PART III: FIELD ACTIVITIES 



5. The development of Elena had been tracked by the staff of the 

 Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC) , and by the morning of 28 August 

 1985, a decision was reached to dispatch the hurricane field team to the 

 vicinity of the Mississippi/Alabama coastline. On the morning of 29 August, 

 the CERC field team began to deploy the onshore gages and by that evening had 

 instrumented 10 sites from Slidell, La., to Pascagoula, Miss. At this time, 

 Elena was about 350 miles southeast of New Orleans, La., moving toward the 

 northwest at about 20 mph. During the night of 29/30 August, Elena became 

 stationary near 28.0 deg north latitude, 86.5 deg west longitude. The best 

 available guidance at this time indicated a turn toward the northeast and, ac- 

 cordingly, the field team proceeded to the vicinity of Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. 



6. At about noon on 30 August, Elena began to move toward the northeast 

 with indications of landfall near Panama City, Fla. On this basis, the field 

 team deployed the remaining instruments in the Panama City vicinity. Mean- 

 while, during the late afternoon and evening of 30 August, 'Elena continued to 

 turn toward the east and headed in the direction of Cedar Key, Fla. The hur- 

 ricane continued on this easterly track until the morning of 31 August when it 

 again became stationary near 29 deg north latitude, 84 deg west longitude. 

 Having exhausted its supply of instruments, the CERC field team retrieved the 

 instruments which had been deployed along the Mississippi/Alabama coast to use 

 in the event Elena turned toward the north and threatened the Florida 

 panhandle. 



7. By the afternoon of 1 September, Elena had assumed a westward track 

 paralleling the west Florida coastline. Because the track of the hurricane 

 was nearly parallel to the coast, a relatively small change in direction would 

 result in a significant change in landfall position. The CERC field team was 

 instructed to deploy the remaining instruments as long as possible from 



Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., westward. The field team worked its way to the west 

 until late evening of 1 September when directed by civil authorities to leave 

 the area. Elena continued to move westward through the night of 1 September, 

 finally making landfall near Biloxi, Miss., early the morning of 2 September. 



8. Following the passage of Elena, the CERC field team returned to the 

 area of landfall to conduct a poststorm survey of high-water levels. The 

 findings of the poststorm survey are discussed in Section V. 



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