting data. 

The Lab itself remains intact and functional. We suffered damage to our dock
and to the recently completed repairs on the roof of the student dormitory.
Our facility is currently undergoing a general overhaul (re. buildings,
scientific & general laboratory eqpt) and we anticipate completion of all
repairs (including hurricane damage) in time for the arrival of UWI field
classes and other courses commencing late Sept. 

We were starting to see bleaching on the fore reef (Agaricia sp) just before
the hurricane hit but as soon as we get a boat back into the water we will
update on that

All in all, we fared better than expected and look forward to a busy
academic year with much work to be done.

Regards

Peter Gayle
Principal Scientific Officer
Discovery Bay Marine Lab
Centre for Marine Sciences
Univ West Indies

(876)972-2241

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:47:53 -0400
From: Jim Hendee <jim.hendee at noaa.gov>
Subject: [Coral-List] Hurricane Dean data for Discovery Bay, Jamaica
To: Coral-List Subscribers <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <46C97F69.9000807 at noaa.gov>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Our station at West Fore Reef in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, withstood Hurricane
Dean. The maximum averaged hourly gusts measured at the station were 67.7
knots (77.9 mph), while maximum averaged hourly sustained winds were 48.5
knots (55.8 mph). The lowest barometer reading (hourly average) was about
997 millibars. Individual readings throughout each hour were no doubt higher
and lower than these hourly averages. The station with calibrated
instruments was just installed in June (http://dbjm1-log.blogspot.com), so
the data should be pretty accurate.

To retrieve some of the data and view graphs, please visit,
    http://ecoforecast.coral.noaa.gov/index/0/DBJM1/station-home

So far as I am aware, these meteorological and oceanographic data are the
most comprehensive (i.e., to include sea temperature, salinity, light, pCO2,
winds, etc.) for a coral reef area before, during and after a hurricane. A
biological survey will be conducted soon.

We hope for the best for all of Jamaica's citizens and their country. We
have not heard from Peter Gayle of Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory yet.

  Sincerely yours,
   The ICON/CREWS Team
   Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory
   Miami, Florida