SAN FRANCISCO — Top officials from the Coast Guard, FEMA and the California Office of Emergency Services met in San Francisco and held a press briefing Wednesday at the San Francisco Ferry Building.
Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant, Mr. Robert Fenton, the FEMA Region 9 administrator, and Mr. Mark Ghilarducci, the California Office of Emergency Services director, and several representatives from local partner agencies met to discuss shared concerns and issues facing the complex maritime environment in and around the San Francisco Bay Area while aboard Coast Guard Cutter Tern, an 87-foot Patrol Boat homeported in San Francisco.
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- Top Officials from left to right: Major General David Baldwin, Adjutant General of California National Guard, Mr. Robert Fenton, FEMA Region 9 Administrator, Admiral Karl Schultz, Coast Guard Commandant and Mr. Mark Ghilarducci, California Office of Emergency Services Director.
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- Top officials gather for a photo at the San Francisco Ferry Building.
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- Admiral Karl Schultz, Coast Guard commandant, briefs the media about maritime commerce and emergency response.
Agency members discussed the importance of waterways, ports and the maritime environment during emergencies such as earthquakes and terrorist attacks and how multiple agencies will work together to meet the region’s economic and transportation needs. Schultz discussed the Coast Guard’s Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook and its mission of keeping the waterways and ports open after an incident.
“Back in the fall, we rolled out what we call the Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook,” said Schultz. “It’s a 10-year vision for the evolving, increasingly complex maritime environment. One of the things that’s essential to that is unity of effort, collaboration, and teamwork. These are deep partnerships and today was a strengthening of those partnerships.”
For more information on the Coast Guard’s Maritime Commerce Strategic Outlook, click here.