Flood News

An obstructed check valve on a bilge pump led to the flooding and partial sinking of a towing vessel last year while moored at a shipyard near New Orleans, the National Transportation Safety Board reports.Marquette Transportation's vessel Joanne Marie was found partially submerged a day and a half after being moored and deactivated at the Bollinger Quick Repair Shipyard on the Harvey Canal. The vessel was unattended at the time. No injuries were reported and damage to the vessel was over $176…

SONARAY, manufacturer of lighting products used in marine applications, has introduced its new line of LED flood lighting marketed as the Velocity series.The Velocity Flood Light Series joins the company's high-powered flood light offering and brings contemporary looks along with a choice of models ranging from 200 to 500-watts. Durable die-cast aluminum housing, tough polycarbonate lens, exceptional IP65 and IK10 ratings along with anti-corrosive finish for harsh environments are just some of the features built-in to this series, SONARAY said.

Louisiana-based boat builder Metal Shark has unveiled Prowler, its new autonomous, amphibious, and semi-submersible military craft engineered to meet the current and near future warfighting requirements of the U.S. military and its allies. The company is also debuting Frenzy, a high-performance, low-cost, amphibious micro-USV (uncrewed surface vehicle) with a payload carrying capacity of up to 14 pounds.“Prowler represents the sum total of everything we’ve learned while building 400-plus autonomous and remote operated vessels for our military customers over the past decade…

Kimberly Lutz and America’s Watershed Initiative (AWI) are making every effort to sustain the Mississippi River for generations to come.The Mississippi River is one of the world’s largest river systems and is arguably America’s most critical waterway. Flowing over 2,350 miles, spanning, at points, up to eleven miles, and discharging approximately 593,003 cubic feet of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mighty Mississippi is awe inspiring in terms of its natural characteristics as well as its commercial impact on both the American and global economies.

Despite the occasional smaller LDT candidate popping up for sale over recent weeks, there regrettably remains the ongoing scarcity of tonnage that is simply unable to fill the most basic of demands at the major ship-recycling destinations, reports cash buyer GMS.“As plots across Indian sub-continent markets gradually recycle through their respective shares of vessel deliveries through the first quarter of 2024, both Bangladeshi and Pakistani markets remain well-positioned despite the onset of the traditionally quieter month of Ramadan…

A new safety alert issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) urges vessel owners and operators to provide each crewmember with a personal locator device. These devices improve a mariner’s chance of rescue during an emergency.During an emergency at sea, a mariner’s chance of survival decreases if search and rescue cannot quickly and accurately identify their location. Personal locator devices, such as personal locator beacons (PLB) or satellite emergency notification devices (SEND), can accurately pinpoint a person’s location.

The 2023 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to Caleb Halle, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class (AST2) of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). He was recognized for the outstanding courage, endurance and determination he showed during the rescue of the seven-strong crew of the tugboat Legacy in January 2023.AST2 Halle, based at the Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, received the award at the annual IMO Awards Ceremony in London. The ceremony…

A new EU agreement on waste shipments is set to remove a legal roadblock to make it possible for a raft of non-OECD ship recycling yards to be included on an EU-approved list, which would unleash much-needed shipbreaking capacity for a massive wave of tonnage due to be scrapped over the coming years, according to green recycling consultancy Sea Sentinels.The European Parliament and Council have agreed to allow exports of hazardous waste, including that contained in EU-flagged ships…

A key stretch of the lower Mississippi River dropped this week to within inches of its lowest-ever level and is expected to remain near historic lows just as the busiest U.S. grain export season gets underway, according to the National Weather Service.Low water has slowed hauling of export-bound corn and soybean barges over recent weeks as shippers lightened loads to prevent vessels from running aground and reduced the number of barges they haul at one time to navigate a narrower shipping channel.The water woes come at the worst possible time for U.S.

Some of the world's largest ports may be unusable by 2050 as rising sea levels hit operations, and efforts to speed up decarbonization of the maritime sector and bring in new technology are vital, a study showed on Friday.Weather-related disruptions are already impacting ports across the globe. These include a drought which is hampering operations in the Panama Canal, a top waterway.The Global Maritime Trends 2050 report, commissioned by leading shipping services group Lloyd's Register and the independent charity arm Lloyd's Register Foundation…

Thai shipbuilder Seacrest Marine has delivered an Incat Crowther-designed patrol boat to Thailand’s Customs Department.Launched in April 2023, the 20-meter monohull patrol vessel, Customs Boat 523, is now patrolling the oceans off the coast of Thailand. The vessel can operate at speeds of up to 35 knots with a cruising range of up to 300 nautical miles.Designed for maximum performance and efficiency, Customs Boat 523 boasts an efficient hull paired with twin-propeller propulsion, Incat Crowther said.

