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COE column
 Emergency
response, preparedness are bywords at Corps
By
Lisa Coghlan, Mobile District Deputy Public Affairs Officer
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mobile
District, Operations Division, Readiness Branch prepares year-round
for natural disasters and other national emergencies. Emergency
preparedness and response begins with state and local agencies;
however, when a disaster exceeds state and local capabilities, the
Corps responds.
Under the National Response Framework, USACE is the
lead agency for public works and engineering. The Mobile District is
one of seven districts in the U.S. tasked with debris removal
operations and technical support following an emergency event.
Mobile District responded last year to the floods in the mid-west,
engineers were sent to Haiti to make assessments following the
recent earthquake, and we had a small cadre providing support for
the Tennessee flooding and with the Unified Command concerning the
recent Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
After Hurricane Katrina, 10 percent of USACE
personnel deployed to New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf
Coast to offer recovery assistance. Mobile District personnel
immediately deployed to the affected areas and several personnel
from the Lake Lanier Project offered their expertise.
“Every day down there was a new experience for me,”
said Jason Couch, park ranger at Lake Lanier Project Office. “The
deployment to south Mississippi was a great experience for me. I met
a lot of hardworking folks from all over the place, met some great
folks that had lost everything they had ever owned and worked for. I
made some friends that I still talk to from time to time. The most
rewarding experience for me was to know that the Corps of Engineers
worked as a team to provide assistance to folks who needed our help.
“One experience still jumps out at me. We were about
to start a new demolition on a house and there were some antique
metal Singer sewing machine frames on the porch, and before the demo
crew got started I moved the frames over to the side of the property
so that they would not get damaged. At the completion of the job and
the lot was cleaned off I moved the frames back to where the house
once sat. Approximately two weeks later I was driving by this
property and there were some people in the driveway and the lady
flagged me down. She said that their house was completely destroyed
and they had filed paperwork to get it cleaned up and hauled away
and that she did not expect to come back to find her
great-grandmothers’ sewing machines sitting where her house used to
be. She thanked me on behalf of the Corps of Engineers and hugged me
with tears running down her face,” Couch said.
Another Park Ranger – now Chief Ranger – Ernest Noe
responded to recovery initiatives after a brutal hurricane season in
Florida in 2004. After hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, Noe was
assigned as the Corps’ Quality Assurance expert for the Blue Roof
Program. Noe met with homeowners who had damage to their roofs and
received authorization to do work on their property. After the work
was completed Noe inspected the work for quality assurance purposes.
“This was my first deployment and there was one
elderly lady that had been without power for several days, because
with the roof damaged the power company had disconnected the power,”
Noe said. “I met with the lady and I received her permission to
install a temporary blue roof on her house, and after the work was
completed I did the QA inspection. When she saw me outside she came
running and hugged me with tears in her eyes thanking me for the
temporary roof. With the power back on she could have air
conditioning, wash clothes and cook food. When I left, I remember
calling my wife and holding back tears and telling her that they
could keep the check because it was worth the work and the time away
from home.”
For emergency responders, the essential task of being
prepared is ongoing. Tasks include updating and reviewing Emergency
Management Plans, capturing lessons learned from past events and
formulation policy guidance in an effort to improve efficiency and
effectiveness in future mission assignments. The Corps is always
prepared to be deployed when called in to work a disaster.
For more information, contact the Corps’ Buford
Project Management office at 770-945-9531 or visit:
http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/.
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