After Katrina, 3,500 vessels sunk or stranded
Grounded barge. Image courtesy Doug Helton (FEMA, US Coast Guard and NOAA).
Doug Helton was responsible for the clean–up in the Gulf Coast region.
Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf coast on August 29, 2005. In addition to the loss of whole communities on land, some 3,500 vessels were sunk or stranded during the storm.
And over 8 million gallons of oil were spilled. Doug Helton works in the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was his job to decide the best way to clean up oil spills and stranded vessels after the hurricane. But Katrina posed unique challenges.
Doug Helton: It was not uncommon to see a 300–foot barge in someone’s backyard or a 200–foot fishing vessel sitting in the middle of the highway.
After Katrina, damaged oil tanks leaked over long periods of time, often into sensitive wetlands. Many vessels ended up in the wetlands, which left the salvagers with some difficult decisions to make.
Doug Helton: So, there was an effort to try to minimize harm, but sometimes you had to dredge a channel or to cut down trees to get access to the vessel to pull it out.
Helton said most of the larger cleanup projects are now wrapping up. But the Coast Guard is still salvaging sunken vessels left from Katrina. Helton says the lessons learned about vessel salvage – and oil spill cleanup – will be useful in years to come.
Our thanks today to NOAA.
Doug Helton said, “NOAA worked with the US Coast Guard to figure out the best way to protect the marine environment while cleaning up spills and removing stranded vessels.”
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Sweeping up broken boats is so superficial when it comes to cleaning up New Orleans and the other places ruined by Katrina. We haven’t fixed the problem and we don’t know how.