The US Coast Guard informed that the Hurricane Maria Emergency Support Function 10 (ESF-10) Puerto Rico urges vessel owners in need of assistance to call the Hurricane Maria Vessel Hotline to request free support to remove a vessel, report a vessel removal plan, or report a vessel that has already been removed.
Hurricane Maria ESF-10 Puerto Rico response teams are performing boat removal operations at Isleta Marina and Salinas and, overall, they have removed 20 more vessels.
“Outreach efforts to locate vessel owners continue. Crews will next expand efforts to the islands of Culebra and Vieques in their effort to reduce the potential environmental impact on Puerto Rico’s natural resources,” USCG informed.
Response teams of the Hurrican Marine have achieved the following so far:
- Assessed 376 total vessels
- Removed 233 vessels
- Contacted 225 vessel owners
- Mitigated 36 pollution incidents
- Removed 14,030 gallons of oily water
Response team continue to remove damaged vessels, which are a risk of pollution and environmental threats, at no cost to the vessel owners, aiming to remove every vessel while mitigating public health risk, preserving native habitat, and increasing the Commonwealth’s ability to reconstitute.
The DNER and the Coast Guard in conjunction with the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Control Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, created the ESF-10 command post in Puerto Rico, on September 27, 2017, following Hurricane Maria effects on the island on September 19.
