Port seeks U.S. grant for attack response

Port of Morgan City leaders hope to get a federal grant to help train government entities in the region on how to prevent, prepare and respond to a potential coordinated terrorist attack.

The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Commission authorized port officials to apply for roughly $2 million in funding for training from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2016 Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks grant program. No matching local funds are required if the port receives the grant.

The application deadline is Feb. 12, and local officials are competing for $39 million of grant money with other ports and law enforcement agencies around the country, Port of Morgan City Special Projects Coordinator Mike Knobloch said.

Port officials want to use the funds to help areas in Morgan City’s captain of the port area, including Vermilion, St. Mary, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, and Grand Isle.

Among the objectives of the grant is to help identify “capability gaps relating to preparing for, preventing and responding to a complex, coordinated terrorist attack,” Knobloch said.

A coordinated attack refers to multiple attacks spread over a region, he said.

Other goals are to develop and update plans to address gaps, train personnel in the entire community to implement the plans and conduct exercises to validate the plans and determine opportunities to take corrective actions, he said.

In the grant application, Knobloch expects to include the Port of Iberia, Port of Abbeville, Port of West St. Mary, Port of Terrebonne, Port Fourchon, Port of Grand Isle, along with law enforcement agencies and fire departments.

The grant would help the port improve use of its Touch Assisted Command and Control System at its Government Emergency Operations Center that allows officials to efficiently communicate in emergencies, Knobloch said.

This grant application will allow port leaders to see how they’ve done implementing port security grants over the past few years and seek funding in future port security grants to fill gaps, Knobloch said.

“It never ends. … There’s always some type of gaps that pop up,” Knobloch said.

Port Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said port officials should find out this spring whether the Port of Morgan City will receive the grant.

“We’ve got a pretty good track record with these different types of grants … so we feel pretty good,” Wade said.

In the meeting, officials discussed upcoming dredging of a 6- to 8-mile stretch in the Upper Atchafalaya Bay where sand has accumulated, making navigation difficult for some vessels. The port will use about $5.5 million of its annually allotted operations and maintenance money from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the section.

Tim Connell, the Corps’ Atchafalaya region manager, said officials expect to open bids on the dredging project in early February and then begin dredging in February or March.

Connell hopes the Corps can save money by using a closer than normal disposal site for the sand dredged out of the channel.

“We need to go ahead and expend every penny that we have on dredging,” Wade said.

Dredging should take about 60 days to complete.

Also during the meeting, Blaine Crochet of Darnall, Sikes, Gardes & Frederick presented the port’s annual audit for the year ended June 30, 2016.

Auditors issued unmodified opinions, the most favorable possible, on the port’s financial statements and compliance with the major federal award program, Crochet said.

The port had one minor, repeat finding for inadequate segregation of accounting functions. However, the cost of adding more personnel to overcome the finding outweighs the benefit, Crochet said.