Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Coast Guard, which won wide praise for saving thousands of people and opening storm-battered ports in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck, may itself be in need of a rescue.

Lawmakers and homeland-security specialists say mounting burdens and years of inadequate funding are hampering the Coast Guard, which in addition to patrolling domestic waters and aiding mariners, must also monitor ships and thousands of cargo containers moving through U.S. ports and waterways. The result, they say is a nation increasingly vulnerable to terrorism, natural disasters, drug trafficking and mass migrations.

``I'm worried the Coast Guard is stretched too thin,'' said Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican who chairs the Homeland Security panel. ``An increasing number of its cutters and airplanes are being sidelined because of significant maintenance problems. Their assets are just getting old; they're wearing out, especially with the increase in operations since 9- 11.''

The maritime agency may be a victim of its own success, regularly being rated as one of the most efficiently run government agencies, said retired Coast Guard Rear Admiral Ed Gilbert, president of Gilbert & Associates, an Arlington, Virginia-based security consulting firm.

Within a week after Katrina struck on Aug. 29, the Coast Guard -- pulling in ships and helicopters from as far away as Alaska and New England -- rescued at least 33,000 people, contained hundreds of toxic spills and opened ports in New Orleans and Gulfport, Mississippi.

Can-Do Reputation

Televised pictures of Coast Guardsmen lowered from helicopters to flood-beleaguered evacuees burnished the can-do reputation of the agency while Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown came under fire for slow-moving aid delivery. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, the service's chief of staff, was elevated to on-scene commander of the relief effort Sept. 9.

Such feats create the impression that the Coast Guard ``has done so much for so little for so long, that we could do everything with nothing,'' Gilbert said.

The average age of the Coast Guard's 378-foot cutters, the fleet's largest ships apart from icebreakers, is 35 years, and most of its surveillance aircraft are more than 22 years old, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in June.

`Unnecessary Risks'

Most Coast Guard ships and aircraft, designed for threats ``of the 1960s and 1970s, will soon reach the end of their anticipated service,'' resulting in ``unnecessary risks'' and costs, agency Commandant Thomas Collins told a House subcommittee in June. The Sept. 11 Commission found that ``opportunities to do harm are as great, or greater, in maritime and surface transportation'' as they are in aviation, he said.

The Coast Guard in 2002 moved into the Homeland Security Department from the Transportation Department in the largest reorganization of the federal government since 1947.

``The reason for the Department of Homeland Security was counter-terrorism,'' said James Loy, a retired Coast Guard commandant, the top officer, and former deputy secretary of Homeland Security. ``Everybody was focused on how do we handle the aftermath of a 9-11?''

The Coast Guard's counter-terror duties will swell with the National Strategy for Maritime Security, approved by President George W. Bush last month. The plan makes policing the oceans a ``top priority'' for U.S. security, with ``primary responsibility'' for the task resting with the Coast Guard.

``As good as they are, the Coast Guard is vastly understaffed and underresourced,'' said Michael Greenberger, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Health and Homeland Security.

Landlocked States

Part of the problem in Congress has been generating support among lawmakers from landlocked states. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, chaired by Representative Harold Rogers, a Republican from landlocked Kentucky, in May recommended just $500 million for a roughly 23-year, $22 billion plan to upgrade the Coast Guard's fleet of ships, planes and helicopters. That sum was about half what the Bush administration requested. A spokeswoman for Rogers didn't return a message seeking comment.

``People who represent states that have less contact with the Coast Guard have had their eyes opened by Hurricane Katrina,'' Senator Collins said. ``That will help us build support'' for more money, she said.

Congress on Oct. 7 gave final approval to $30.8 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2006 for Homeland Security that gives the Coast Guard about $7.8 billion, 2 percent less than the Bush administration's request. The measure provides about $933 million in fiscal 2006 to the fleet-upgrade plan. Rogers voted in favor of the Homeland Security spending plan.

Reshaping FEMA

Congress is investigating the nation's response to Katrina with an eye to reshaping FEMA. Homeland-security experts and lawmakers from both parties agree that any probe of what went wrong should start with analyzing what the Coast Guard did right.

``The Coast Guard is the one agency that stood out in being very prepared, responding quickly,'' said Collins. ``It's a model for emergency response and preparedness.''

Unlike FEMA, the Coast Guard kept its traditional duties and its flexible command structure when it became part of Homeland Security. The agency, with about 39,000 active-duty personnel, also has law-enforcement power and freedom to communicate with civilian and military authorities, Loy said.

Around the Clock

Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans flew helicopters around the clock to pull 6,471 people from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, almost doubling within six days the total number of rescues the base took 50 years to amass.

``We were putting 16- to 20-plus hours a day on aircraft'' that typically fly two to six hours a day, and with the base running on generator power, maintenance schedules were abandoned, Coast Guard helicopter pilot Jason Roberts said.

When axes and chainsaws were needed to free people trapped in attics by floodwater, Coast Guard personnel ``just started grabbing axes, grabbed them out of, who knows?'' said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Tyler Johnson. ``They just made it happen.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff St.Onge in Washington at jstonge@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 12, 2005 00:07 EDT