Incident Command Post News

Responders are continuing the search for five missing Army aviators from a downed Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter approximately two miles west of Ka'ena Point, Oahu, Wednesday. En route is Coast Guard Cutter Walnut (WLB 205) and crew, a 225-foot buoy tender homeported in Honolulu. None of the aviators have been located yet. Debris has been spotted and recovered near Ka'ena Point by responders. A joint forward incident command post has been established at Hale'iwa Boat Harbor to coordinate search and rescue efforts. Debris from the crash should be considered hazardous material and should only be recovered by recovery teams with the proper training and personal protective equipment. The debris poses potential risk and could cause serious bodily harm due to sharp edges.

The U.S. Coast Guard siad it is continuing its response to an allision resulting in a barge breakaway on the Mississippi River near Thebes, Ill., Wednesday. An Incident Command Post has been established at Marine Safety Unit Paducah. Lt. Cmdr. Heather Stratton is the Incident Commander. It was initially stated that the closure was from mile marker 44 to mile marker 30 on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River is now closed to all traffic from mile marker 44 to mile marker 20, with the exception of authorized vessels involved in the incident. Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley watchstanders received a call after the tow vessel Michael G. Morris allided with the Thebes Railroad Bridge at approximately 5 a.m., Wednesday. The allision caused all 30 barges loaded with grain to breakaway.

A shelter-in-place was lifted and the Houston Ship Channel was reopened at 2:08 p.m. Wednesday, after an incident in the upper ship channel that caused the release of as much as 23,000 gallons of naphtha (PTN). The Coast Guard, Texas General Land Office, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies and responders are working together to ensure the safety of people in the area, responders and to minimize any impact to the environment if possible. "Upon consultation with the NOAA support coordinator, their models showed that most of the product would evaporate in approximately three hours," said Cmdr. Eric Carrero, the federal on-scene coordinator for the Coast Guard.

Crews are continuing their response and investigation Saturday for an unknown substance that was released Friday into Lake Erie at the Forest City Yacht Club in Cleveland. The spilled product coming from an outflow pipe near the marina appears to have ceased. Late Friday evening, Clean Harbors contractors placed boom at the yacht club basin entrance to keep the substance from spreading further into the lake. The boom held through the night and plans are in place to deploy additional boom further out as a secondary barrier, due to a forecast change in wind direction Saturday. Samples of the released product have been sent to the Coast Guard Marine Safety Lab for analysis. Clean Harbors contractors are using a vacuum truck and trailer on scene for clean up.

The Coast Guard participated in a multi-agency Northern Border Initiative exercise to strengthen inter-agency security partnerships in five New York locations, Thursday and Friday. Approximately 500 people from 20 Federal, State and local agencies, as well as cross-border partners in Canada participated in the exercise. Capt. Brian Roche, commander of Coast Guard Sector Buffalo, served as lead federal official in the exercise, which was organized by the Monroe County Emergency Management Office. The exercise offered an opportunity to test and develop multi-agency response capabilities, including coordination of surveillance resources and the tactical deployment of forces to counter a security threat.

Effective shoreline clean-up efforts are on-going, Saturday, along Mustang, South Matagorda and North Padre islands in response to the Texas City oil spill. As of sunset Friday, response workers have removed a total of 200,775 pounds of oiled sand and oiled debris from the shorelines of Mustang, North Padre and South Matagorda islands. These figures include 102,700 pounds of oiled material from Mustang Island, 93,550 pounds from South Matagorda and 4,525 pounds from shoreline around Bob Hall pier.

The US Coast Guard informs that clean-up and response teams from the Matagorda Bay Incident Command Post are responding to sightings of oil near North Padre Island and along sporadic portions of Mustang Island in Corpus Christi. Additional sightings also include tar balls in the area, although it is not clear whether the tar balls are the result of the March 22 spill near Texas City. However, response teams from Miller Environmental, who are engaged in combatting that incident, have mobilized to contain and collect those tar balls and oil in newly impacted areas as well.

