The passage of the Coast Guard reauthorization bill yesterday will keep open the Coast Guard air facilities in Newport, Ore., and Charleston, S.C., for another year, until Jan. 1, 2016.

The Newport Fishermen's Wives. Newport Fishermen's Wives photo The Newport Fishermen's Wives were instrumental in petitioning the Coast Guard and the public to plead for the survival of the Newport facility, which saved the lives of commercial fishermen even as the community and Coast Guard debated the need to keep it open.

The Coast Guard has claimed that sending a rescue helicopter from North Bend, about an hour away, would be sufficient in most cases. However, the Dungeness fleet, considered one of the nation’s deadliest fisheries, fishes in winter, when a fall overboard or downflooding can quickly lead to hypothermia, certainly in less than an hour’s time.

The wives published a petition on MoveOn.org that currently has more than 17,000 signatures with an ever-increasing goal and littered social media outlets with posts, quotes, photos and the hashtag #savethehelo. This victory shows what a motivated community can do when armed with some solid data and social media.

I learned about the potential cuts and the petition in early October via Facebook, followed the happenings closely there and covered the story here. I am still astounded by the outreach I witnessed online, and I know the wives had just as many Xtratufs on the actual ground as they had in the virtual realm.

Although I know their work is not done, as this is only an extension, I would like to congratulate the Newport Fishermen’s Wives; the organization’s president, Jennifer Stevenson; members Ginny Goblirsch and Michele Longo Eder; Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici; and everyone else who has fought so hard to keep this air station open for the security of the fishing community, which is the largest in the region.