NOAA confirms wreck is lost 19th century U.S. Coast Survey steamer

August 27, 2013

In 1852, W.A.K. Martin painted this picture of the Robert J. Walker. The painting, now at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Va., is scheduled for restoration.

High resolution (Credit: The Mariners' Museum)

More than 153 years after it was lost in a violent collision at sea, government and university maritime archaeologists have identified the wreck of the ship Robert J. Walker, a steamer that served in the U.S. Coast Survey, a predecessor agency of NOAA.

The Walker, while now largely forgotten, served a vital role as a survey ship, charting the Gulf Coast ? including Mobile Bay and the Florida Keys ? in the decade before the Civil War. It also conducted early work plotting the movement of the Gulf Stream along the Atlantic Coast.

Twenty sailors died when the Walker sank in rough seas in the early morning hours of June 21, 1860, ten miles off Absecon Inlet on the New Jersey coast. The crew had finished its latest surveys in the Gulf of Mexico and was sailing to New York when the Walker was hit by a commercial schooner off New Jersey. The side-wheel steamer, carrying 66 crewmembers, sank within 30 minutes. The sinking was the largest single loss of life in the history of the Coast Survey and its successor agency, NOAA.

Surveyers onboard NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson produced this multibeam sonar image of the Walker wreck.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

“Before this identification was made, the wreck was just an anonymous symbol on navigation charts,” said Rear Admiral Gerd Glang, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. “Now, we can truly honor the 20 members of the crew and their final resting place. It will mark a profound sacrifice by the men who served during a remarkable time in our history.”

Built in 1847, the Walker was one of the U.S. government’s first iron-hulled steamers, and was intended for the U.S. Revenue Service, the predecessor of the United States Coast Guard. Instead, the Walker and some of its sister steamers were sent to the U.S. Coast Survey.
Admiral Robert J. Papp, commandant of the Coast Guard, said that Walker represented the transition from sail to steam for government vessels, “reflecting the enduring need of the United States to harness the power of new technology to promote its maritime interests.”

“Coast Guardsmen are always saddened by the loss of life at sea and especially so when those lost were working to make the lives of other mariners safer by charting the waters of the United States,” Papp said.

Observations from NOAA's Maritime Heritage program's diving team confirmed the identity of the Walker wreck.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

The U.S. Coast Survey is NOAA’s oldest predecessor organization, established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1807 to survey the coast and produce the nation’s nautical charts. In 1860, as the Civil War approached, the Coast Survey redoubled efforts to produce surveys of harbors strategically important to the war effort along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

The New York Herald, in reporting the Walker’s loss on June 23, 1860, noted that a “heavy sea was running, and many of the men were doubtless washed off the spars and drowned from the mere exhaustion of holding on, while others were killed or stunned on rising to the surface by concussion with spars and other parts of the wreck.”

NOAA is able to confirm the identity of the Walker using various criteria, including the ship's unique paddlewheel flanges.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

The Walker wreck site initially was discovered in the 1970s by a commercial fisherman. The wreck's identity has been a mystery despite being regularly explored by divers. Resting 85 feet underwater, the vessel’s identity was confirmed in June as part of a private-public collaboration that included research provided by New Jersey wreck divers; Joyce Steinmetz, a maritime archaeology student at East Carolina University; and retired NOAA Corps Capt. Albert Theberge, chief of reference for the NOAA Central Library.

While in the area to conduct hydrographic surveys after Hurricane Sandy for navigation safety, NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson sailed to the wreck site and deployed its multibeam and sidescan sonar systems. Hydrographers searched likely locations based on analysis of historical research by Vitad Pradith, a physical scientist with NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey.

A NOAA Maritime Heritage diving team, on a separate Hurricane Sandy-related mission in the area, was able to positively identify the Walker. Key clues were the size and layout of the iron-hulled wreck, and its unique engines, rectangular portholes, and the location of the ship, which was found still pointing toward the Absecon lighthouse, the final destination of a desperate crew on a sinking vessel.

“The identification of Walker is a result of excellent collaboration with the local community,” said James P. Delgado, director of maritime heritage for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “We look forward to working with our local partners to share Walker’s story with the public in a manner that both promotes educational dive tourism and protects this nationally significant wreck and gravesite.”

NOAA’s intent is not to make the wreck a sanctuary or limit diving, but to work with New Jersey’s wreck diving community to better understand the wreck and the stories it can tell.

After a ceremony last month onboard NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson, Ensign Eileen Pye lays a wreath over the waters where USCS Robert J. Walker sank.

High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

“We want to enhance the dive experience and support the dive industry with enhanced access to this wreck,” Delgado said. “New Jersey is home to some of the most accomplished wreck divers who not only understand history and wrecks, but who have also been in the forefront of wreck exploration. We look forward to working with them on the Walker.”

NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is the nation’s nautical chartmaker. Coast Survey updates charts, surveys the coastal seafloor, responds to maritime emergencies, and searches for underwater obstructions that pose a danger to navigation. Follow Coast Survey on Twitter @nauticalcharts and check out the NOAA Coast Survey blog at for more in-depth coverage of surveying and charting.

NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as trustee for a system of 14 marine protected areas, encompassing more than 170,000 square miles of America’s ocean and Great Lakes waters. Through active research, management, and public engagement, national marine sanctuaries sustain healthy environments that are the foundation for thriving communities and stable economies. Follow Sanctuaries on Facebook and on Twitter @sanctuaries.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

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East Coast cleaning up after weekend storms

Residents along the nation's Eastern Seaboard were left cleaning up Sunday, a day after storms ripped along the East Coast, spawning at least two tornadoes, flooding streets and toppling power lines.

By Ramin Talaie, Getty Images

Danny Fallon inspects the damage in his rental cabana where a tornado touched down in the New York City borough of Queens.

By Ramin Talaie, Getty Images

Danny Fallon inspects the damage in his rental cabana where a tornado touched down in the New York City borough of Queens.

The severe weather was part of a cold front that stretched from Washington, D.C., to Maine, as wind gusts reached up to 70 mph.

At the Breezy Point Surf Club in the New York City borough of Queens, a tornado Saturday tore the roofs off cabanas. "It picked up picnic benches. It picked up Dumpsters," said the club's general manager, Thomas Sullivan.

