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he Eighth District experienced an amazing string of disasters in a very short period of time. While responding to an oil spill stretching for a 100 miles of the Mississippi River, Coast Guardsmen prepared for the first major hurricane to hit New Orleans since Katrina. When that ordeal was over an even larger hurricane immediately took aim to the south, threatening to shutdown the busiest petroleum hub in the country when gasoline prices were already hurting people everywhere. All the while, real lives hung in the balance. Tragically, some were lost. Thankfully, many more were spared. In many instances it was the people of the Coast Guard who were the difference. 100-Mile Spill By PA3 Stephen Lehmann, 8th Dist. The hulking chemical tanker Tintomara was making its way down the Mississippi River in the early morning of July 23. It was 1:30 a.m. and the famous scenery of the Big Easy was passing down the port side of the lumbering ship. Headed up river, in the opposite direction, the towboat Mel Oliver was pushing a barge loaded with 420,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil. The Mel Oliver had just come around a bend in the river southwest of town and into the view of the tanker. Without warning, the tug suddenly turned in front of the much larger ship. As they collided, the hull of the barge was shredded and almost torn in half, releasing most of its bunker oil cargo into the currents of the river. Things moved quickly from there. The captain of the port, Capt. Lincoln Stroh, promptly ordered a 28-mile stretch of the river closed. The Gulf Strike Team, one of three of the Coast Guard’s quick-response pollution teams, was called in to assess and oversee the cleanup process. The CGC Razorbill and local boat crews from Sector New Orleans were also launched to keep traffic out of the area. The river closure was eventually extended all the way to the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Port of New Orleans, one of America’s busiest, was effectively shut down. As the number of vessels waiting on either end of the spill ballooned to more than 100, so did the number of contractors called in to assist with the response. Cleanup assessment teams monitored the affected shoreline while local oil spill response groups T Rising Concerns Fuel barge DM 932 is lifted from the Mississippi River during salvage operations in New Orleans Aug. 9. Photo by PA3 Adam Baylor, 8th Dist. Century Spill Nearly 100 miles of the river were ultimately affected by the spill. Photo by PA3 Stephen Lehmann, 8th Dist. 27 uscg.mil/mag