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Coast Guard Surge Operations

GAO-21-584, September 21, 2021

This interactive map illustrates how the U.S. Coast Guard responded to 23 catastrophic events from 2007-2020, and includes data on the personnel, aircraft, and vessels used to support its efforts.

Emergency response for catastrophes—such as the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill and multiple 2017 hurricanes—usually necessitates shifting personnel and resources on short notice. The Coast Guard calls these "surge operations."

How to Interact With This Map

Use the check boxes to select a year and a region. Then, click on a point on the map to see specific information about the surge operation, including the event name, personnel deployed, and assets used.

Years: Regions:

Source: GAO analysis of information from U.S. Coast Guard after-action reports and Incident Specific Preparedness Reviews; as well as reporting from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Hurricane Center, and National Weather Service. | GAO-21-584

Notes: According to the Coast Guard, at the time of the Cosco Busan incident, the Coast Guard did not assign incident codes to track resource hours for major surge operations, so it could not provide vessel hours used. Therefore, we relied on the Incident Specific Preparedness Review for this information instead.

The Coast Guard's Atlantic and Pacific Area Commands manage 9 districts that oversee 37 smaller "sectors." According to the Coast Guard, if a surge operation is staffed at the "sector" level, personnel will not be tracked through Direct Access Mobilization (part of the Coast Guard's human resources information record system). As a result, we relied on the after-action report for this information.

For the Hurricane Hanna surge operation, only one staff member was either assigned or tracked through the Direct Access Mobilization system. We reviewed the after-action report for Hurricane Hanna, but it did not include information on personnel deployed; therefore, we cannot report those data at this time.

In most cases, the Coast Guard's data tracked the number of hours its assets were deployed during surge operations rather than the total number of assets used.

Download data: 

For more information, read our report, GAO-21-584.