MARCH 31, 2017--The U.S. Coast Guard Sector North Carolina conducted a successful Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) exercise on March 22-23 in Morehead City, North Carolina.

The primary objective of the exercise was to demonstrate the sector’s ability to stand up a functional Unified Command in accordance with the Coastal North Carolina Area Contingency Plan. Multiple NOAA programs supported and actively participated in the exercise, including ORR’s Emergency Response Division, NMFS’s Southeast Regional Office Habitat Conservation Division, NMFS’s Beaufort Laboratory Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, and the National Weather Service, Newport, North Carolina office. NOAA provided technical and scientific support: including trajectory modeling; recommending operational strategies and tactics to mitigate the impact of the spill; identifying sensitive habitats; initiating Endangered and Threatened Species (ESA), Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) and Historic Preservation Act consultations; Shoreline Clean-up Assessment techniques (SCAT; weather; and coordinating with multiple Federal, state, local agencies and non-governmental organizations such as the Outerbanks Wildlife Shelter. The scenario involved the actual Remedial Underwater Legacy Environmental Threat (RULET) shipwreck of the W.E. Hutton which lies in approximately 65-75 feet of water approximately 13 miles from Emerald Isle and 19 miles from Shackleford Banks State Park and 21 miles from Cape Lookout National Park. The W.E. Hutton sank in 1942 after being torpedoed twice by a German U-boat with 65,000 barrels of heating oil as cargo and a significant amount of Bunker C for propulsion. For further information, contact Frank.Csulak@noaa.gov. Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.