The club's pool remained closed because of debris and broken glass, but otherwise things were back to normal Sunday, said Caitlin Walsh, catering and events manager at the club. "It's going pretty good; we cleaned up most of it," Walsh said. "A few roofs are still off of the cabanas, but we are open today."

In the Washington, D.C., area, Dominion Virginia Power had 155,000 customers affected by the storm. By 1 p.m. Sunday all but 4,300 had their power back.

"We expect everyone to be restored by midnight," said Le-Ha Anderson, spokeswoman for Dominion. "We worked through the night."

Vermont's largest utility company said it restored power to nearly all 28,000 residences and businesses that lost electricity Saturday.

The storms reached every county in Vermont but did not leave any severe damage.

Utility crews were still working Sunday to restore power to thousands of customers across New York state. In Buffalo, the storm's straight-line winds blew roofing off buildings and sent bricks crashing into the street.

WIVB in Buffalo reported that crews will assess damaged buildings today and will carry out "selective demolition" to be sure that the structures are stable.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Cannon said the storms passed through Maine by late Saturday and the concern then became high swells of 4 to 8 feet on the beaches and rip currents that would make it dangerous to swim.

Contributing: The Associated Press bull /> b>Full weather, 12A /b>

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'Daughter of Isaac' could hit Gulf Coast

It could be stormy deja vu all over again for the Gulf Coast this weekend, as remnants of Hurricane Isaac meander in the Gulf of Mexico just off Pensacola, Fla.

This area of disturbed weather "could become a tropical depression as early as Thursday, though Friday is more likely," says Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters. He adds that the storm would probably make landfall along the Florida Panhandle or west coast of Florida on Sunday.

If the disturbance reaches the 39-mph threshold to become a named storm, the "daughter of Isaac" would be called Nadine.

Regardless of whether it becomes a named storm, bad weather is likely along the Gulf Coast for the next several days.

"Very humid air, combined with the disturbance, will unleash downpours and the potential for flash flooding from part of the Louisiana coast to the Florida Panhandle," reports AccuWeather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski.

Elsewhere in the tropics, Hurricane Leslie became the sixth hurricane of the season far out in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday afternoon, and could hit Bermuda over the weekend and eastern Canada next week, the National Hurricane Center reported. As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Leslie had sustained winds of 75 mph, and was crawling to the north at 2 mph. The hurricane was 460 miles south southeast of Bermuda.

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Report: By 2030, Calif. coast to see seas rise by six inches

The West Coast will see an ocean several inches higher in coming decades, with most of California expected to get sea levels a half foot higher by 2030, according a report released Friday.

By Jeff Chiu, AP file

A man walks in the parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

By Jeff Chiu, AP file

A man walks in the parking lot at Ocean Beach in San Francisco.

The study by the National Research Council gives planners their best look yet at how melting ice sheets and warming oceans associated with climate change will raise sea levels along the country's Pacific coast. It is generally consistent with earlier global projections, but takes a closer look at California, Oregon and Washington.

Although the six inches expected for California by 2030 seem minor, the report estimated that sea levels there will be three feet higher by 2100. About 72% of the state's coast is covered by sandy cliffs, and the rest include beaches, sand dunes, bays and estuaries.

"Rising seas increase the risk of coastal flooding, storm surge inundation, coastal erosion and shoreline retreat, and wetland loss," the report said. "The cities and infrastructure that line many coasts are already vulnerable to damage from storms, which is likely to increase as sea level continues to rise and inundate areas further inland."

Northern California, Oregon and Washington can expect a less dramatic increase — about four inches by 2030 and two feet by 2100 — because seismic activity is causing land to rise north of the San Andreas Fault, offsetting increasing sea levels, and drop south of it. The fault runs out to sea at Cape Mendocino.

The most immediate threat over the next few decades will come from periodic ocean-warming El Nino events, said Gary Griggs, director of the Institute for Marine Sciences at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who was one of the scientists assembled by the council to produce the report.

"During those events, sea level is elevated as much as a foot above normal and then we've got typically larger waves coming in with the high tides," particularly in the Northwest, he said.

If a major earthquake occurs beneath the Pacific Ocean off Oregon, in what is known as the Cascadia subduction zone, that could cause the land to drop, allowing sea level to rise another three feet, the report said. Such a major temblor occurred 300 years ago.

The report was commissioned by states and federal agencies looking for detailed information so they can plan for an accelerated rate of erosion along beaches, bluffs and sand dunes that are already crumbling into the sea.

"A lot of the data we had before was worldwide data or has the caveat, 'Can't be used for planning purposes,'" said Susan Hansch, chief deputy director of the California Coastal Commission. "It all comes down to the better data you have, the better decisions you can make."

Sea levels rise for two reasons due to global warming.

Warmer water expands, which can cause as many as 23 inches of sea level rise by 2100, according to the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Then, warmer temperatures cause ice sheets in Greenland and west Antarctica to melt slowly, adding another foot or more to sea levels by 2100, scientists said. But those estimates are for the planet as a whole. Some places will see higher seas and others will get less dramatic increases.

Globally, sea levels have risen about eight inches over the last century, but the rate has been increasing significantly, said Griggs.

The report summarized published projections, such as the IPCC report of 2007, and updated it with computer modeling, as well as an analysis of tidal gauge readings and satellite measurements along specific sites on the West Coast.

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West Coast prepares for Japanese tsunami debris

SALEM, Ore. – A large dock that washed ashore in Oregon this week more than a year after it was ripped from Japan's shoreline by a tsunami is adding urgency to preparations for a wave of such debris expected to hit the USA's Pacific Coast in coming months.

By Rick Bowmer, AP

A woman looks at the massive dock that washed ashore on Agate Beach on Wednesday in Newport, Ore. The dock was torn loose from a fishing port in northern Japan by last year's tsunami and drifted across thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean.

By Rick Bowmer, AP

A woman looks at the massive dock that washed ashore on Agate Beach on Wednesday in Newport, Ore. The dock was torn loose from a fishing port in northern Japan by last year's tsunami and drifted across thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean.

