La Marie Tugboat Recovery – October 31, 2006

WFO Lake Charles is providing ongoing support to the U.S. Coast Guard as they recover the tug boat La Marie.  This 150 foot tug carrying 125 thousand gallons of fuel struck an unknown object approximately 20 miles south of Cameron, Louisiana, and subsequently sank to the Gulf floor. 

The USCG requested forecasts four times a day.  As the towing operation neared, they also requested that we participate in their planning conference calls twice daily.  Sea state and water temperature were of particular importance to them, and to assist our forecast accuracy in a data sparse area, observations from oil platforms in the vicinity of the incident site were utilized.  Todd Mogged, one of our Hydrometeorological Technicians, has worked very diligently to establish and maintain a network of these offshore contacts, which are most often used to assess and verify Special Marine Warnings.  This event demonstrated an additional use and benefit of having these contacts with over 300 observations received into this office.

From October 31^st to November 28^th, an estimated 98 forecasts were issued to support this recovery operation, and forecast support continues at this time. 

Capt. Tom Sparks and Security Specialist Robert W. Stegall with the USCG stated,

“As so often is the case with our crisis responses, weather is an absolutely critical factor, & it's reassuring to know that we've got a super resource in you & your folks.”