Repairing Port-au-Prince Harbor with Laptops and GPS

On the ground in Haiti, search-and-rescue teams and aid workers have used collaborative tools, text messagingand GPS technology to map out and coordinate relief efforts. Out in Port-au-Prince harbor, U.S. Coast Guard teams are using similar tools to restore Haiti's shattered main seaport.

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The Coast Guard cutter USCGC Oak is currently at anchor near the port terminal in downtown Port-au-Prince. Among other things, the Oak deployed a Maritime Transportation System Recovery Unit, a team that is helping the Haitian Port authority get things up and running at the port. In some respects, it's the maritime equivalent of the Air Force special operations team that helped restore air traffic control at Haiti's main airport.

In an interesting guest post on the Coast Guard commandant's official blog, Cdr. Mike Glander, the skipper of the Oak, described how crewmembers used laptops and GPS to drop a series of harbor buoys and update navigation charts for ships that will be ferrying supplies to the harbor. One buoy, Glander wrote, needed to go in shallow water -- right at the 13-foot depth curve -- so Haitian harbor pilots would know exactly how much water they had to work with while steering vessels to the only remaining pier at the terminal.

Boatswain's Mate 2nd (BM2) Class Tommy Frantz steered a work-boat to the spot in the where the new buoy would go, and Glander described what happened next:

Positioning tech, BM2 Pete Boggeln guided the boat up to the spot with his GPS and laptop, BM2 Frantz called out the depth, and BMC Chuck Gittings and BM3 Trey Thompson carefully tilted up the wooden board which held the 250lb sinker and mooring chain. The buoy and sinker slid right in, and BM2 Boggeln recorded the position so that he could notify U.S. and British Admiralty authorities that a chart update would be needed showing the buoy.

The Coast Guard has also stationed a Port Security Unit to guard the terminal while a damage assessment of the harbor continues. Navy dive teams and construction workers are also working on the pier. According to Glander, a nearby Haitian Garde Cote (coast guard) base suffered a lot of damage in the quake, and crewmembers of the Coast Guard Cutter Legare -- pictured here during rescue operations -- are working to help to reconstitute the small force.

As I noted yesterday, the Haiti's main commercial harbor is currently operating at around 30 percent capacity. Unless port operations are fully restored, it has the potential to slow the delivery of aid and reconstruction.

[PHOTO: U.S. Coast Guard]

See Also:

• Haiti Update: Reporter Tweets, Troops on the Streets
• Tweets From the Front Lines of Haiti Relief
• U.S. Diverts Spy Drone from Afghanistan to Haiti
• Pentagon's Social Network Becomes Hub for Haiti Relief
• Disaster Relief 2.0: Tech Tools Help Focus Haiti Resources ...
• Military May Crowdsource Haiti Relief
• Rescue Ops in Haiti: 'The First 72 Hours Are Critical'