"We've got a looming threat. There's great public concern about this," says Phillip Johnson, Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition director. "At this point, we don't know if we're going to have a major problem."

Beach cleanliness is vital to residents in Oregon, the only state whose entire coastline (362 miles) is public. Thousands of people turn out twice a year for beach cleanup events. Others adopt portions of the coastline, cleaning and monitoring it year-round. So it's no surprise that residents are worried about the tsunami debris, Johnson says.

On Wednesday, Oregon confirmed the dock that washed ashore this week was from the tsunami. The dock — 7 feet high, 19 feet wide and 66 feet long — is the first official piece of tsunami debris to reach the state.

A dozen volunteers on Thursday scraped the dock clean of marine organisms and sterilized it with torches to prevent the spread of invasive species, said Chris Havel of the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

Japanese officials estimate that 5 million tons of debris washed into the Pacific Ocean after the March 11, 2011, quake and tsunami, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). About 70% of that sank, leaving about 1.5 million tons floating.

Most of the debris still is north of Hawaii, says Nir Barnea, West Coast regional coordinator for NOAA's Marine Debris Program.

Scientists expect more debris to hit the West Coast in coming months and through 2014. "It will arrive intermittently and not all at one time and place," Barnea says. "It may be difficult to tell what is tsunami-related and what is not. Even floats with Japanese writing are not necessarily from the tsunami."

Although scientists expect much of the floating debris to follow the currents to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of millions of tons of small bits of plastic floating in the northern Pacific, tsunami debris that can catch the wind is making its way to North America. In recent weeks, a soccer ball washed up in Alaska and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in a shipping container reached British Columbia.

Just how the dock happened to turn up in Oregon was probably determined within sight of land in Japan, says Jan Hafner with the University of Hawaii's International Pacific Research Center, which tracks the debris.

That's where the winds, currents and tides are most variable, because of changes in the coastline and the features of the land, even for two objects a few yards apart, he says. Once the dock got into the ocean, it was pushed steadily by the prevailing westerly winds and the North Pacific Current.

In April, a group of volunteer organizations teamed with NOAA and the state to hold 11 public meetings across Oregon to address concerns about tsunami debris. About 400 people attended, says Jamie Doyle, an educator with Oregon Sea Grant.

"A lot of people were concerned about radiation," Doyle says, referring to the nuclear power plant accident in Japan that was triggered by the earthquake and tsunami. "But it's thought to be highly unlikely."

That's because most of the debris was washed out before the radiation release and because radiation would have dissipated by now, Barnea says.

Body parts also are not expected, because they would have decomposed by now.

The most important message, Barnea says: "If you don't know what it is, don't touch it. Don't move it. Report it to local authorities, 911 or the national response center."

A mobile application at marinedebris.engr.uga.edu can help people report debris. It is a partnership of the NOAA Marine Debris Division and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative of the engineering school at the University of Georgia.

In addition to Oregon, other Pacific Coast states are educating residents about tsunami debris cleanup, Barnea says.

•In Alaska, some lighter debris, such as plastic bottles and Styrofoam floats, is showing up. The first volunteer cleanup project in the state took place in Montague Island this month.

•In Washington, authorities have distributed fliers with instructions on how to handle items found on beaches.

•In California, officials say coastal currents may deflect most debris back toward Hawaii. Even so, the state's Coastal Commission has issued guidelines for volunteers helping with tsunami debris removal.

"We'll continue to work on the planning, continue to work with volunteers," Barnea says. "It's a real teamwork of state, federal and local agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the public."

Loew also reports for the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore. Contributing: John McAuliff, USA TODAY; the Associated Press.

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Beryl to bring rain, winds to southeast U.S. coast

A cluster of thunderstorms that stalled off the southeastern U.S. coast on Saturday is expected to make for a sloppy, rainy Memorial Day on beaches and in tourist towns from Florida to South Carolina.

By Matt Born, The (Wilmington, N.C.) Star-News, via AP

Carolina Beach, N.C., Ocean Rescue leader Evan Anderson places a sign closing the beach to swimming Saturday because of strong rip currents.

By Matt Born, The (Wilmington, N.C.) Star-News, via AP

Carolina Beach, N.C., Ocean Rescue leader Evan Anderson places a sign closing the beach to swimming Saturday because of strong rip currents.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the entire Georgia coastline, as well as parts of Florida and South Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

As thousands of people headed toward the beach for the holiday weekend, the center issued tropical storm warnings for the southeastern U.S. from the Volusia/Brevard county line in Florida to Edisto Beach, S.C., and a tropical storm watch stretching north to the South Santee River in South Carolina. A tropical storm warning means that storm conditions could developing within the next day and a half.

The large storm, with tropical-storm force winds stretching out for 115 miles, was expected to get stronger before it approaches land. The storm could also dump 3 to 6 inches of rain on the southeast coast.

Beryl was technically still considered a "subtropical storm," but the system is expected to bring winds and rain to the area regardless of its official classification.

The southeastern coast is popular with tourists who visit to enjoy the beaches and wilderness areas.

"A three-day thunderstorm is what it's probably going to be," said Jay Wiggins, emergency management director for Georgia's Glynn County, which is about 60 miles south of Savannah and includes Brunswick and St. Simons Island. "Unfortunately, it's going to ruin a lot of Memorial Day plans."

Wiggins said he expects some flooded roadways and scattered power outages, perhaps some minor flooding in waterfront homes, but otherwise little damage. However, he urged beachgoers to beware of dangerous rip currents.

On Cumberland Island, a federally protected wilderness area beloved by hikers and campers, superintendent Fred Boyles said he planned to wait until Sunday to decide if campers need to evacuate before the storm arrives. Boyles said he had about 100 campers planning to stay overnight Sunday, and the only way to leave Cumberland Island is by ferry.

In South Carolina, Beaufort County Emergency Management deputy director David Zeoli said that at midday Saturday word went out to first-responders along the coast near the Georgia line to pay attention to the storm's progress. Officials haven't been ordered to work on an otherwise lovely day for the beach, but have been told to stay near a phone, Zeoli said.

This is the second tropical storm to develop before the June 1 start of hurricane season.

