Weekly News Summary For October 17-23, 2005:
Speaking at a conference that dealt with unscheduled lock outages and the critical need to sustain the waterways infrastructure, the head of one of the busiest ports on the system told attendees about his facility’s efforts to return to full service after the most destructive “unscheduled outage” ever to befall the river transportation network, Hurricane Katrina.
Gary LaGrange, president and chief executive officer of the Port of New Orleans, addressed more than 100 industry leaders at the Waterways Council Symposium and Annual Meeting held in Chicago October 4–5, saying the manpower shortage in New Orleans is by far the biggest issue of the day.
“If you want to talk about infrastructure, it’s not only channel dredging, creating new transit sheds, building new container and cruise ship terminals and buying $10 million gantry cranes, it’s about a lot of intangibles such as raising a family and building a home for that family to live in.”
Many of the port’s workers are currently using MarAd vessels for dormitories, “but that’s going to get really old,” he said.
“If I don’t have a home for a dockworker or stevedore to live in, and if there’s not a church for that family to worship in and if there’s not a school for those children to be educated in, then it means absolutely nothing what we do with the channels and what we do with the transit sheds, with the container and cruise ship terminals. All of that is meaningless because if we don’t have manpower to work those docks, we’ve got nothing,” LaGrange said. “We’ve got nothing.”…
While much of the media focus following hurricanes Katrina and Rita is on Louisiana, cleanup efforts in storm-ravaged Mississippi and Alabama continues to be a monumental task.
A total of 83 of the 421 commercial and recreational vessels that have been identified as “displaced inland” have been recovered or had fuel and oil removed, according to the Coast Guard.
“A multi-agency task force of environmental response experts continue to remedy as many as 65 active reports of hazardous materials and oil pollution in Alabama and Mississippi resulting from Hurricane Katrina,” according to a Coast Guard press release.
Attacking the environmental concerns is a “federal, state and local task force compris(ing) 10 agencies that include the U.S. Coast Guard, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as well as Alabama and Mississippi state environmental conservation and protection departments,” the release stated, adding “commercial and private contractors have been enlisted as well.”…
After thousands of Coast Guard personnel performed countless heroic tasks in the rescue efforts following Hurricane Katrina, the Coast Guard is now looking to help some of its own rebuild a new life.
In the disaster, the Coast Guard was a lead agency in providing search-and-rescue operations, assessing damage and flying supplies into the region.
It is estimated that more than 2,200 Coast Guard men and women and families who have been affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Due to the immense devastation in the region, the non-profit Coast Guard Foundation has created a Disaster Relief Fund to encourage the American public to help the Coast Guard men and women who have assisted in the rescue and recovery operations. All donations will benefit Coast Guard personnel and their families.
Patti Gross, director of annual giving for the Coast Guard Foundation, said the funds raised would go to anything for basic living expenses needed to establish temporary living situations to assisting with bills resulting from families living in two different places, such as Coast Guard personnel working in the Gulf Coast on recovery efforts and family members who evacuated the region. Gross said about 70 percent of all personnel located in the Gulf Region sustained catastrophic damages to personal property….
Conrad Industries Inc., Morgan City, La., last week announced the award of contracts totaling $9.4 million to build a 99-foot, 4,200 hp. Z-drive tug for South Puerto Rico Towing Corporation and the 16th ST tug for the U.S. Army. Both vessels will be constructed at Conrad’s Orange, Texas, facility.
The Z-drive tug is similar to other tugs the Orange yard has built, said Johnny Conrad, president and chief executive officer. The Army tug, which will be Small Tug ST916, is the latest of more than 100 hulls built for U.S. government agencies by Conrad over the last 30 years, he said.
“Orange Shipbuilding started work on a solicitation for this project in 1992,” Conrad said. “In 1995 an award was made for one tug with options. Since then Orange Shipbuilding has delivered 15 identical tugs to the U.S. Army….”
Catlettsburg, Ky.—On September 16, the faithful members of the Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen began to arrive on their annual pilgrimage to Marietta, Ohio, for the annual meeting of the organization.
The 2004 annual meeting had been cut short when an unexpected guest in the form of the remnants of hurricane Ivan caused the rivers to rise well above flood stage, resulting in a mass exodus of members as the Lafayette Hotel was being surrounded by water. The weekend of the 2005 meeting thankfully began with rivers near pool stages and no rain in sight.
A kickoff to the festivities was held at the Ohio River Museum on the banks of the Muskingum River as the Ohio Historical Society commemorated the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Str. W.P. Snyder Jr. The Snyder arrived at Marietta on September 16, 1955, under its own steam and crewed primarily by S&D members, to become a floating museum display….
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