DISTRICT LIAISON OFFICERS ENHANCE FLOOD-FIGHT EFFORTS

BY STACEY REESE, Tulsa District

Personnel from city, county, state, and federal entities gather in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and work together during spring 2019 flood events to disseminate information to affected areas.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Tulsa District Emergency Management Office leads the district in planning for and responding to natural disasters and national emergencies in order to save lives, prevent suffering, and mitigate damages to homes and businesses. The office exists, in part, to support and assist civil authorities during emergency activities. In an emergency, the office works hand in hand with city, county, and state emergency management agencies. Information relayed to these agencies by the Emergency Management Office expedites communications and ensures these agencies have timely information needed to manage the consequences of a flood.

May 2019 was the wettest month on record in Kansas. With the record rains received during April and May 2019, the efforts of the Emergency Management Office were focused close to home. In order to better communicate the district’s mission as well as the needs of many agencies helping manage the high-water event, Tulsa District employees, known as liaison officers, worked with multiple city, county, and government agencies across Oklahoma and Kansas. These liaison officers left their normal daily duties behind to enhance communication capabilities between USACE and the entities working to keep the public safe. They took on multiple responsibilities, including reporting real-time data provision and interpretation for flood releases, elevations, inflow, and gate changes for projects in order for the local emergency management offices to have up-to-date information to pass along to those who might be affected.

“I felt like I was most helpful to the folks there by being able to provide real-time data interpretation for reporting directly to the satellite offices where first responders could use the information immediately,” said Louis Holstead, a Tulsa District operations project manager, who served as liaison officer to Pittsburgh County, Oklahoma. “We were able to provide direct support to a great group of public servants who were working diligently to ensure that they were doing everything they could to help [those] impacted.”

Kristin Shivers is an employee of the USACE Galveston District who worked with the Department of Emergency Management, Department of Transportation, Highway Patrol, and National Guard in the state of Kansas. “I think I was most helpful relaying levee monitoring standards to the National Guard,” said Shivers. According to Renee Cummins, who also worked in Kansas during the event, the experience taught her a lot about the dams and levees as well as the roles of different agencies.

Bryan Murdie, Planning and Mitigation Branch director, Kansas Division of Emergency Management (KDEM), said, “The KDEM values the relationship established with the USACE, which supports pre-incident planning and enables more effective incident response and recovery.”