The Hurricane Lentil in the lower part of the Landrum Member of the Cook Mountain Formation can be recognized for 170 miles along strike. This lentil lies at the base of the Landrum Member and is directly above the Wheelock Member. Three key beds, two bentonites and a fossil bed containing Plicatula filamentosa Conrad , are present at most exposures of the Hurricane Lentil. Sedimentary rocks of the Cook Mountain Formation are classified using the four common constituents: quartz, iron oxide, glauconite pellets, and clay. The abundant fossils in the Hurricane Lentil indicate deposition took place on the continental shelf in a quiet, open marine sea with a level bottom. The lower Hurricane Lentil was deposited in a relatively stable sea whereas the upper Hurricane Lentil was deposited in a regressive sea. / text

Thesis (M.J.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-159). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis is a study of the mechanisms employed in the community building process of Hurricane, Utah. It traces the roots of the town's early settlers beginning with their arrival in southern Utah in the early 1860s through the founding of Hurricane and the establishment of its social order. This pioneering period largely ended by 1930.Hurricane's founders were the remnants of the Mormon Church's failed Cotton Mission. Original U.S. census research shows that by 1900 close to half of the mission's colonizers abandoned the challenging desert of southern Utah. The stalwarts who remained fashioned the Hurricane Canal with the expectation of economic betterment and a new life on the Hurricane Bench.Using ingrained Mormon egalitarian principles the Hurricane Canal Company proved the driving force behind Hurricane's genesis. Company leaders became the new town's leaders and cooperated extensively in the various organizations they headed. They formed a core authority group that created stability and provided public utilities and services for Hurricane denizens. In the end Hurricane produced the chance for economic improvement its pioneers hoped it would.

AmeriCorps, the federal volunteer program developed in 1993, has won increasing political and cultural support since its development. Hurricane Katrina challenged program administrators to recruit and support volunteers in New Orleans, a uniquely devastated city. This qualitative study based on interviews with former volunteers examines the implications of AmeriCorps program policies for the recovery of post­Katrina New Orleans. Rooted in statements by the United Nations, the Federal Emergency Response Agency and local grassroots organizations, this study concludes that the AmeriCorps program was not effective in facilitating the return of displaced residents, appropriately utilizing city resources or maintaining strong accountability to those most affected by the disaster. Thus, the AmeriCorps program, which is not intended specifically for disaster relief, must be redesigned in order to accountably contribute to recovery in the cases of acute disaster.

A major tropical storm will strike in the area of West Central Florida. In anticipation of this storm, this study seeks to predict the specific areas within the Baker Canal drainage basin that will be inundated as a result of this expected event. There are few references concerning extreme flooding in small drainage basins within existing literature. For the purposes of this study this event was considered to be a Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) as defined by Crippen and Bue (1977). The Hydrologic Engineering Centers' Geographic River Analysis System was used to develop water surface elevations and flow rates. Maps depicting this potential flooding at various flood stages were produced using the Environmental Survey Research Institute's geographic Information mapping program ArcView3.3. This investigation produced estimates of the surface area of a Probable Maximum Flood and the estimated flood inundated 23.7% of the study area. The estimated extent of Probable Maximum Flood indicates that the flood will affect one thousand and seventy six (1,076) homes and other structures. The study found that eight hundred and sixty three (863) acres or 27% of the land within the PMF flood zone is listed for future development by the County Planning Commission. When this projected development area is added to existing developed land area a total of 85% of all developed land within the estimated flood area will be submerged and subject to damage. An extreme flood study on a small drainage basin prior to the event can be a viable tool for mitigation planning if it is recognized that there are variables that can produce a relatively large range of error. The potential for this type of study is in its' comparison with an actual event affecting the same area. If the predicted study and the real event study agree within reasonable limits then, maximum flood investigations on small basins could be considered a useful tool in hazard reduction.

The damaging effects of hurricane landfall on US coastal bridges have been studied using physical model testing. Hurricane bridge damage and failure susceptibility has become very evident, especially during hurricane seasons 2004 and 2005 in the Gulf of Mexico. The combination of storm surge and high waves caused by a hurricane can produce substantial loads on bridge decks leading to complete bridge failure. Several theoretical methods have been developed to estimate these forces but have not been tested in a laboratory setting for a typical bridge section. Experiments were done using a large-scale 3-D wave basin located at the Haynes Coastal Engineering Laboratory at Texas A&M University to provide estimates of the horizontal and vertical forces for several conditions to compare with the forces predicted with the existing models. The wave force results show no strong correlation between the actual force measured and the predicted force of existing theoretical methods. A new method is derived from the existing theoretical methods. This model shows a strong correlation with both the measured horizontal and vertical forces.