Contributing: Associated Press

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Bud weakens to tropical storm off Mexico's coast

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (AP) – Bud weakened to a tropical storm Friday as heavy rain began to pelt a string of laid-back beach resorts and small mountain villages on Mexico's Pacific coast south of Puerto Vallarta.

By Bruno Gonzalez, AP

A navy vehicle drives along a street in the coastal town of Barra de Navidad as the community prepares for the storm's arrival along the Pacific coast of Mexico on Friday.

By Bruno Gonzalez, AP

A navy vehicle drives along a street in the coastal town of Barra de Navidad as the community prepares for the storm's arrival along the Pacific coast of Mexico on Friday.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said that maximum sustained winds that were once blowing at 115 mph (185 kph) had slowed to 70 mph (113 kph) by Friday night. The government of Mexico changed the hurricane warning for the coast of Mexico from Manzanillo to Cabo Corrientes to a tropical storm warning. Hurricane watches were also discontinued.

Forecasters said the storm would continue to weaken and the center would move over land late Friday or Saturday.

Heavy rain started Friday night in Puerto Vallarta and rainfall was expected to accumulate from 6 to 10 inches in many spots. Mexican authorities canceled school in 11 communities expected to be hit by heavy rains in Jalisco state. Emergency workers prepared emergency shelters, many of them in empty school classrooms. Emergency officials in Puerto Vallarta said they were closely monitoring villages that had been hit by flooding and mudslides in previous hurricanes and tropical storms.

Rains and 6-foot (2-meter) high waves pelted Melaque, a beach town on the Bahia de Navidad, about 60 mph (100 kilometers) east of the sparsely populated stretch of coast where the storm's center was expected to come ashore during the night.

Rafael Galvez, manager of the Hotel Bahia in Melaque, said his staff would board up windows before Bud's arrival.

"I went through Wilma in Cancun," which hit as a Category 4, Galvez said. "This is a little less severe."

Category 2 Hurricane Jova hit the area in October, killing six people and flooding parts of Melaque and neighboring Barra de Navidad.

"There was a lot of flooding in the whole area, and we lost electricity," Galvez recalled. But this week, he said, only seven of his hotel's 26 rooms were occupied, and none of the hotel's guests were planning to leave.

The hurricane center said the storm would hit land, move a little inland and then make a U-turn and head back out into the Pacific. Rain, rather than wind, could be the big threat, with the center warning of the "potential for life-threatening mudslides" in steep terrain inland.

The government of Jalisco state prepared hundreds of cots and dozens of heavy vehicles such as bulldozers that could be needed to move debris.

Jalisco's civil defense office said two shelters had been opened in Cihuatlan, a town just inland from Melaque that was hard hit by flooding from Jova.

The region is experienced at handling hurricanes, Galvez noted. "The government planning has helped a lot," he noted.

Officials in Puerto Vallarta said they were in close contact with managers of the hundreds of hotels in the city in case tourists need to move to eight emergency shelters, but on Friday night they said that appeared unlikely. It said the sea along the city's famous beachfront was calm, but swimming had been temporarily banned as a precaution.

A separate storm was pounding much of Cuba and the Bahamas on Friday. Cuba's civil defense agency reported that a French citizen, Alain Manaud, and Silvestre Fortun Alvarez of Cuba were missing after trying to cross rain-swollen rivers, according to the government's Prensa Latina news agency. It said a search for them was continuing.

An official at the French Embassy in Havana said Manaud was 66 and had lived in Cuba for several years. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The agency quoted government meteorologists as saying more than 20 inches (500 millimeters) of rain had fallen on parts of the central province of Sancti Spiritus.

The U.S. hurricane center reported that the system had about a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical or subtropical cyclone.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Fuel leaks off cargo ship beached off French coast (AP)

ERDEVEN, France – High winds beached a cargo ship on France's jagged Atlantic coast and some of the 220 tons of fuel on board leaked out, threatening a local beach.

The 19-member crew of the "TK Bremen" was evacuated by helicopter early Friday as the vessel ran aground off Erdeven beach in southern Brittany, on the northwest coast of France.

The prefecture of the Morbihan region said in a statement that a kilometer-long (0.6 mile) strip of fuel was headed toward the beach. A giant nature preserve of dunes and wildlife runs through Erdevan, one of many small coastal towns that attracts tourists for its natural beauty.

The local government warned people to stay indoors as rescuers pumped fuel from the hold of the Maltese flagged ship in a bid to empty it.

The French electric company said Friday some 320,000 homes were without electricity as winds of up to 130 kilometers per hour (81 mph) blew across France, triggering alerts in numerous regions. Most of the outages were in the country's west, but some areas in the east and southeast were hit as the storm moved across France.

Heavy rains in low-lying areas and hurricane-force winds of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph) lashed neighboring Switzerland, and train connections and boat services on some lakes in the Alpine country were disrupted. Swiss airports canceled or diverted dozens of flights — with more than 100 called off at Zurich's hub alone.

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Flotsam from Japanese tsunami reaches West Coast (AP)

PORT ANGELES, Wash. – Some debris from the March tsunami in Japan has reached the West Coast.

A black float about the size of a 55-gallon drum was found two weeks ago by a crew cleaning a beach a few miles east of Neah Bay at the northwest tip of Washington, the Peninsula Daily News reported (http://is.gd/9jSz9q) Wednesday.

The float was displayed at a Tuesday night presentation at Peninsula College by Seattle oceanographers Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham, consultants who produce the "Beachcombers Alert" newsletter.

Tons of debris from Japan will likely begin washing ashore in about a year, from California to southern Alaska, they said. Items that wash up may include portions of houses, boats, ships, furniture, portions of cars and just about anything else that floats, he said.

That could include parts of human bodies, Ebbesmeyer said. Athletic shoes act as floats.

Flotsam in a current travels an average of 7 mph, but it can move as much as 20 mph if it has a large area exposed to the wind, Ebbesmeyer said. The latest float sits well atop the water, has a shallow draft and is lightweight. Similar floats have been found on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Models show currents could pull some Japanese tsunami debris into the Strait of Juan de Fuca as far as Port Townsend.

"All debris should be treated with a great reverence and respect," Ebbesmeyer said.

