Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (January 2010)

28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

Gulf of Mexico Report

Darkness had fallen, but she remained in her sling awhile longer, as a leak in a valve was corrected, then finally set down for the trip to Algiers.

It was a long day after a long two weeks, and it would be two weeks more before Miss Darby came home. It was a good start for Bollinger Algiers. By late

October, Bollinger Gulf Repair had at least one of its Katrina-disheveled dry- docks back on an even keel. But long- term recovery from the Katrina catastro- phe may take even longer than fixing drydocks, and involve things far outside the yard. The track of the storm surge raised questions — or to some in the area, reinforced them — about the course of the waterways themselves.

Should they be changed? That question, in turn, raises more about how shipyards should rebuild and, maybe, where. And in a region that aims to come back just as quickly as possible, it adds the ques- tion of when.

Scope of Work

It would have been easy for those on the ground in southern Louisiana to think that some people didn't get it.

Those would be the people outside — the rest of the country, for starters, and, heaven help us, the ones in charge.

The Coastal Gulf was indeed on the national stage, but it was Washington in the spotlight. The reflected glare could blind the eye to other issues of concern.

What if it wasn't only the people in charge? What if bureaucracy can't han- dle a surge?

The scandals at New Orleans made the headlines, while the conditions in

Plaquemines Parish went mostly unre- ported. But within the Parish, the scan- dals were well-known, and were bound to set the expectations for what to expect next. Parish officials had been contacted by individual salvors and Coast Guard representatives, but evidently the Big

Picture as laid-out in Alexandria had not been communicated to them in detail.

Having been overlooked by the media, some wondered how central their situa- tion was in the eyes of those leading the recovery.

The experiment in Alexandria had every reason to succeed, as the people on-site were no theorists. All had been doing what they were doing now, except now they were doing it together. When fixing-up damage is on your agenda, who do you call? No one more qualified than marine salvors. Theirs is a game of improvisation, to be played daily. The gents of the ASA, the ones with the big

Yellow-Page listings, have the experi- ence, and certainly the equipment, to improvise in behalf of the national agen- da.

But time is relative. Three weeks? It's a blink of an eye in a recovering region, whose reconstruction will take months and years; but it's an eternity of wonder- ing what's left of your home, your con- nections and future.

Benny Rousselle knew of no marine salvors as such that were based in

Plaquemines Parish. But the Big Picture in Alexandria had supposed the use of local enterprise. That might include

Kostmeyer Construction, then clearing the floodgate at Empire. By September 28, Timmy Couvillon for Kostmeyer thought he'd be raising boats in a week or so, after land-based contracts with

KBR were fulfilled. Fort Jackson had to be pumped-out, as did a sports arena nearby, among others. Both national and local agendas had things ahead of local boats.

By October 5th, Coral Marine of

Morgan City was ensconced at Venice, lifting beached boats off the shore with a 200-ton crane. The Big-T's capacity of 600 tons was assuredly the choice for larger steel shirimpers. In the case of a deck barge that had been carried upland, to leave a massive dent in a tank that was quite full, the extra reach of the

Chesapeake 1000 was summoned. "Some of this stuff, when you start look- ing up the levees," said Coral Marine's

Gary Martin, "all the way up to Empire, it could be Christmas or first of year before everything is done, and then you still have quite a few new things show- ing up all the time."

Crane barges need tugs, committed tugs in the case of long-term operations away from home. The New Orleans tug operators we contacted said they had their hands full with shipdocking work, with the demand pent-up after the storms. Tending Coral Marine's rig was the tug Vivian, bearing the insignia of

Renis F. Cheramie of Cut Off, La.

T&T brought two pushboats, Brown

Water I and Brown Water V, from

Brownwater Marine of Rockport, Texas.

Also making itself useful in T&T's behalf was the George C., a triple-screw lugger tug from Cvitanovic.Boat

Service of New Orleans.

Against initial concerns that local con- tractors could be shut-out, Kostmeyer was by October 24 ready to start week two as a subcontractor to Donjon. "We've got 10 or 11 done — around two per day so far," said Mr. Couvion. "I expect it will level-off at around 1.5 per day on average, but things are moving in the right direction. The average in the improvisational game of salvage is sometimes tricky to predict or maintain, however, some of the large cases — an overturned shrimper floating dockside at the Venice marina, for example — pre- senting time-consuming surprises. An overturned shrimper could have out- spread riggers, which might catch on something around the dock. T&T's diver, out to survey the matter, finds a leak in a fuel tank, something to patch in a hurry — and wait for the patch to hard- en. Everything is done with care and by the book, as attested by the focused attention and camera of Lt. Cmdr.

Joseph DuFresne, P.E., marine inspector for the Coast Guard, who lived with the

T&T crew on a barge.

Less closely scrutinized were the con- duits for funding the undertaking. "Where's the money?" was a question asked in many quarters besides

Plaquemines Parish, but it was certainly being asked there, too. "As of today, we have not received a dime," said Timmy Couvion on October 24, "except from the Parish itself. They say they need more details, they say it's coming, it's coming. We've duplicated our paperwork three different ways now.

I'm having to order tons and tons of rig- ging and supplies for this next phase, and I'm on a COD basis with my suppli- ers, and we're in a real tight spot with funding. Everybody who's working for the government is not getting paid. I don't think anybody is trying to not pay us, it's a system problem. The system is messed up."

We spent a day with a Sea Tow crew, as they hauled-in a motorboat from

Grand Isle, at the tip of a finger stuck out in the Gulf, approximately parallel- ing Plaquemines Parish. The number of commercial vessels damaged in the maelstrom was enormous — placed at various times between 1000 and over 2000 in Plaquemines Parish alone — and the number of recreational boats would be higher. "The problem we've been running into," said Capt. Raymond

Griffen, whose well-equipped Sea Tow operation works out of Lafitte, approxi-

It's doubtful a storm surge, even one like Katrina's, would top trees this high, so how did the barge get in there? (Photo: Don Sutherland)

A fire during salvage efforts required multiple response, and is said to have destroyed the engineroom of the Ann Peters, here with a few barges on the levee near Empire. (Photo: Don Sutherland)

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