The damaging effects of hurricane landfall on US coastal bridges have been studied using physical model testing. Hurricane bridge damage and failure susceptibility has become very evident, especially during hurricane seasons 2004 and 2005 in the Gulf of Mexico. The combination of storm surge and high waves caused by a hurricane can produce substantial loads on bridge decks leading to complete bridge failure. Several theoretical methods have been developed to estimate these forces but have not been tested in a laboratory setting for a typical bridge section. Experiments were done using a large-scale 3-D wave basin located at the Haynes Coastal Engineering Laboratory at Texas A&M University to provide estimates of the horizontal and vertical forces for several conditions to compare with the forces predicted with the existing models. The wave force results show no strong correlation between the actual force measured and the predicted force of existing theoretical methods. A new method is derived from the existing theoretical methods. This model shows a strong correlation with both the measured horizontal and vertical forces.

Jacket platforms are fixed base offshore structures used to produce oil and gas in relatively shallow waters worldwide. Their pile foundation systems seemed to perform better than what they were designed for during severe hurricanes. This observation has led to a common belief in the offshore oil and gas industry that foundation design is overly conservative. The objective of this research is to provide information to help improve the state of practice in designing and assessing jacket pile foundations to achieve a consistent level of performance and reliability. A platform database consisting of 31 structures was compiled and 13 foundation systems were analyzed using a simplified foundation collapse model, supplemented by a 3-D structural model. The predicted performance for most of the 13 platform foundations is consistent with their observed performance. These cases do not preclude potential conservatism in foundation design because only a small number of platform foundations were analyzed and only one of them actually failed. The potential failure mechanism of a foundation system is an important consideration for its performance in the post-hurricane assessment. Structural factors can be more important than geotechnical factors on foundation system capacity. Prominent structural factors include the presence of well conductors and jacket leg stubs, yield stress of piles and conductors, axial flexibility of piles, rigidity and strength of jackets, and robustness of foundation systems. These factors affect foundation system capacity in a synergistic manner. Sand layers play an important role in the performance of three platform foundations exhibiting the largest discrepancy between predicted and observed performance. Site-specific soil borings are not available in these cases. Higher spatial variability in pile capacity can be expected in alluvial or fluviatile geology with interbedded sands and clays. The uncertainties in base shear and overturning moment in the load are approximately the same and they are slightly higher than the uncertainty in the overturning capacity of a 3-pile foundation system. The uncertainty in the overturning capacity of this foundation system is higher than the uncertainty in shear capacity. These uncertainties affect the reliability of this foundation system. / text

This study examined how comprehensively the Bolin and Trainer (1978) model of recovery reflects the recovery process of individuals and households. A review of the literature since 1978 suggested that various revisions and additions were warranted, but additional research was needed to examine these elements collectively. Rubin and Rubin’s (2012) Responsive Interviewing Model was employed to collect and analyze data related to the recovery process of individuals impacted by Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy to determine whether an updated model was appropriate. Interviews with twenty-one respondents representing non-governmental organizations involved in Sandy-related recovery efforts revealed the need for a revised model reflecting key aspects of the original model, revisions suggested by the literature, and a new addition based on the data collected through this study. A Revised Bolin and Trainer Model of Individual and Household Recovery was suggested and implications for the discipline and practice of emergency management discussed.

Emergency managers are faced with the challenge of acting quickly after a hurricane but rarely have detailed information available about type and amount of damage. In response to this need, linear additive geospatial models based on logistic regression analyses of driving variables including wind, rain, surge, topography were developed and automation routines programmed that rapidly and accurately predict a variety of damage types. Since a preponderance of damage is associated with falling trees, over 2000 post-Katrina forested plots were used to fit and validate independent models for hardwood blowdown and pine shear. Additional models using peak wind gusts and maximum sustained winds respectively were fully automated. Most importantly, total model run time was decreased from 36 to 5 hours for the more complicated forest damage models. The models have been vetted by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and will be part of MEMA’s hurricane action response plans.