If the debris has any kind of identifiable marking, such as numbers or Japanese writing, it may be traceable, Ebbesmeyer said. Families in Japan are waiting to hear of any items that may have been associated with their loved ones.

Ebbesmeyer is retired from a career that included tracking icebergs, the 1989 Exxon Valdes oil spill and Puget Sound currents that affect sewage outflows. He wrote the 2009 book, "Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How a Man's Obsession with runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science."

Ingram has retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where he created computer models of ocean currents.

___

Information from: Peninsula Daily News, http://www.peninsuladailynews.com

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New tropical depression forms off Mexico's coast (AP)

MIAMI – A new tropical depression has formed in the Pacific off Mexico's coast as a Hurricane Jova begins moving inland farther north.

The new depression has maximum sustained winds near 35 mph (55 kph) early Wednesday and could strengthen to a tropical storm later in the day. A tropical storm warning has been issued for Barra de Tonala, Mexico, and extends southward to the Guatemalan border.

The depression is centered about 150 miles (240 kilometers) southeast of Salina Cruz and is moving north near 5 mph (7 kph).

The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the depression's center will approach the coast Wednesday evening.

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USGS: 5.3 magnitude quake off OR coast, no tsunami (AP)

PORTLAND, Ore. – A magnitude 5.3 earthquake jolted an area about 140 miles off the southern Oregon coast Wednesday night. A National Earthquake Information Center spokesman in Golden, Colo., says there was no danger of a tsunami from the shallow quake, which was felt by residents in southern Oregon and northern California.

The quake was originally rated at magnitude 5.9 but that was adjusted downward based on additional information.

Geophysicist Rafael Abreu says there were no immediate reports of damage.

He says reports of people feeling the quake ranged from Coos Bay and North Bend on the Oregon coast as far north as Portland, Ore. In California, "felt reports" came from Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, north of San Francisco.

Abreu says the quake occurred in an area of the Pacific where the Juan de Fuca Plate and the Pacific Plate are sliding past each other in a horizontal motion.

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Tropical Storm Lee spawns tornadoes on Gulf Coast (Reuters)

MOBILE, Ala (Reuters) – Tropical Storm Lee spawned tornado sightings and alerts from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to the Florida panhandle on Sunday, and at least two deaths related to the storm were reported.

More than a dozen tornado sightings were reported, and tornado warnings were in effect Sunday afternoon for portions of Baldwin and Mobile counties in southwest Alabama and Greene, Jasper, Perry and Wayne counties in southern Mississippi, according to the National Weather Service.

Weather officials had not confirmed any tornadoes touching down in the area on Sunday afternoon, but were tracking at least three twisters and funnel clouds near Mobile, Alabama, and central Mississippi near Hattiesburg.

Tornado watches stretched from southeast Mississippi, through a dozen counties in southwest Alabama and several more in the Florida Panhandle. Tornado watches also reached into southwest Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

Wet conditions associated with Tropical Storm Lee's landfall appeared to be a factor in an early-morning car wreck in Mobile, Alabama, that killed one man and left several others injured, authorities said.

The single-vehicle crash around 4 a.m. local time Sunday killed Dataurius Nurell Parker of Lucedale, Mississippi, and injured four passengers.

Mobile police investigators said none were wearing seat belts and believed wet conditions contributed to Parker losing control of the car and striking a utility pole.

An unidentified juvenile drowned late Sunday afternoon in choppy surf east of Fort Morgan, Alabama.

Baldwin County Sheriff's investigators determined two juveniles were swept out into the surf. The youth's mother attempted a rescue attempt and was caught in the surf herself, according to a press release.

The mother and second juvenile were rescued, but the search for the first youth was suspended on Sunday evening.

On Saturday, authorities said a Texas man drowned when he lost his boogie board in the choppy water off a Galveston beach. His body was recovered about 150 yards from the beach a few hours later.

Weather officials were assessing the damage reported from a tornado that touched down in the Gulfport, Mississippi area just after midnight on Sunday. Several people were sent to area hospitals for treatment of minor injuries. Officials described the damage to homes as minor.

"We don't have a total number of homes damaged yet, but a (national) weather service assessment team is coming to check it out," said Rupert Lacy, emergency management director at the Harrison County Emergency Operations Center.

Emergency management officials in Mobile County, Alabama, also confirmed a tornado touched down in the southern part of that county early on Sunday morning, downing power lines and trees. No injuries have been reported.

In Mobile on Sunday, sunny skies and brisk winds gave the appearance of calm as the heaviest rains remained to the west.

Response crews are especially attuned to the threat of tornadoes after devastating twisters ravaged northern Alabama on April 27, killing more than 230 people and leveling portions of Tuscaloosa, Concord and Pleasant Grove.

"We know the heavy-duty rain is a little to the west of us, so we're going to see showers and continued flooding in low-lying areas where the ground is already super saturated. But tomorrow there's going to be a shift in the winds that should give us a little relief, and we're really looking forward to it," Lacy said.

Emergency management officials in Hancock County, Mississippi, also reported a mobile home flipped just before midnight, but no injuries were reported.

In Pascagoula, Mississippi, where residents were evacuated from two low-lying areas late Saturday night, officials said they were "standing ready" for flood issues as heavy rain was expected to move through the area Sunday afternoon.

"We've been fortunate enough to remain outside the major rain bands the last 18 to 20 hours, and that's given us an opportunity for our flooded areas to recede a little since yesterday," Terry Jackson, deputy director of the Jackson County Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday.

The main brunt of the storm's torrential rain was falling further west in Louisiana, particularly in coastal areas and the New Orleans metropolitan area, although there were no signs of major flooding like the devastating 2005 Hurricane Katrina.

(Edited by Karen Brooks and Greg McCune)

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U.S. Gulf Coast braces for more rain, one dead (Reuters)

MOBILE, Ala (Reuters) – Gulf Coast residents from Texas to Florida braced for a third day of severe weather on Monday with one death reported as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee continued to lash the region.

Flood and flash flood watches and warnings were in effect from coastal Texas into the Gulf states, with 10 to 15 inches of rain expected, the National Weather Service said on Monday.

Tornado warnings also were in effect in some Alabama and Florida counties.

