Coast Guard Sector Lower Mississippi River Shallow Water Rescue Teams assisted Escambia County Emergency Management with search and rescue efforts on Inneratity Island, Florida checking on the local residents affected by Hurricane Sally (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Sydney Phoenix)
NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard is continuing its Hurricane Sally response operations Friday following the aftermath of the storm along the Gulf Coast region.
Multiple Coast Guard units are conducting channel assessments, identifying and correcting aids to navigation outages, and reviewing channel surveys to fully reconstitute all waterways.
Approximately 1,440 aids to navigation were in the impacted area, and may potentially be damaged or moved off station due to Hurricane Sally. Verification of ATON is ongoing. The Coast Guard 8th District oversees more than 23,000 aids.
Aids to navigation can provide a boater with the same type of information drivers get from street signs, stop signals, road barriers, detours and traffic lights. These aids range from lighthouses, to minor lights, day beacons, range lights and sound signals, and lighted or unlighted buoys.
For Hurricane Sally response efforts the Coast Guard deployed a total of 17 helicopters, three fixed-wing aircraft, seven Shallow Water Response Teams with more than 20 boats, two Marine Safety and Security Teams with more than 10 boats and one Coast Guard cutter to act as a potential communication platform.
All hazards should be reported to the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Mobile Incident Command Situation Unit for Hurricane Sally on VHF Channel 16 or by phone at 251-544-5082.
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