Tag Archives: U.S. Coast Guard

Chinese guided missile discovered near the Aleutians and they were not alone

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Coast Guard spots Chinese, Russian naval ships off Alaska island
  • A U.S. Coast Guard ship on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across a guided missile cruiser from China, officials said
  • But it turned out the cruiser wasn’t alone as it sailed about 86 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island, on Sept. 19.
  • The Coast Guard Cutter Kimball later discovered there were two other Chinese naval ships and four Russian naval vessels, including a destroyer, all in single formation.
  • A C-130 Hercules provided air support for the Kimball from the Coast Guard station in Kodiak
  • The Coast Guard said Operation Frontier Sentinel guidelines call for meeting “presence with presence” when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters.

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Ukrainian navy receives two former U.S. coast guard patrol boats

KYIV (Reuters) – Two refitted former U.S. Coast Guard patrol boats intended to bolster the Ukrainian navy have arrived at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odessa, the Ukrainian navy said on Tuesday.

“We appreciate the contribution of the United States to deter the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” naval commander Oleksiy Neyizhpapa was quoted as saying.

The two new boats are part of a package of assistance to Ukraine that has been worth over $2.5 billion since 2014, the year Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists seized a swathe of eastern Ukraine.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

U.S. Coast Guard boards ship in connection with California oil spill

(Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard boarded a container ship on Saturday in the Port of Long Beach that dragged its anchor close to a subsea pipeline found to be the source of an oil spill off Orange County, California, it said in a press release.

The spill released some 3,000 barrels (126,000 gallons) of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, killing wildlife, blackening the coastline and forcing officials to close beaches south of Los Angeles.

In its statement, the Coast Guard said an investigation had determined that the MSC DANIT was involved in the anchor-dragging incident “during a heavy weather event” that impacted Long Beach and Los Angeles ports in January.

As a result, it said, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A., which operates the vessel, and Dordellas Finance Corporation, the ship’s owner, have been designated by the Coast Guard as parties of interest in the investigation.

The designation allows the companies to be represented by counsel, examine and cross-examine witnesses, and call witnesses who are relevant to the investigation, the Coast Guard said.

MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Dordellas Finance Corporation could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Coast Guard said the investigation was ongoing and that “multiple pipeline scenarios” as well as additional vessels of interest continue to be investigated.

Amplify Energy, which owns the pipeline, has said it was “pulled like a bowstring” about 105 feet (32 meters) from where it should have been.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Four dead when suspected migrant-smuggling boat breaks apart off San Diego

(Reuters) – Four people were killed and more than two dozen injured on Sunday when a boat suspected of attempting to smuggle migrants into California broke apart off Cabrillo National Monument at San Diego’s rugged Point Loma, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

The initial call arrived just before 10 a.m. (1700 GMT) and prompted a large emergency response, including the U.S. Coast Guard and state and local agencies, as the magnitude of the incident became clear.

The 40-foot (12-m) cabin cruiser had been pummeled to pieces by the surf by the time rescue boats arrived, said Rick Romero, lifeguard lieutenant for San Diego Fire-Rescue.

“When we arrived on the scene… There were people in the water, drowning, getting sucked out of the rip current…” he said.

Several people were pulled from the water, and some required life-saving efforts on the beach. There had been about 30 people on the boat in severely crowded conditions without adequate safety equipment, authorities said.

“Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel, used to smuggle migrants into the United States illegally,” said Jeff Stephenson, a Border Patrol agent.

The nationality of the people on the boat was not immediately known, Stephenson said, adding that the captain was in custody and speaking with investigators.

Authorities said they had seen a marked increase in maritime smuggling in recent years. The vessel involved in Sunday’s incident was larger and held more people than most smuggling boats, according to the Border Patrol.

Cabrillo National Monument is a park with trails, tide pools and exhibits on California history, operated by the U.S. National Park Service. It is named after Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who stepped ashore in 1542 as the first European to arrive on what is now the West Coast of the United States.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Joseph Ax in New Jersey; additional reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Diane Craft and Peter Cooney)

Sally lumbers toward U.S. Gulf Coast, threatens ‘catastrophic rain’

By Jonathan Bachman and Jennifer Hiller

GULF SHORES, ALABAMA (Reuters) – Hurricane Sally made a slow-motion crawl towards the U.S. Gulf Coast on Tuesday, threatening historic floods and prolonged rainfall as officials in three states urged people to flee the coast.

Sally could wallop the Alabama, Florida and Mississippi coasts on Tuesday night or early Wednesday with massive flash flooding and storm surges of up to 7 feet (2 meters) in some spots, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Its languid pace recalls 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, which dumped several feet of rain over a period of days on the Houston area.