HII announced its Newport News Shipbuilding division partnered with the Virginia Marine Resource Commission (VMRC) to donate and sink a former dry dock caisson gate offshore, giving it new life as part of an artificial reef.Caisson gates are used at the harbor end of a dry dock, with pipes inside allowing for water from the James River to enter when NNS needs to flood the dry dock. This particular gate, originally put into service at NNS in 1967, was part of a dry dock no longer in use at the shipyard.NNS crews worked to prepare the caisson gate…

Hubbard, a new ferry built in 2019 for Alaska's Marine Highway System (AMHS), was formally christened this week after a change of plans put the vessel's entry into service on hold.The vessel is the second of two Alaska class ferries designed by Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group and constructed at Vigor Shipyard in Ketchikan, Alaska. Construction of both vessels began in October 2014. The series' first ferry, Tazlina, was christened in 2018, and Hubbard was completed in 2019.Intended to operate as day boats to serve the AMHS Lynn Canal route between Juneau…

Jen Armstrong joins Waterways Council, Inc. as Director, Government Relations.She joins Dustin Davidson in this role for WCI.Armstrong was most recently Director of Navigation Policy and Legislation for the American Association of Port of Authorities (AAPA).Prior to that, she was Republican Staff Director/Clerk for the Senate Energy and Water (E&W) Appropriations Committee, representing Senate Republican interests in the development of the annual $52 billion Energy and Water Development (E&WD) Appropriations bill which funds the Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works mission…

An oil rig supervisor who earned more than $200,000 a year working for Houston-based Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc is entitled to overtime pay, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday in a decision with costly implications for the oil and gas industry.The court in a 6-3 decision authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan decided that because the rig supervisor, Michael Hewitt, was paid a daily rate of $963 and not a salary, an overtime pay exemption in federal wage law for highly paid workers did not apply to him.The justices affirmed a 2021 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S.

SONARAY, a manufacturer of proprietary LED lighting products, announced PermaStar, a high efficacy, 500-watt LED Flood Light that comes with a limited lifetime warranty. The new flood light is durable with IP66 and IK10  ratings, and is available in a range of beam angles and produces up  to 67,000 lumens in the 45-degree angle model. The PermaStar is also UL 1598A listed so it can be used outside in damp or wet environments. The PermaStar is constructed with a durable die-cast…

Romania and Poland are in talks with the European Commission over export tracing mechanisms for Ukrainian grains to ensure local farmers are not hurt by a flood of cheap imports, the Polish and Romanian prime ministers said on Tuesday.Ukraine, one of the world's largest grain exporters, has seen its Black Sea ports blocked since Russia invaded more than a year ago and has been forced to find alternative shipping routes through European Union states Poland and Romania.But logistical bottlenecks mean that large quantities of Ukrainian grains…

The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbor could no longer accommodate the needs of modernized shipping.In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock…

Theodore, Ala. aluminum boatbuilder Silver Ships recently delivered an Explorer 40 workboat to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Pittsburgh District for use on the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers.The second of three Explorer 40 series workboats ordered by USACE Pittsburgh District, the 40-foot workboat will support the Corps’ mission of improving navigable waterways and water infrastructure.The custom-built 40-foot vessel is powered by Twin 350HP Suzuki outboard motors that give the vessel enhanced maneuvering capabilities for working in tight spaces.

Storage demand and transit volumes are poised to grow further at the United Arab Emirates' Fujairah port this year as Russian trade flows continue to flood the hub, industry executives said on Tuesday.Russian oil barrels have been flowing into popular ship-to-ship transfer hubs in the Middle East and Asia since last year as Western sanctions led to the reshuffling of trade flows."We have seen a huge influx of Russian barrels coming into Fujairah ... particularly urals and naphtha…

A flood of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects due online worldwide in mid-decade will vie against lower-cost renewable energy and a revived nuclear power sector, which could rock gas prices and hurt some proposed projects, analysts say.Proposed and approved new LNG plants would boost LNG supply by 67% increase to 636 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030 from 2021 levels, potentially saturating the gas market."There's over a trillion dollars of natural gas infrastructure being built in the world today.

The OSIL Vibrocorer has been in use on the early works for the River Thames Scheme, a £600 million project to develop two new flood channel sections for the River Thames.The River Thames Scheme aims to reduce the risk of flooding for approximately 15,000 homes and businesses along the River Thames involving a series of measures, including new flood walls and embankments, improvements to existing flood defenses, and flood storage areas and diversion channels to temporarily hold…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is kicking off a five-year, $25 million "mega-study" with the goal to help guide effective and practical management of the Lower Mississippi River.The Corps said the the study will help it to identify recommendations for the comprehensive management of the region across multiple purposes, including hurricane and storm damage reduction, flood risk management, structure and nonstructural flood control, floodplain management strategies, navigation…