New Orleans Coast Guard News

The Coast Guard Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to the education and welfare of Coast Guard members and their families, announced today the details of its Annual Tribute to the 8th Coast Guard District. To be held on Friday, March 4 in New Orleans, Coast Guard Sector Mobile will be honored at the event for their skill and leadership in organizing a mass search and rescue operation on April 25, 2015. An unforeseen storm on that day struck Mobile Bay and nearby Mississippi Sound with tropical force winds and waves, grounding a 600-foot tanker and impacting the 117 sailboats participating in a race. In total, more than 470 sailors and crew were in the Bay that afternoon as the storm whipped up with little warning, creating a chaotic scene as competitors scrambled to react.

Coast Guard Station New Orleans has received a new wave of fresh recruits from Cape May, N.J. In preparation to train them, Station New Orleans planned and organized a “boat crew college” in the station's pilot house. Petty Officer 3rd Class Jacob Mullins, a boatswain’s mate and primary instructor for the boat crew college at Station New Orleans, explains, “Five new members have reported to Station New Orleans in the last month, all of whom are required to become boat crew qualified within four months.

The Coast Guard, along with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality & partner agencies, respond to reports of an odor. Watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received the report of an odor extending throughout parts of the greater New Orleans area, including parts of Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard parishes at approximately 5 a.m. Wednesday. Responders have been deployed throughout the area and coordinated an investigation in concert with other agency responders and employees from the Chalmette Refining, LLC, facility in Chalmette. Earlier the facility had reported and quickly stopped a leak and, while the investigation is still ongoing, officials currently believe it could be the source of the odor. The leak was contained to a unit at the refinery.

New Orleans -Coast Guard personnel and state officials investigated an incident where a crane barge floated away from its moorings at approximately 8 p.m. Sunday night and hit the Huey P. Long Bridge. No one was injured and the bridge was not damaged in the accident. The barge was originally moored at the Avondale Shipyard facility, with three smaller barges connected to it. The lines that moored the barge to the dock broke and it floated approximately 200-yards down river striking the bridge. The crane struck the underside of the bridge, snagging on some tension wires. The barge did not hit any of the stone foundations, supporting the bridge. The barge did partically block a portion of the ship channel, but vessel traffic was not seriously affected.

Coast Guard Lt. Ronald Fogan and Petty Officer 2nd Class Josh Hobson review the voyage data recorder of the cruise ship Ecstasy, while some of the ship’s officers look on. The Coast Guard received a report that the Ecstasy, currently housing New Orleans Police Department officers, had broken free from its moorings at the Poland Street Wharf and was drifting down the Mississippi River near downtown New Orleans. Fogan, a foreign vessel inspector, and Hobson, a marine investigator, were dispatched from Coast Guard Sector New Orleans to investigate. There were no reported injuries or marine accidents in association with the incident. The incident remains under investigation by Coast Guard Sector New Orleans. U.S. The Coast Guard responded to the report of an 855-ft.