More than 2 feet of rain expected in some areas, creating “extreme life-threatening flash flooding likely through Wednesday,” an NHC forecaster said. While Sally’s winds decreased to 80 miles (140 km) per hour at 1 p.m.(1800 GMT), it was moving at a glacial pace of two miles per hour.

Sally will slow even more after landfall, causing Atlanta, Georgia to see as much as six inches (15 cm) of rain through Friday, said Jim Foerster, chief meteorologist at DTN, an energy, agriculture and weather data provider. “It’s going to be a catastrophic flooding event” for much of the southeastern U.S., Forester said, with Mobile, Alabama to the western part of the Florida panhandle taking the brunt of the storm.

Governors from Louisiana to Florida warned people to leave low-lying communities and Mobile County, Alabama Sheriff Sam Cochran warned residents of flood-prone areas that if they choose to ride out the storm, it will be “a couple of days or longer before you can get out.”

The causeway to Dauphin Island, Alabama, at the entrance to Mobile Bay was already flooded and impassable on Tuesday morning, the mayor said.

Coastal roads in Pascagoula, Mississippi, were flooding on Tuesday and some electrical wires were down, according to photos and social media posts from the police department, which asked people to respect road barricades and “refrain from joy riding.”

Nearly 11,000 homes are at risk of storm surge in the larger coastal cities in Alabama and Mississippi, according to estimates from property data and analytics firm CoreLogic.

Steady winds and bands of rain had started to arrive in Gulf Shores by Tuesday morning. Samantha Frederickson, who recently moved to Gulf Shores, Alabama, hit the beach early Tuesday to catch a view of the storm surf. “At the moment, we’re riding it out,” she said amid light rains and winds. “When it gets to the point we don’t feel comfortable, we’ll take off.”

President Donald Trump made emergency declarations for Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which helps coordinate disaster relief.

At 1 p.m., storm was 60 miles (95 km) east of the mouth of the Mississippi River, the NHC said.

Ports, schools and businesses closed along the coast. The U.S. Coast Guard restricted travel on the lower Mississippi River from New Orleans to the Gulf, and closed the ports of Pascagoula and Gulfport, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.

Energy companies buttoned up or halted oil refineries and pulled workers from offshore oil and gas production platforms. More than a quarter of U.S. offshore oil production was shut.

Sally is the 18th named storm in the Atlantic this year and will be the eighth tropical storm or hurricane to hit the United States – something “very rare if not a record” said Dan Kottlowski, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, noting that accurate data on historic tropical storms can be elusive.

(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller in Houston and Jonathan Bachman in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Editing by Marguerita Choy, Jonathan Oatis and Timothy Gardner)

Dorian forecast to become highly dangerous Category 4 hurricane

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis talks to the media during a news conference as Hurricane Dorian approaches the state, at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, U.S. August 29, 2019. REUTERS/Marco Bello

(Reuters) – Hurricane Dorian is forecast to strengthen and become a highly dangerous Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, threatening the Atlantic coast of central and south Florida, the National Hurricane Center said on Thursday.

Spurred on by warm Atlantic waters, Dorian is predicted to pack winds reaching 130 mph (209 kph) in 72 hours, the Miami-based forecasting center said.

That would make it a Category 4 storm, the second-strongest type on the Saffir-Simpson scale for measuring hurricane intensity. The center describes Category 4 storms as capable of causing “catastrophic damage” including severe damage to well-built homes. It said in such storms, “Most trees will be snapped or uprooted and power poles downed.”

Dorian is likely to make landfall on Florida’s eastern coast on Monday, before lingering over central Florida on Tuesday, forecasters at the hurricane center said in an advisory.

Currently a Category 1 hurricane, Dorian took aim at the Bahamas and the Florida coast on Thursday after sideswiping the Caribbean without doing major damage. Dorian is expected to strengthen and slam the Bahamas and the southeastern United States with rain, strong winds and life-threatening surf over the next few days.

U.S. President Donald Trump urged Floridians to heed official warnings. Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Wednesday and asked residents along the state’s east coast to stock up with at least seven days worth of supplies such as food and water.

“Hurricane Dorian looks like it will be hitting Florida late Sunday night,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Be prepared and please follow State and Federal instructions, it will be a very big Hurricane, perhaps one of the biggest!”

The U.S. Coast Guard said all pleasure boats at the Port of Key West should seek safe harbor before the Labor Day weekend begins and ocean-going vessels should make plans to leave the port ahead of the storm.

‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’

“Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane on Friday, and remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through the weekend,” the hurricane center said, warning of an increasing likelihood of life-threatening storm surge along portions of Florida’s east coast late in the weekend.

The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour (137 km per hour) on Thursday morning some 220 miles (355 km) north-northwest of San Juan, and about 370 miles (600 km) east of the Bahamas, the hurricane center said.

