Assisting the maritime industry in regulatory compliance

Bryant's Maritime Consulting

Hurricane Contingency Plans

Hurricane and Heavy Weather Contingency Plans

Most US Coast Guard Sectors have promulgated hurricane contingency plans or heavy weather contingency plans, intended to provide guidance to the maritime community with regard to preparing for and minimizing disruption caused by severe weather conditions, taking into account different geographic and operational characteristics in each locale. Below is a link to a document providing access to various such plans that I have been able to locate. Sectors not included on this list may well have issued plans that I have yet to locate and retrieve. Sectors may also have issued updated versions of plans that supersede the ones on this list. Please notify me if you are aware of new or updated plans that should be on this list.

Hurricane and Heavy Weather Contingency Plans provides links to all of the Sector contingency plans located to date.

Sector Baltimore produced an excellent 100-page Heavy Weather Guide providing background information and planning advice. While some of the guidance is specific to Sector Baltimore, most is broader in scope.

The National Hurricane Center website includes the latest hurricane weather forecasts.

FEMA – hurricane preparedness provides general information on preparing for the arrival of a hurricane in your vicinity.

    logo11 Rebuilding the presumption of preemption

    In the May 2013 edition of Maritime Reporter and Engineering News, you can find my article entitled "Rebuilding the presumption of preemption". In the article, I discuss how federal control of maritime commerce prevailed over state control in the early days of the Republic. Over the years, that federal preemption has been eroded. It is time to rebuild the presumption in favor of federal preemption with respect to all matters related to maritime commerce. The industry should not be unregulated or even under-regulated, but it deserves to be uniformly regulated.