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Coast Guard's Gulf Strike Team Honored

Posted on: Saturday, 3 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Robin Fitzgerald, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Jun. 3--The Coast Guard's Gulf Strike Team received medals and other honors Friday for its response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Cmdr. Meredith Austin, commanding officer of the National Strike Force, presided over the ceremony in Mobile, where more than 50 active and reserve crewmembers from the Gulf Strike Team are headquartered. The honors went to men and women who led emergency-response operations in Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, Gulfport, Mobile, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

One of their heroic efforts, officials said, involved preventing a catastrophe at the Monroe Terminal in Biloxi.

Team members made quick repairs at the Biloxi terminal immediately after Katrina hit land. Officials said the repairs prevented the loss of 1.7 million gallons of gasoline.

Team members used self-contained breathing equipment while making the repairs that prevented the release of toxic chlorine gas, radiation sources and other threats to the public.

Cmdr. Ronald Cantin, Gulf Strike Team commanding officer, and his team received the Presidential Unit Citation, Coast Guard Unit Commendation, Armed Forces Service Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal.

Coast Guard officials called Katrina "the impetus for the largest search-and-rescue operation in the Coast Guard's history" and the cause of "unprecedented environmental damage to the Gulf Coast."

The storm created an oil spill of 8.1 million gallons at several areas along the Mississippi River. The storm surge also spread millions of hazardous-material containers, industrial chemicals, explosives and ammunition throughout populated and environmentally sensitive areas of the three states.

After Hurricane Rita, a barge struck a submerged platform off the coast of Port Arthur, Texas, creating the largest submerged oil spill in U.S. history.

Coast Guard officials said every Gulf Strike Team member and more than 90 percent of its reserve force worked 14 to 16 hours per day for nine months and many spent off-duty time as community volunteers.

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By the numbers

The U.S. Coast Guard Gulf Strike Team, in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita:

-- Saved more than 33,000 lives.

-- Recovered more than 3.6 million hazardous-material containers in three states.

-- Cleaned an oil spill of more than 8.1 million gallons in less than 4 months.

-- Removed more than 290,000 cubic yards of oil-contaminated debris from one facility alone.

-- Deployed more than 8 miles of containment boom and 73 miles of sorbent boom.

-- Recovered more than 600 large above-ground storage tanks.

-- Salvaged more than 2,500 vessels.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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