Coast Guard Has to Beg to Get Water, Power Restored

The Coast Guard is still patrolling the seas, but at some bases, the water and lights are getting cut. Seventy-five days into a Department of Homeland Security funding lapse, the service says it has racked up more than $300 million in unpaid bills, including some 6,000 delinquent utility invoices worth $5.2 million, triggering water and power shutoffs at stations and military housing from Michigan to Hawaii. The Coast Guard, unlike other military branches, is funded through DHS instead of the Pentagon. "It seems like a horror movie, but it's actually happening. It's almost unbelievable," Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday tells CBS News.

• "These are stations where our crews are standing by to respond at a moment's notice to any mariner in distress or any threat to the nation," Lunday says. "And they launch 24/7, 365—and suddenly, the lights go out or they don't have water." He says that in many cases, personnel have to beg utilities to restore services.

Lunday calls the situation "unacceptable," warning that nearly half of Coast Guard housing is behind on payments. "I think the American people would be furious to know this is happening," he says. The immediate squeeze is pay. Temporary funding that allowed salaries to flow earlier in the shutdown has dried up; the Coast Guard expects to run out of money to pay its 45,000 active-duty members on May 1, with missed paychecks likely by midmonth. Families describe canceling vacations, selling vehicles, turning to food pantries, and taking on credit-card debt to follow orders to move without the usual reimbursements.

"The reality today is the Coast Guard is operating in a crisis," Lunday testified Tuesday to a House subcommittee overseeing the service. "This is needlessly harming our people and hollowing out our readiness," he said, per Stars and Stripes. He said he was worried that service members might "lose heart," especially those working in cold, windy conditions. "They've given of themselves to step forward and do this … and they simply expect that in response they're going to be supported for the sacrifice that they're giving," he said. "We're the only military service that is not within the Department of War so the only military service that's not being funded."