U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit personnel recently assisted the Coast Guard’s Lake Charles station in Hurricane Laura relief efforts by looking for damaged or displaced channel markings in the area and reporting them back to the Morgan City Aids to Navigation Team. The Morgan City Aids to Navigation Team, along with teams from Dulac and New Orleans, worked together to replace them. Local Coast Guard members who took the trip to the Lake Charles area to assess Laura’s damage were, from left, Boatswain’s Mate First Class Geoffrey Wells, Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class Andrew Moynihan and Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class Brian Head.
Coast Guard unit looks for hazards after hurricane
The relief efforts for Hurricane Laura in the Lake Charles area have extended beyond just those on land as members of the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Morgan City recently helped with identifying channel markings that had been damaged or displaced during the event.
The group of Boatswain’s Mate First Class Geoffrey Wells, Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class Brian Head and Maritime Enforcement Specialist Second Class Andrew Moyniham went to the Lake Charles area on Aug. 30 to help with the duties.
They reported back markings that needed to be replaced to the Coast Guard’s Aids to Navigation unit in Morgan City. The Morgan City Aids to Navigation unit, along with assistance from Aids to Navigation units from Dulac and New Orleans, got the replacement equipment and put it on the boats to be sent to the area.
The crew navigated the Calcasieu River, and during the trip, checked the saltwater barrier locks to make sure they weren’t damaged.
“We checked houses along the way, the main navigational channel to make sure it wasn’t blocked or anything,” Wells said Monday.
“It was all open. There was a lot of debris in the water, a lot of dead fish, a lot of trees down, and the people that we saw at their houses, we were able to stop and talk to them and see if they needed anything to provide assistance to them. If we had some extra waters, we helped them out with some water.”
Wells said helping the Lake Charles area felt good.
“It’s always good to be able to help the outside public as far as any person that we come across, but also being able to help other units in the Coast Guard is always a big thing if they’re shorthanded, or in this situation, where Lake Charles was fatigued to the point they’ve essentially ran their crews to the breaking points,” Wells said.
“They needed somebody to help assist, so by coming in there and being able to take a day and run what they needed to have checked means a lot, because if the same thing happened for us here and we were able to get somebody from another unit to come by and cover for our area to give our guys rest, that’s a big important thing,” he added.
Additionally, Coast Guard members collected supplies to help the people, and some of the members took them to the area.