Not only did the students inventory all of the conversation paths between company headquarters, towboats, USACE, US Coast Guard, National Weather Service, and the IRS, but they demonstrated a simplified design to eliminate multiple entries, improve accuracy, and reduce expensive data verification.

WHITEHOUSE: A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships

It aims to test the effectiveness of alert, monitoring and warning systems among all the emergency management organizations (national focal points for tsunami alerts, weather forecast offices, national coast guard, etc.) throughout the region.

UNESCO: EDUCATION

Watson took courses in archeology, linguistics, and communications at Simon Fraser University, known among students at the time as Berkeley North. (He never finished a degree.) In 1968, in need of work, he skipped a semester to join the Coast Guard, and for several weeks he served aboard a weather ship.

NEWYORKER: Neptune��s Navy

The weather may delay the process by two to three days, according to retired Coast Guard Adm.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

"Weather on scene deteriorated to a point that made the rescue impossible, " the Coast Guard said in a statement issued Friday.

CNN: More than 120 rescued from Ike's floods

In Minnesota, Gov. Mark Dayton said the weather was taxing the resources of local and county governments, and he issued an executive order activating the National Guard.

NPR: Severe Storms Sock Midwest, Push East; 2 Dead