A Corinth, Mississippi man drowned late Sunday. Tishomingo County coroner Mack Wilemon said Howard Anderson, Jr., 57, was swept into floodwaters and drowned while awaiting rescue from a vehicle.

Heavy rains will continue to expand northeastward into the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachian mountains through Tuesday, with rainfall amounts of 4 inches to 8 inches expected and isolated amounts of 12 inches possible.

"These may cause life threatening flash floods and mudslides," the weather service said.

Thunderstorms plowed through Mobile, Baldwin and Washington counties in Alabama on Monday morning, downing trees and power lines from Dauphin Island to Citronelle.

The National Weather Service in Mobile issued tornado warnings for Bullock, Covington, Escambia, Macon and Monroe counties in Alabama and Escambia and Okaloosa counties in northwest Florida.

Meanwhile, flash flood warnings remain in effect until early Monday evening for Covington, Forrest, Jones, Lamar, Lauderdale, Newton, Scott and Smith counties in southern Mississippi.

Keith Williams with the National Weather Service in Mobile said one tornado had been confirmed on Sunday in the Destin, Florida, area, but the extent of damage was not yet known.

TEEN SWEPT AWAY

Baldwin County authorities have not released the name of a 16-year-old boy Birmingham, Alabama, boy swept out into the surf on Sunday afternoon just east of Fort Morgan, Alabama.

Maj. Anthony Lowery with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said three teens were standing near the coastline when a large wave hit, carrying two of them into the surf. One was able to make it back to shore, and rescuers retrieved the mother of the second who tried unsuccessfully to reach her son in the 10-foot waves. The boy remained missing on Monday.

Rupert Lacy, emergency management director in Harrison County, said at least five homes in the coastal Mississippi county were damaged on Sunday by suspected tornado activity in the Saucier community. No injuries were reported.

Lacy said at least one Harrison County resident was taken to a local hospital after he was injured when lightning traveled through a phone line.

"Highway 90 is one of my big concerns. In some places you can't be sure if you're on the beach or the highway," he said.

Lacy said the Mississippi Department of Transportation would be bringing in reinforcements from the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, area to assist in damage assessments on Monday.

Response crews are attuned to the threat of tornadoes after devastating twisters ravaged northern Alabama on April 27, killing more than 230 people and leveling portions of Tuscaloosa, Concord and Pleasant Grove.

Rainfall totals on Monday have ranged from 4 to 5 inches in the northern portion of coastal counties in Alabama and Mississippi to as much as 12 inches near the coast, Williams said. The Florida Panhandle received between 5 and 6 inches.

"We're not really sure about (Monday) because this thing's really moving slow. But there is definitely the possibility of continued rains," Williams said, noting at least 1 to 3 inches of additional rain could be expected.

A coastal flood watch was in effect for the affected areas until Monday evening, with tides expected to be as much as 3 feet above normal with waves of 7 to 10 feet.

(Reporting by Kelli Dugan; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Bohan)

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Katia ramps up power, but seen missing East Coast (Reuters)

MIAMI (Reuters) – Hurricane Katia powered up to a major Category 4 storm on Monday, but was expected to veer away from the U.S. East Coast later this week, avoiding a direct hit on a seaboard already battered by Hurricane Irene.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned, however, that U.S. East Coast beaches should still watch out in the coming week for large swells generated by Katia that could cause life-threatening coastal surf and rip currents.

By late Monday evening, Katia's winds had strengthened to 135 miles per hour, making it a Category 4 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale as it tracked northwestward on a path over the ocean between Bermuda and the Caribbean, the Miami-based center said.

The storm was moving toward the northwest at about 10 mph and the hurricane center said it was expected to continue in this general direction through Wednesday.

The center said some fluctuations in strength were possible during the next 24 hours, followed by a slow weakening.

NHC hurricane specialist Robbie Berg told Reuters the greatest threat from Katia for the U.S. eastern seaboard was likely to be the large swells and resulting dangerous coastal surf and currents the storm generated on its path.

"Even though these storms may stay offshore, they still can be a deadly threat, especially to people going to the beach," Berg said. "It may be a beautiful nice day out and you may just not know that there are rip currents there that can pull you out to sea," he added.

Forecasters and residents of the U.S. Atlantic seaboard have been keeping an anxious eye on Katia after Hurricane Irene raked up the East Coast from the Carolinas to Maine last weekend. It killed at least 40 people and caused extensive flooding, especially in New Jersey and Vermont.

Katia, the second hurricane of the June-through-November Atlantic season, has kept forecasters guessing for days about its potential threat to the United States.

Berg said the latest five-day forecast predicted the hurricane would swing north and then northeastward from Thursday in between Bermuda and the U.S. mainland, pushed away from the East Coast by a developing low pressure trough.

That would guide the storm around a ridge of high pressure in the central Atlantic known as the Bermuda High.

"The steering flow right now is pushing the storm to the northwest but once it gets closer to the East Coast, it'll start feeling the effects of that trough a little bit more, and it's going to make that sharp turn around the Bermuda High and head out northeastward over the open Atlantic," Berg said.

ANOTHER TROPICAL WAVE MOVING WESTWARD

At 10 p.m. (0200 GMT Tuesday), Katia's center was located about 450 miles south of Bermuda, the mid-Atlantic British overseas territory that despite its small size is a global reinsurance hub.

Berg said there was still a one in 10 chance parts of the East Coast could experience tropical storm-force winds when Katia passed well offshore later this week, especially jutting coastal areas like North Carolina's Outer Banks and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Bermuda could also experience such winds.

Elsewhere, Tropical Storm Lee tested New Orleans' flood defenses over the weekend, and on Monday its weakened remnants threatened to dump heavy rain on states from Texas to Florida.

The September 10 peak of the annual Atlantic hurricane season is approaching, and hurricane spotters were already watching another tropical wave, located southwest of the Cape Verde Islands off Africa.

That was moving westward and the NHC gave it a "high" chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours.

