Coast Guard stations participated in the National Weather Service's official Coastal Warning Display program for more than 100 years.  The re-establishment of this program, discontinued by the National Weather Service in 1989, re-enforces the Coast Guard's role as lifesavers and visually communicates that citizens should take personal responsibility for individual safety in the face of an approaching storm.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's "Population Trends Along the Coastal United States: 1980-2008," the narrow coastal fringe that makes up 17 percent of the nation's contiguous land area is home to more than half of its population.  In 2003, approximately 153 million people (53 percent of the nation's population) lived in the 673 U.S. coastal counties, an increase of 33 million people since 1980.

Starting Friday, selected small boat stations will hoist display flags to warn of small craft advisories, gale warnings, storm warnings and hurricane warnings.  Residents of coastal communities are urged to tune to National Weather Service radio broadcasts for the latest information when they observe a flag hoisted as part of this program.