USCG Breaks Ice to Reduce Flooding Risk
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) reported that Coast Guard Cutter Neah Bay broke ice Friday afternoon in the Port of Lorain, Ohio, in an attempt to prevent ice jams from forming and causing flooding of the surrounding areas.
The cutter responded to a request from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lead federal agency for flood mitigation and response, who determined that the area would benefit from ice-breaking operations.
The cutter, Neah Bay, a 140-foot ice-breaking tug homeported in Cleveland, arrived in Lorain Friday morning after transiting from Monroe, Mich., where the crew battled ice in the River Raisin to relieve flooding there.
“The Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard have been working together for a number of years to ensure the success of joint operations aimed at mitigating the impacts associated with ice jam flooding on navigable rivers of the Great Lakes,” said Gary Shoffstall, chief of emergency operations for the Army Corps of Engineers Buffalo District.
The Coast Guard conducts domestic ice-breaking operations in order to perform search and rescue and other emergency operations, to mitigate flooding at the request of the Corps of Engineers, and to meet the reasonable demands of commerce.
There is no Coast Guard imagery of this ice-breaking operation.
uscgnews.com