“On this track, Dorian should move over the Atlantic well east of the southeastern and central Bahamas today and on Friday,” forecasters said, “and approach the northwestern Bahamas Saturday.”

The storm could affect big population centers as well as major Florida tourist destinations.

The Universal Orlando Resort theme park, owned by Comcast Corp, said it was following the approaching storm closely.

“We are closely monitoring the weather. At this time our park operations and hours are continuing as normal. We have plans and procedures for serious weather that are time-proven and we will continue to make operating decisions as we learn more,” a theme park representative said in an email.

Dorian is expected to become a major hurricane by Friday afternoon and continue to gain strength until it makes landfall.

Local residents fill their cars with gas after waiting in line ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Kissimmee, Florida, U.S. August 29, 2019. REUTERS/Gregg Newton

Local residents fill their cars with gas after waiting in line ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Kissimmee, Florida, U.S. August 29, 2019. REUTERS/Gregg Newton

Trump issued an emergency declaration on Wednesday night for the U.S. Virgin Islands, ordering federal assistance with disaster relief for the U.S. territory. On Tuesday, he made a similar declaration for Puerto Rico, and also renewed a feud with island officials over how disaster relief funds from previous hurricanes.

Puerto Rico is still struggling to recover from back-to-back hurricanes in 2017 that killed about 3,000 people soon after the island filed for bankruptcy. On Wednesday, it escaped fresh disaster as Dorian avoided the territory and headed toward Florida.

Preparations were mounting in the Bahamas, which could be hard hit.

Jeffrey Simmons, the country’s acting director of the Department of Meteorology, said severe weather could strike the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands on Friday.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in New York and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Additional reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Will Dunham)

Fire engulfs casino shuttle boat off Florida coast, 15 injured

A fire breaks out on a SunCruz casino boat at Port Richey, Florida, U,S, January 14, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media.

By Renita D. Young

NEW YORK (Reuters) – At least 15 people were injured when a fire engulfed a boat off the coast of Florida on Sunday, causing the 50 people aboard to jump into the Gulf of Mexico and swim to shore, local officials said.

A preliminary investigation showed the fire broke out at about 4:17 p.m. EST from an apparent engine issue, said Shawn Whited, division chief with Pasco Fire Rescue.

“The captain of the boat said there was an issue with the engine. He said he noticed smoke coming form the engine room and turned the boat around,” Whited said.

The 60-foot shuttle boat was on its way to the Sun Cruz Casino boat, a little more than three miles away in international waters. It had only made it about 100 yards from where it originated in Port Richey, about 30 miles north of downtown Tampa.

After seeing the smoke, the captain prompted the 50 people aboard the boat to abandon ship and swim to shore. Some of the injuries were from being in cold water and from smoke inhalation, said Whited.

The boat was “fully engulfed” in flames, said Dan Dede, a dispatch supervisor at Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and Pasco Fire.

An official investigation will start soon, according to Whited. Several agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, the City of Port Richey Fire Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, responded to the incident.

(Reporting by Renita D. Young; Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Category 4 Storm, Hurricane Joaquin, Slamming Bahamas; East Coast Prepares for Flooding

Hurricane Joaquin, a powerful Category 4 storm, has stalled over the central Bahamas, slamming the islands with hurricane-force winds, torrential rain, and storm surge flooding.

Dozens of citizens are trapped within their homes and authorities are not able to reach them. All schools in the Bahamas are closed. Homes have been flooded and roofs have been taken off buildings. So far, there have been no reports of casualties in the Bahamas according to Capt. Stephen Russell, the director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

Christian minister Dawn Taylor who is located on Eluthera stated that faith would get them through the storm.

“We depend on our God, and as long as he is with us, we will be fine and we will ride out the storm,” she said.

A U.S. Coast Guard container ship has also gone missing after getting caught in Joaquin’s path. The El Faro was traveling to San Juan, Puerto Rico from Jacksonville, Florida and reportedly was stuck somewhere near Crooked Island in the Bahamas. The ship has 33 crew members on board. The Coast Guard told CNN that when they last heard, the ship had been taking on water, but the flooding had been contained. As of right now, communications with the ship have stopped. The Air Force has been helping with the search for the missing ship and crew.

Hurricane Joaquin is not expected to make landfall on the U.S. but five East Coast states have still declared a state of emergency for potential torrential rain and severe flooding. Two lives have been claimed by the storm in the Carolinas where heavy rain has fallen for days. Four inches of rain was dumped in South Carolina causing flash floods that submerged several cars.

The National Hurricane Center reported to Fox News that the storm could near the U.S. East Coast on Sunday or Monday. The storm is expected to make a significant turn to the north on Friday and Saturday, leaving the Bahamas by late Friday evening.