Seapower - August 2008

Reclaiming the Rivers
Coast Guard has lost millions in aids-to-navigation equipment to flooding

By JOHN C. MARCARIO, Assistant Editor

Little Notice

Earlier this year, the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, which is in charge of patrolling states along the Mississippi River, was given $2 million by the service to replenish its depleted stock of river buoys and equipment. Midwestern flooding in August 2007, sparked by several converging tropical weather systems, destroyed a number of river buoys and other aids-to-navigation equipment along district waterways.

But before all that equipment could be replaced, historic flooding brought on by torrential rains occurred this June throughout the Midwest. Hundreds more buoys were destroyed in flooding along the Mississippi and Iowa Rivers, and many other inland waterways.

Flooding continued into July as the surge of water made its way down the Mississippi River basin in an event eerily similar to the 1993 flooding that killed 50 people and caused $15 billion in damage along the river.

Lt. Jeffrey Ingram, the officer in charge of the 75-foot river buoy tender Chena, which operates along the Mississippi River from Hickman, Ky., has seen the recent flooding first hand.

“It looks huge. From bank to bank you don’t see any rocks,” Ingram said.

Before the flooding began, Ingram and his crew took as many buoys as possible from the water. After flood waters subsided, he sent out a small boat to assess the damage.

“Most of the buoys [out there before the floods] were missing,” Ingram said.

Several were located in wooded areas and would have to be retrieved by a helicopter or heavy-duty truck, he said. It is not uncommon to find buoys in cornfields, river dams and parking lots after flood waters recede.

“It can be very challenging and very difficult to have enough gear,” Ingram said.

Flooding can be the toughest emergency for the Coast Guard to prepare for because it usually happens quickly, making it difficult to pull buoys from the water when they are still being used for navigation.

“When there are drastic and dramatic changes, that causes problems,” said Steve Hadley, the Eighth District waterways management operations sector chief.

Most of the Coast Guard’s buoy management responsibilities fall under the waterways management branch, which includes field units and aids-to-navigation teams.

Hadley said the Coast Guard keeps a thorough inventory so they can quickly identify what equipment is missing. As flood waters recede, the Coast Guard will venture into the waterways to recoup anything still usable.

“Flooding is not a new event, and we know we are going to have these events periodically,” Hadley said.

Depending on the size of the body of water, buoy realignment after floods or other disasters can take between a day and a week. The Army Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard determine where buoys are placed, and they are checked annually to make sure they are still in their proper locations and to see if any maintenance is needed.