[StBernard] Gulf Coast Incident Management Team established in New Orleans

[Westley Annis]

Gulf Coast Incident Management Team established in New Orleans



The Unified Area Command for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill consolidated
Incident Command Posts Monday. ICP's originally located in Houma, Louisiana
and Mobile, Alabama relocated to a central Gulf Coast Incident Management
Team at a new location in New Orleans.

 

Per a press release from the newly established IMT, the planned
reorganization of the command structure has been designed to more
efficiently support the needs of the day-to-day operation of the ongoing
response while not impacting the frontline responders cleaning shoreline,
sampling Gulf waters, and responding to any recoverable oil found.

 

"The Incident Command Posts located across the Gulf region during the
emergency phase of this response allowed our on-scene commanders to make
critical decisions to protect sensitive coastal areas in real time as we all
worked to bring the Deepwater Horizon wellhead under control," said Federal
On-Scene Coordinator Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft. "While the risk
posed by the wellhead has ended, we still have 25 thousand workers
conducting clean up operations along 600 miles of shoreline and this
consolidation of our command structure allows us to more efficiently support
those operations while allowing federal agencies to redeploy hundreds of
personnel where they are most needed."

 

The consolidating of these command posts was approved by Admiral Zukunft in
consultation with Gulf state governors, and state and local officials.
Zukunft says that response liaisons will remain in place to streamline
communication between state and local officials and staff in New Orleans.

 

"This consolidation reflects a right-sizing of command personnel but in no
way diminishes our commitment to the people of the Gulf region in the wake
of this unprecedented event," said Zukunft. "The federal government will
remain as long as it takes to ensure all recoverable oil has been removed
from the Gulf, seafood coming out of the Gulf is safe to eat, and beaches
along the Gulf coast are open for business."

 

"I'm glad to see that the Coast Guard and BP are staying close to the areas
that were most affected by the oil spill to help ensure that our commercial
fishing fleet will get back to normal," St. Bernard Parish Councilman Fred
Everhardt Jr. said of the move. "We hope they stay until it's over and the
mission is complete."

"Right-sizing is a factor at all levels of this incident and St. Bernard
Parish is no exception," St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said of
the consolidation. "However, we are very aware of the need to ensure our
Branch remains at a level of effectiveness to ensure the completion of all
transition plans. Additionally, much work is needed to get our parish back
to a place where our fishing community is thriving and the impact to our
natural resources has been remediated. We are hoping that the new IMT in New
Orleans assists in these goals and we look forward to working with them to
make this happen."