| Office of Public Affairs U.S. Coast Guard Seventh District |
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| Press Release |
Date: August 30, 2004 Contact: LTjg Eric Willis |
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MARINERS ARE URGED TO MONITOR With the approach of Hurricane Frances north of Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles, mariners are strongly urged to closely monitor its progress by all means available and take early action to protect their vessels. Should a storm or hurricane approach your position, mariners should take necessary precautions to ensure their personal safety. High seas, heavy rains and damaging winds that accompany tropical storms and hurricanes present serious dangers to mariners. If you are unable to evade a storm, ensure you wear a lifejacket and know how to activate your distress signaling devices. Rescue and assistance by the Coast Guard and other agencies, however, may be severely degraded or unavailable immediately before, during and after a devastating storm. Aids to navigation, particularly lighted and unlighted buoys, may be moved from their charted position, destroyed, extinguished, or otherwise made inoperative as a result of severe storms. Mariners should not rely completely upon the position or operation of an aid to navigation but should employ all other methods of determining position as may be available. Never forget that storms move quickly and they are unpredictable. You can always replace a boat; you cannot replace a life. ### The U.S. Coast Guard is a military, maritime, multi-mission service within the |
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