UPFRONT Ebola by Sea BY DENISE RUCKER KREPP Over the past several days, governors in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut issued quarantine guidance for individuals who’ve been in contact with African Ebola patients. The state guidance focuses on individuals who’ve returned to the U.S. via airplanes. At some point a mariner is going to arrive, sick with the dangerous disease. Unfortunately, the federal government has yet to address this possibility and state governors won’t be willing to wait for the bureaucratic federal machine to churn out vague policy guidance. They’re going to issue state guidance and this guidance could significantly impact U.S. port operations nationwide. The U.S. Coast Guard is the federal agency responsible for port operations and the Coast Guard Captain of the Port manages port operations on a dayby-day basis. This individual can prevent a foreign flag ship from entering a U.S. port. He or she can also require foreign flag vessels who have ported Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, Ebola stricken nations, to undergo additional scrutiny before they are allowed in U.S. waters. The agency released a marine safety information bulletin last week that everyone in the maritime industry should read. The bulletin recommends that “local industry stakeholders work with the Coast Guard Captain of the Port to review and be familiar with their Marine Transportation System Recovery Plan.” These plans were mandated after the 9/11 attacks and the agency issued guidance earlier this summer on how to draft them. As someone who doesn’t believe in re-inventing the wheel, I strongly support using existing guidance to address current crises. The problem in this situation is that the recovery plans don’t address Ebola-like catastrophes. These plans focus on terrorist attacks and natural hazards similar to Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. They don’t address a ship manned with mariners decimated by Ebola. The Coast Guard appears to recognize the shortcomings of the current recovery plan by recommending in the <strong>October</strong> 22nd bulletin that the local stakeholders “consider conducting a table top exercise to plan and address items such as an evaluation of how to handle a vessel arrival with a suspected Ebola case... what steps need to be considered if a medical evacuation is needed, and possibly how a ship would be decontaminated in order to commence cargo transfers.” Good idea. A seaport is a finely-tuned machine. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2011, 7,662 oceangoing vessels made 67, 929 calls at U.S. ports. Time is money for vessels owners – they want to enter a port, discharge their cargo, taken on new cargo, and depart as fast as they can. They are not going to want to wait for the Coast Guard Captain of the Port and local stakeholders to decide how to address a vessel with a suspected Ebola case. A simple answer would be to ban all ships that have stopped in Sierra Leone, Guinea, or Liberia in their last five previous ports of calls. Sadly, that won’t work because the U.S. government is sending U.S. ships to these countries to provide food aid and medical support. People in Ebola areas need to eat and U.S. grown crops are helping them to survive. It would immoral to stop shipping food to those in need. If the U.S. can’t ban all ships that have ported in Ebola-stricken countries, then the U.S. Coast Guard must develop a more comprehensive plan to address the possibility of Ebola victims arriving in the U.S. by sea. The agency can’t merely recommend that local stakeholders conduct table top exercises. These exercises should be mandatory and the Coast Guard must be ready to provide substantive guidance. Keeping in mind that several governors have already issued isolation guidance for air travelers, the Coast Guard must work the governors now to address the maritime sector. How are sick mariners evacuated? At sea via helicopter or a smaller vessel? At the port by ambulance? How is the vessel decontaminated? How and when are the necessary personnel going to be trained to carry out the evacuation and decontamination procedures? What happens to the other in-coming vessels during the decontamination process? If the Coast Guard can’t answer these questions, the state governors will because they won’t their ports contaminated with the Ebola virus. Ports bring in revenue and the revue can’t drop. The Coast Guard prides itself on being Semper Paratus. Now, more than ever, it must live up to its motto. The nation’s ports can’t be shut down because of Ebola and they won’t be if the Coast Guard develops more comprehensive guidance before the first ship arrives. Pre-planning with local stakeholders, including governors, will ensure that the country’s supply chain continues to operate. Call your local Captain of the Port and ask him or her to schedule the table top exercise. Ω PHYSICAL SECURITY with COMPLETE PERIMETER CONTROL ANTI-CLIMB FENCE RETRACTABLE WEDGES ANTI-RAM FENCE SECURITY BOLLARDS Call our perimeter security specialist at 866-467-2773 and visit us online at ameristarsecurity.com 6 Government Security News <strong>October</strong>/<strong>November</strong> <strong>2014</strong> Digitlal <strong>Edition</strong> Digitlal <strong>Edition</strong> <strong>October</strong>/<strong>November</strong> <strong>2014</strong> Government Security News 7
Change language