Forecasters have predicted a very active 2011 Atlantic season with between eight and 10 hurricanes, above the long-term June to November average of six to seven hurricanes.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Gulf coast braces for more rain, one dead (Reuters)

MOBILE, Ala (Reuters) – Gulf Coast residents from Texas to Florida struggled with a third day of severe weather on Monday with one man dead and a teenager missing in rough waters as remnants of Tropical Storm Lee lashed the region.

The tail end of the storm is expected to produce rain accumulations of up to 15 inches across the central Gulf coast, the National Weather Service said on Monday. Flash flood watches were in effect in along the coast until 7 p.m.

Tornadoes spawned by the system have also touched down in Gulf coast states and are likely to threaten the Southeast through Tuesday, forecasters said.

A Corinth, Mississippi man drowned late Sunday. Tishomingo County coroner Mack Wilemon said Howard Anderson, Jr., 57, was swept into floodwaters and drowned around 11 p.m. while awaiting rescue from a vehicle.

Heavy rains will continue to expand northeastward into the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachian mountains through Tuesday, with rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches likely and isolated amounts of 12 inches possible, according to the National Weather Service.

"These may cause life threatening flash floods and mudslides," the weather service said.

Thunderstorms plowed through Mobile, Baldwin and Washington counties in Alabama on Monday morning, downing trees and power lines from Dauphin Island to Citronelle.

Tornadoes have touched down in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida, according to AccuWeather.com.

TEEN SWEPT AWAY

A 16-year-old boy was swept out into the surf on Sunday afternoon just east of Fort Morgan, Alabama. The Baldwin County Sheriff's Office identified him as Conrad Charleston Hathcoat of Hoover, Alabama.

Maj. Anthony Lowery with the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office said Hathcoat and two other teens were standing near the coastline when a large wave hit, carrying two of them into the surf. One was able to make it back to shore, and rescuers retrieved Hathcoat's mother who tried unsuccessfully to reach her son in the 10-foot waves. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the boy on Monday afternoon.

Rupert Lacy, emergency management director in Harrison County, said at least five homes in the coastal Mississippi county were damaged on Sunday by suspected tornado activity in the Saucier community. No injuries were reported.

Lacy said at least one Harrison County resident was taken to a local hospital after he was injured when lightning traveled through a phone line.

"Highway 90 is one of my big concerns. In some places you can't be sure if you're on the beach or the highway," he said.

Lacy said the Mississippi Department of Transportation would be bringing in reinforcements from the Hattiesburg, Mississippi, area to assist in damage assessments on Monday.

Response crews are attuned to the threat of tornadoes after devastating twisters ravaged northern Alabama on April 27, killing more than 230 people and leveling portions of Tuscaloosa, Concord and Pleasant Grove.

Rainfall totals on Monday have ranged from 4 to 5 inches in the northern portion of coastal counties in Alabama and Mississippi to as much as 12 inches near the coast, Williams said. The Florida Panhandle received between 5 and 6 inches.

A coastal flood watch was in effect for the affected areas until 7 p.m. with tides expected to be as much as 3 feet above normal with waves of 7 to 10 feet.

Meanwhile, Alabama Power Co. crews were working to restore power to 16,000 customers statewide as the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee continued to work their way slowly to the northeast.

(Reporting by Kelli Dugan; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Peter Bohan)

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Irene rakes up East Coast, shuts down New York (Reuters)

MOREHEAD CITY, North Carolina (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene charged up the U.S. East Coast on Saturday toward New York, shutting down the city, and millions of Americans sought shelter from a huge storm that halted transport and caused massive power blackouts.

"The storm is coming," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the more than 8 million people who live in the United States' most populous city that includes Wall Street, one of the world's major financial centers.

From the Carolinas to Maine, tens of millions of people were in the path of the giant 580-mile-wide storm that howled ashore in eastern North Carolina at daybreak on Saturday, dumping torrential rain, felling trees and knocking out power.

At least six deaths were reported in North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. Several million people were under evacuation orders on the U.S. East Coast.

New York City ordered unprecedented evacuations and shut down its airports and subways, part of a huge public transit system that moves 8.5 million people a day on weekdays. Commuters were left to flag down yellow taxis and livery cabs that were patrolling largely deserted streets.

Irene caused transport chaos in the eastern United States, as airline, rail and transit systems in New York and other cities started sweeping weekend shutdowns.

The Coast Guard closed the port of Philadelphia.

"We are trying to get to Boston and that is not going to happen. We're just stuck here," Rachel Karten said from the near-empty Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. "We didn't think they would shut down everything."

Irene left nearly 1 million people without power in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware on Saturday and energy firms prepared for wider disruptions.

With winds of 80 miles per hour, Irene had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.

But it was expected to approach New York Saturday night at or near hurricane strength, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Irene came ashore near North Carolina's Cape Lookout around 7:30 a.m. EDT, and then chugged up the coast on a north-northeast track. By 5 p.m., the center was 50 miles south southeast of Norfolk, Virginia, and 340 miles south southwest of New York City.

Irene could slacken to a tropical storm by the time it hits New England on Sunday, but the U.S. National Hurricane Center said that would make little difference in the impact from its damaging winds, flooding rains and dangerous storm surge.

"I would advise people not to focus that much on Category 1, 2 or 3 ... if you're in a hurricane, it's a big deal," U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a conference call. "This remains a large and dangerous storm," she said.

"DANGEROUS OUT THERE"

Bloomberg told New Yorkers Irene was a life-threatening hurricane and urged them to heed evacuation orders.

"This is a storm which if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, could be fatal ... It is dangerous out there," the mayor said in one of several public appeals. He urged New Yorkers to stay indoors to avoid flying debris, flooding or the risk of being electrocuted by downed power lines.

Some 370,000 city residents were ordered to leave their homes in low-lying areas, many of them in parts of the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and in downtown Manhattan.

But many were unwilling to evacuate. Nicholas Vigliotti, 24, an auditor who lives in a new high-rise building along the Brooklyn waterfront, said he saw no point.

"Even if there was a flood, I live on the fifth floor," he said. But he was moving his car to safety in a higher spot.

The hurricane center said that Irene's winds could impact more strongly on the higher floors of skyscrapers.

The Miami-based center forecast a storm surge of up to 8 feet for Long Island and metropolitan New York when Irene passes on Sunday.