Oil spill responders from the Matagorda Incident Command Post in Port O’Connor, Texas, continue to implement their aggressive plans, Friday, intended to protect environmentally sensitive areas of the Matagorda Bay area against any impact from a portion of the oil spilled in Saturday’s ship-barge collision near Texas City, Texas. Effective at 10 a.m. today, the U.S. Coast Guard has lifted the safety zone, which had been in effect for the Matagorda Ship Channel from the sea buoy to the intersection of the ship channel with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway…

The Captain of the Port of Houston/Galveston has opened the bay to all traffic Thursday after multiple cleanup assessments and input from the Texas Department of State Health Services. A current Broadcast Notice to Mariners instructs all boaters that the safety zone remains in affect, however all restrictions are lifted except to transit using safe distance and minimum safe speeds in the vicinity of any oil spill response or salvage operations and to avoid all areas of sheening or visible oil. If any oil is sighted, boaters should report it to the National Response Center at 1-800-424-8802. While all recreational activities, including swimming is open, the DSHS does advise people not to swim in areas where they can see oil.

The Captain of the Port of Houston/Galveston opened the bay to all traffic Thursday after multiple cleanup assessments and input from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Oil is washing up on Matagorda Island. Coast Guard recruit volunteer 'Sentinels. After storms Wednesday afternoon and evening slowed cleanup efforts somewhat in the Ports of Texas City and Galveston because of safety concerns, responders quickly ramped up their operations during the first hours of daylight to resume cleaning contaminated areas, Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard is ramping up efforts to clean oil in the Ports of Texas City and Galveston Wednesday, as expected afternoon weather will likely hinder or cease operations due to safety concerns for responders. Storms may keep responders from being able to safely collect oil on the water and along the shoreline. Response efforts will focus heavily on cleaning Pelican Island and north to the Texas City Dike until weather makes operations too hazardous for responders. The weather is also expected to flush out pockets of oil that were unreachable to responders over the past few days. Once weather abates, responders will be re-assessing the area to update cleanup plans for immediate action.

The Coast Guard informs that it continues clean up operations in the Port of Houston/Galveston after having authorized limited marine traffic in the safety zone for commercial ship traffic, Tuesday. The Port Coordination Team is prioritizing ships for transit through the channel. Barges are being allowed to transit through the Houston Ship Channel and on the Intracoastal Waterway, after assessment teams deemed the channel clear. Cleanup efforts focused heavily on the environmentally sensitive lagoon area of East Beach Tuesday.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency are responding to the report of an oil discharge into Lake Michigan from the BP Whiting Refinery in Whiting, Ind. The Coast Guard received a report Monday night from watchstanders the National Response Center of a sheen from an unknown substance discharging from an outflow adjacent to the refinery. Personnel from Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Chicago and the EPA responded last night and found an area of about 5,000 square feet covered in crude oil.

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) has authorized limited marine traffic in the safety zone in the Port of Houston/Galveston for commercial ship traffic, Tuesday. Cleanup operations are still ongoing; however ships are being prioritized for transit by the Port Coordination Team. The USCG said barges are allowed to transit through the Houston Ship Channel and on the Intracoastal Waterway, after assessment teams deemed the channel clear. "The cleanup operations progress is to the point…

The Port of Houston remains closed as the Unified Command continues to assess the situation with oil in the channel to determine when vessel traffic can resume, advises the US Coast Guard. There are 46 outbound vessels and 47 inbound vessels in the queue for transit in the Port of Houston. The Port of Texas City has 5 inbound and 3 outbound vessels in the queue awaiting transit. Once the channel has been determined safe to navigate, and transiting vessels will not spread oil contaminants, a prioritization list will be established to determine the entry order of vessels.

