Tuesday, September 29, 2009

If You See Something, Say Something…

Some of our Auxiliary partners recently posted an interesting article that all of you should read....

If You See Something, Say Something…

Friday, September 25, 2009

River hoax gives idea to Coast Guard

Published: 5/14/07 Section: Page:B1

By:Andrew Sirocchi
Tri-City Herald staff writer

It was April 14 when the U.S. Coast Guard in Portland received a distress call claiming three people were on a 30-foot boat that was taking on water near McNary Dam. In moments, six rescue boats from various regional agencies were sent to search a 25-mile stretch of the Columbia River, scouring the water and shoreline from McNary Dam to Sacajawea State Park. A MedStar helicopter took the air and tried to spot the boaters from above.

Three hours later, the search was called off and officials confirmed what they already believed — the call was a hoax. “We get about a half-dozen of those per year,” said Senior Chief Jim Madsen, officer in charge of the Kennewick Coast Guard station on Clover Island in Kennewick. “Enough to get us frustrated.”

At $1,550 per hour each time the Coast Guard launches its 23-foot rescue boat, frustration is understandable.

But now, Madsen hopes to call on volunteers who live along the Columbia River to help the Coast Guard and other agencies reduce their responses to hoaxes. If successful, the Citizens Action Network program could help district officials in Portland make better decisions about when to dispatch rescue teams and in turn, save money as well as lives.

“It’s not just the direct cost,” said John Umbarger, spokesman for the Coast Guard Auxiliary. “What happens at night, when a (navigation) aide is out and a tug goes down the river and hits a bridge? There’s the cost to infrastructure.”

The program relies on volunteers who live along the shoreline to keep a watchful eye on the waters. When a potential disaster occurs — whether a flashing light stops flashing or a vessel runs aground — the Coast Guard will call up a computerized map listing the volunteers who live in the area and officials will telephone them to determine if a problem really exists.

The information the volunteers provide gives officials who have to decide whether to send out a rescue operation more information to use in their decision-making.
For Madsen’s team — which includes nine Coast Guard members and 20 auxiliary volunteers who cover 550 miles of river stretching from The Dalles, Ore., to Richland on the Columbia and from the confluence of the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho — the more eyes on the water the better. The team is responsible for territory stretching across four states, including Lake Roosevelt, the Spokane
River Arm and Fort Peck Lake in Montana.

“Anybody who has a river view and is willing to participate is a good resource,” Madsen said. Those who choose to join the network shouldn’t expect anything more than a pat on the back as reward.

The network operates without a budget and has no money to compensate volunteers.
“It’s like volunteering for dive and rescue,” Umbarger said. “Saving a life — that’s the reward you get.”

In 2006, the program received the Award of Excellence by the Department of Homeland Security and based on past successes, the Coast Guard plans on taking the network national. In the Seattle area, where the program got its start in 1999 under the name Eyes on the Sound, the network has attracted more than 260 volunteers.

Local Coast Guard officials don’t expect any trouble getting Mid-Columbians to volunteer either. The program is open to anyone who has access to a telephone and a marine view from their home. Umbarger said the local district could have a network up and running within two months. Mark Blotz, general manager of the Clover Island Inn, said he only just heard of the program but his interest has been
piqued.

“I really want the hotel to be a part of that and we will be filling out the application,” Blotz said.

Northwest Watch helps Coast Guard save lives

By: JO2 Ryan Hill
Staff Writer
Friday, May 6, 2005

With more than 3,000 miles of shoreline in the state of Washington, keeping track of boating safety and water hazards can be a daunting task.
The Coast Guard has initiated a program called Northwest Watch to make tracking these large masses of water a more efficient undertaking.

Northwest Watch is a program involving Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary members and civilian volunteers that live along these masses of water, including the Puget Sound. Participants of the program have their home addresses represented on a map of the Puget Sound in the Coast Guards computer system. When the Coast Guard gets a call about any trouble in the water they check their computer and see if they have any volunteers in that area.

If they do, they call the volunteers and ask them to check on the situation. If the call ends up being a false alarm, the Coast Guard saves money and manpower by not deploying to the area. If the call is a real situation, the Coast Guard is able to dispatch their resources to the situation in a more efficient matter.
“With the navigational work, storms and weather we can’t be everywhere at once,” said Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Adam Eggers. “Northwest Watch helps us prioritize while still maintaining a level of readiness with our units. It can really help avoid incidents and accidents.”

With the Northwest Watch program currently running in the states of Washington and Oregon, the Coast Guard estimates a monthly savings of approximately $5,000. Increasing the amount of volunteers in the program will lead to more estimated savings. There are currently 124 members of Northwest Watch with approximately fifty of them joining up in the past two months.

“We would love to have a heavy saturation of volunteers in areas of recreation, beaches, commercial fishing areas, tanker traffic areas and river bars,” said Eggers. “People living along the waterways have a vested interest in what goes on. Nobody wants an oil spill on their beach and nobody wants to hear a neighbor died in a boating accident. It’s very easy to help. We call them on most situations unless they see something first. For the everyday person, it gives them an opportunity to have a large impact on saving somebody’s life.”

The success of Northwest Watch has led the Coast Guard to actively promote the program in an effort to gain more volunteers. They are currently working on plans to pitch it to area boating clubs and other organizations involving activities on the Puget Sound.
“It’s our job to educate the public,” said Eggers. “We as a government agency have a responsibility to spend our money wisely. The National Response Plan has called for an implementation of citizen involvement. We want all the volunteers we can get because there is no such thing as too much information. It’s a win-win situation. The Coast Guard gets the information they need to do their jobs and the volunteers get to be involved in something positive.”