That would easily top the flood walls protecting the south end of Manhattan if it comes at high tide around 8 a.m. (noon GMT) on Sunday, hurricane expert Jeff Masters of private forecaster Weather Underground wrote in his blog.

When Irene hit the North Carolina coast at daybreak, winds howled through the power lines, rain fell in sheets and streets were flooded or littered with signs and tree branches.

"NATURE DANCING"

"You look outside and it's like nature is dancing for us," said Joe Toledo, who left his mobile home with his wife, Cindy, to take shelter in a hotel in Havelock, North Carolina.

Two people were killed by falling trees in Virginia, one a young boy who died when a tree crashed onto the apartment where he was.

At least three people were killed in North Carolina -- one man hit by a falling tree branch and another washed away and feared drowned. Another man died of a heart attack while boarding up his house, Governor Bev Perdue said.

In New Smyrna Beach, Florida, a surfer riding large waves kicked up by Irene was killed, local media reported.

North Carolina Governor Perdue said there could be "a major hit" to tobacco crops, poultry and livestock in her state.

Summer vacationers fled beach towns and resort islands. More than 1 million people left the New Jersey shore, leaving the glitzy Atlantic City casinos dark and empty.

Shoppers stripped the supermarkets and hardware stores of food, water, flashlights, batteries and generators.

In Washington, the skies were almost dark in the late afternoon as winds picked up and torrential rain formed pools of water in streets. Traffic died down and only a small handful of tourists dressed in rain gear gathered outside the White House.

President Barack Obama cut his Martha's Vineyard vacation short by a day. In Washington, he conferred with emergency managers. "It's going to be a long 72 hours," Obama said.

Irene was the first hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland since Ike pounded Texas in 2008. Emergency workers were mindful of Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans, killed up to 1,800 people and caused $80 billion in damage in 2005.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the military stood ready to help. In Washington, Irene forced the postponement of a ceremony on Sunday to dedicate a new memorial to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Tens of thousands of people, including Obama, had been expected to attend.

The District of Columbia gave out 7,000 sandbags for residents in low-lying areas to use in case of flooding.

Irene swept through the Northeast Caribbean and the Bahamas as a Category 3 hurricane earlier in the week, bringing floods that killed one person in Puerto Rico and at least three in the Dominican Republic.

(Additional Reporting by Joe Rauch and Jim Brumm in Wilmington, N.C.; Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Basil Katz and Jonathan Allen in New York; Susan Cornwell and John Crawley in Washington; and Michael Fitzpatrick in Long Branch, New Jersey; writing by Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Eric Beech)

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Hurricane Irene strengthens on path to U.S. coast (Reuters)

NASSAU (Reuters) – Hurricane Irene looked set to become a major storm on Wednesday as it roared up from the Caribbean on a path that prompted residents along the U.S. east coast to prepare for a possible hit over the weekend.

Irene is a Category 2 storm on the five-step Saffir Simpson scale, with top winds of 110 miles per hour (175 km per hour), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

"Strengthening is forecast and Irene will likely become a major hurricane later today," the center said.

It will become a Category 3 storm when winds rise above 111 mph.

Even as the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season pounded the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas with winds, rain and high tides, people in the Carolinas on the southeastern U.S. coast were getting ready for its approach.

At 5 a.m. EDT, Irene was about 370 miles southeast of Nassau and about 955 miles south of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.

Irene, the ninth named storm of the June-through-November season, looks set to be the first hurricane to hit the United States since Ike pounded the Texas coast in 2008. But forecasts showed it posing no threat to U.S. oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico.

The hurricane center warned of "an extremely dangerous storm surge" that will raise water levels by as much as 11 feet above normal tides in the central and northwestern Bahamas and by as much as 8 feet in the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos.

The storm is forecast to approach the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday morning. After that, the saturated New England region could be at risk from torrential rains, high winds and flooding from Irene, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said on Tuesday.

Major eastern cities like Washington and New York could feel some impact, the forecasts showed.

In North Carolina, Governor Bev Perdue urged residents to ensure they had three days worth of food, water and supplies.

Voluntary evacuations were to begin on Wednesday for parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks, a stretch of barrier islands and beaches that are popular summer holiday spots.

Irene drenched the northeastern Caribbean islands earlier in the week. The first death from the storm was reported on Tuesday in Puerto Rico, where a woman was swept away.

Heavy rains continued to pelt the U.S. Caribbean territory, causing flooding and mudslides. Nearly 300,000 residents were without electricity and 58,000 were without water. (Additional reporting by Jane Sutton and Tom Brown in Miami, Harriet McLeod in Charleston, S.C., Edwin Barnett in Raleigh, N.C., Barbara Liston in Orlando; Writing by Pascal Fletcher and John O'Callaghan; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

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US: No tsunami threat from East Coast quake (AP)

ATLANTA_ U.S. officials say there is no threat of a tsunami along the East Coast after an earthquake centered in Virginia rocked the region.

The National Weather Service's West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said the location of the quake was far enough inland that it didn't threaten to trigger a tsunami on the coast.

Director Paul Whitmore said the center has gauges up and down the East Coast and none of them were detecting tsunami activity.

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Hurricane Adrian heads away from Mexican coast (AFP)

MIAMI (AFP) – Adrian, a major hurricane off the Pacific coast of Mexico, was veering on a northwesterly path Friday and posing no immediate threat to land, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The first hurricane of the 2011 season, Adrian is a category four storm with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour (220 kph) centered around 310 miles (505 kilometers) south-southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico.

"This general motion is expected to continue for the next 48 hours," the NHC said in an update, noting that the storm was keeping away from the Mexican coast.

Adrian was expected to begin weakening later Friday after hitting its peak intensity.

While the storm was not expected to hit land, the hurricane center said swells from Adrian "will continue to affect a portion of the southwestern Mexico coast (and) could cause life-threatening surf and rip currents."

The hurricane season, which started on June 1 and runs until November 30, will feature atmospheric conditions which experts predict will lead to the formation of 12 to 18 named tropical storms in the Atlantic zone, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA forecasts an elevated threat this year to the United States and Caribbean nations, and predicts between three and six major storms of Category three intensity or higher on the five-level Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.

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