Cleanup continues in response to an oil spill in the Houston Ship Channel that resulted in the release of approximately 168,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil. On March 22, 2014, the M/V Summer Wind and Kirby Barge 27706 collided in the Houston Ship Channel in the vicinity LT 26 near the "Texas City Y", the Houston-Galveston Port Community said in an announcement. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announced that Unified Command is working closely with the Vessel Traffic Service, paired with assessments of the Houston Ship Channel, to determine when partial vessel traffic can resume.

The Hawaii Department of Health has implemented an incident command system to further organize the response to the molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor, Monday. An incident command post has been established at the Clean Islands Council facility near Sand Island. The incident command is comprised of representatives from the Hawaii Department of Health, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, Matson, Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The incident command has drafted and approved an incident action plan which outlines key objectives of the response and provides clear direction to all participants.

On September 17, McAllister Towing and Reinauer Transportation will be partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Long Island Sound and Sector New York in a major simulated marine accident and pollution incident on the waters of Long Island Sound. Responders will be faced with a simulated grounding and subsequent oil spill impacting the waters and shoreline of Connecticut and New York. The exercise is part of the National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP), a voluntary program bringing together industry and government to meet the exercise and preparedness requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, legislation enacted following the Exxon Valdez.

The Coast Guard rescued four people from a liferaft after their tugboat sank. The Coast Guard received a distress called from the tug Delta Captain at 2:55 p.m. Saturday and immediately launched rescue crews; a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Coast Guard Station Monterey, the Coast Guard Cutter Sockeye — an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat homeported in Bodega Bay — and an HH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco. The rescue helicopter crew located the survivors of the Delta Captain and deployed a rescue swimmer to hoist them aboard. All four were transported to shore in Monterey and transferred to awaiting emergency medical technicians. There were no reports of injuries. The tug Delta Captain sank and may still be attached via towline to the barge.

The U.S. Coast Guard has rescued four people from a life raft after their tugboat sank in a towing operation off California near Big Sur. The Coast Guard state that they received a distress called from the tug Delta Captain at 2:55 p.m. Saturday and immediately launched rescue crews; a 47-foot Motor Life Boat from Coast Guard Station Monterey, the Coast Guard Cutter Sockeye — an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat homeported in Bodega Bay — and an HH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco. The rescue helicopter crew located the survivors of the Delta Captain and deployed a rescue swimmer to hoist them aboard. All four were transported to shore in Monterey, and transferred to awaiting emergency medical technicians. There were no reports of injuries.

More than 90 percent of the hard boom initially deployed as part of the federal-led response but now potentially posing more risk than it offers protection for vital shorelines in Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle has now been recovered. Because virtually no visible oil has been spotted on the surface of the Gulf in these areas recently, and in order to protect shorelines from any potential damage caused by boom in severe weather, the Incident Command Post at Mobile (ICP Mobile) announced that more than 1.5 million feet of hard boom has been recovered from those state waters. Responders remain ready to deploy boom should it be needed to protect the coast from any new threats from oil that may emerge in the coming days and weeks.

"Today I met with Secretary Chu, Marcia McNutt and other scientists and geologists as well as officials from BP and other industry representatives as we continue to prepare and review protocols for the well integrity test - including the seismic mapping run that was made around the well site this morning. As a result of these discussions, we decided that the process may benefit from additional analysis that will be performed tonight and tomorrow. “Both the Helix Producer and the…

A concerted response by a member of the American Salvage Association (ASA), technical experts from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and New York City Fire Department (FDNY) averted the risk of a toxic material release from a chemical carrier anchored in Gravesend Bay near Brooklyn, N.Y. during the week of Feb. During operations with a barge alongside to transfer ethanol cargo, the 443-ft chemical carrier Sichem Defiance sustained an implosion on board. The main deck over a cargo tank collapsed and adjacent bulkheads were breeched. The ship’s cargo consisted of benzene LAB and ethanol, a dangerously volatile liquid. Following the violent event, the ship’s captain immediately notified Federal and port authorities.