The Coast Guard is currently looking for any volunteers who can help in the Northwest Watch program. They are specifically looking for people who live in residences overlooking shoreline and navigated waterways.

Civilian coastal watchers sought

Jul 27 2005

By RHONA SCHWARTZ Staff Writer

Residents on the coast could help Coast Guard with on-site reports of spills, accidents. Peeled eyes are wanted to patrol Washington’s 3,000 miles of shoreline.

To help keep the waterways safe, the Coast Guard is calling for civilian volunteers to join its Northwest Watch program and provide information in times of emergency.

“We can’t be everywhere at once,” said Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist 3rd Class Adam T. Eggers, who handles program management in addition to his regular duties. That’s why residents who live on – or have a view of – water are asked to register for the program and offer eyewitness accounts of what they see from their home when someone from the Coast Guard’s command center calls about a reported incident.

The call could be about a reported oil spill, a boating accident or sudden dense fog.

The six-month-old program is designed for people who care about the waters and what happens to them, Eggers said. Besides a view, all volunteers need are a telephone and a willingness to pick it up in the event the Coast Guard calls.

Northwest Watch was two years in the making. It sprouted from the Seattle area Coast Guard district’s Eyes on the Sound program.

“We made it a lot easier to use and a lot quicker to use with new technology,” Eggers said.

Eggers’ command district uses specially designed computer-tracking GPS maps and volunteer forms that relay a description of each volunteer’s view.

Eggers gets a GPS number from that and plugs it into his computer. Now the location is marked with a little square.

Say someone in a boat thinks he sees an oil slick by Bainbridge Island and calls it in. A Coast Guard vessel can’t get there in two minutes, but Eggers can check his computer to see if a volunteer lives at the spot. He clicks on the icon that brings up a name and the command center calls that person and asks, ‘What do you see from your house?’” Even if the report turns out to be a false alarm, the Coast Guard saves time and taxpayers’ money by not sending a boat or helicopter in response.

If the report is founded, resources are dispatched, Eggers said.

Eggers is putting together a training manual to help volunteers understand what they’re looking for and learn Coast Guard terminology, such as “slick” and “sheen.”

Included is a laminated page with blanks for points of information that the command center absolutely has to know from volunteers. Volunteers can take it on their deck and mark such points of information as color of boat and number of people aboard.

“We need people to say, ‘I see 10 percent coverage’ and know what it is,” Eggers said. “The manual will include pictures.”

Already the program has saved lives. According to Eggers, a transient stole a couple of yachts and didn’t know a young girl was in one.

“He changed the name of the vessel with a knife. We were working with the sheriff’s department. Somebody heard a scream from the beach. We called seven or eight of our volunteers and said if you see a boat of this description call us back. Someone did, he called in and we ended up catching the guy,” he said.

“If you don’t see anything, for us that’s still something. It can help us cut down our search area. On the south side of Puget Sound, a plane went down. Someone saw it, and we knew within a very condensed area where to look.”

Eggers regrets not having the program running when the Dalco Passage oil spill occurred last October.

“We almost had it ready,” he said. “It would’ve been so helpful.”

The only way to spot an oil slick is to get above it.

“If I have people living on a bluff above the beach, it’s a lot better then being on the water and trying to see it. They can tell how long it is if we can’t get overhead ourselves,” he said.

Volunteers cover a spectrum of personalities, including many retired Navy and Coast Guard personnel. In Olympia, an entire cul-de-sac is on board.

Eggers has signed up a former Washington state senator, boating association members, Coast Guard auxiliary and a half-dozen people from People for Puget Sound, including a top director.

“I can’t think of a better group to test out the merits of the program,” Eggers said.
A 95-year-old man called to say he likes sitting on his deck watching the water and could he become a volunteer? Absolutely, Eggers said.

As Eggers told one volunteer, “If in five years you save three people with one call, it’s worth it.” Northwest Watch has 124 volunteers in Washington and Oregon and saves the Coast Guard an estimated $5,000 a day. Correction – a (Month)

The more volunteers it has, the more money it will save. Eggers would like to see more volunteers in commercial fishing and tanker traffic areas and along beaches and river bars.

“The Coast Guard commandant is very excited about the program and told me to get a huge following and take it national,” Eggers said.

“The beautiful thing about the program is we thought we needed something and we made it happen. We are only limited by our imaginations.”

There’s a certain kind of attitude and way of life that goes with living on the water and Bainbridge Island is no exception.

“(People there) don’t want to buy a salmon and wring (oil) out first or find out the family next door had passed in a boating accident,” Eggers said.

“It’s such a small commitment to be able to do so much.”

KIRO TV - Want to join the fight?

KOIN 6 - Guarding the Coast

Become a Citizen's Action Network member and help the U.S. Coast Guard save lives and property, prevent oil spills, and protect wildlife, all from the comfort of home.

The Northwest has an extensive amount of waterways and communities to protect. The U.S. Coast Guard needs dependable and proactive volunteers to aid in keeping our waters safe and clean.

This program allows residents living near waterways to become associated with the Coast Guard and help conduct its missions.

The Coast Guard will call on Citizen's Action Network members to help investigate cases such as rescue missions and pollution incidents, which puts volunteers right in the heart of the action.

The only requirements for participating are having access to a phone and a marine view from your home.

King 5 News - Citizen's Action Network

This news cast depicts the use of maritime citizen's to help secure homeland security and the Coast Guard. All citizen's with a water view are invited to join the network.