U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS by STUDIO Gannett

SPECIAL EDITION

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF

FREE

ENGINEERS

2018 EDITION

Mission Rebuild + IN HIGH DEMAND STEM merges with real estate CLIMATE CHANGE Report predicts more disasters STORMS, FIRES Mother Nature tests agencyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mettle

Operation Blue Roof provided thousands of temporary coverings for storm-damaged homes on U.S. islands.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

CONTENTS

2018 S PECIAL ED ITI O N

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

The Corps uses twin-engine Chinook helicopters to execute rescue missions after natural disasters.

USACE

UP FRONT

6 10

Q&A Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite led the Corps through year of unprecedented natural disasters

ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS USACE is setting conditions for a more sustainable and resilient future

12 14

GROWING STRONG

USACE oversees a changing oyster industry in Charleston, S.C.

FEATURES

19 42

WILDLIFE WIN Preservation efforts help restore endangered species in Oregon’s waters USACE

PREVENTIVE MEASURES Corps’ climate change report offers steps to protect communities from weather events

REBUILDING THE BOARDWALK After Superstorm Sandy, the iconic Atlantic City, N.J., landmark is better than ever

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

CONTENTS 30

This is a product of

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jeanette Barrett-Stokes jbstokes@usatoday.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jerald Council jcouncil@usatoday.com

MANAGING EDITOR Michelle Washington mjwashington@usatoday.com STAFF SGT. ERIC W. JONES/USACE

ISSUE EDITOR Tracy Scott Forson

SPECIAL SECTION: DISASTERS

24 30 32 40

EDITORS Amy Sinatra Ayres Patricia Kime Sara Schwartz Debbie Williams

BRIG. GEN. DIANA HOLLAND Head of relief efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands shares lessons learned

ISSUE DESIGNER Miranda Pellicano

OPERATION BLUE ROOF USACE provides cover for more than 76,000 homes in hurricane-ravaged areas

DAMAGE CONTROL Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and other severe weather put the Corps to the test

BANNER YEAR Take a look at the historic weather events that kept the Corps busy in 2017

LEON ROBERTS/USACE

EDUCATION & CAREERS

50 54

REAL ESTATE LESSONS Corps reaches out to students in unlikely field of study

DESIGNERS Amira Martin Gina Toole Saunders Lisa M. Zilka CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Matt Alderton, Brian Barth, Scott Berman, James Bruggers, Oren Dorrell, Stacey Freed, Adam Hadhazy, Gina Harkins, Tammy Lytle, Doyle Rice, Carrie Blackmore Smith, Adam Stone

ADVERTISING VP, ADVERTISING Patrick Burke | (703) 854-5914

PERFECT POSITIONS Uncommon roles make USACE a dream job for these four employees

pburke@usatoday.com

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Justine Madden | (703) 854-5444 jmadden@usatoday.com

EDUCATION & CAREERS HYDROPOWER

FINANCE Billing Coordinator Julie Marco

ENERGY SAVERS After decades of use, wellworn hydropower units are getting an upgrade

ISSN#0734-7456 LEON ROBERTS/USACE

EDUCATION & CAREERS WATERWAYS

64 ON THE COVER Jason Hauser served as a quality assurance engineer with Operation Blue Roof in Puerto Rico. PHOTO BY PATRICK LOCH

CORPUS CHRISTI Port Partnership Agreements help keep projects afloat

OPEN FOR BUSINESS Ports along the Delaware River benefit from channel deepening

EDUCATION DAMS & LEVEES & CAREERS

72 76

OLMSTED OPENING One of the largest U.S. projects ever undertaken nears completion

ON THE RECORD USACE works to keep track of levee maintenance nationwide

A USA TODAY Network publication, Gannett Co. Inc USA TODAY, its logo and associated graphics are the trademarks of Gannett Co. Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Copyright 2018, USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Editorial and publication headquarters are at 7950 Jones Branch Dr., McLean, VA 22108, and at (703) 854-3400. For accuracy questions, call or send an e-mail to accuracy@usatoday.com.

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USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Q&A

Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite MONICA KING/U.S. ARMY

When the Going Gets Tough

USACE’s Task Force Power Restoration team took flight to help return power to Puerto Rico.

Proactive approaches enable USACE to meet challenges

DAVE PALMER/USACE

By Scott Berman

T. GEN. TODD SEMONITE, appointed chief of engineers and commanding

general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May 2016, is guiding the Corps through a demanding period that has included responding to five destructive hurricanes since August 2017 — Harvey, Irma, Jose, Maria and Nate — that hit the U.S. mainland, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, in addition to wildfires and mudslides in California.

Those events occurred while there are other long-standing challenges for the Corps and the nation. The United States faces a backlog of necessary infrastructure projects that will take years to complete, given their scope. The Corps is tasked with construction projects expected to cost $96 billion, yet its appropriation for fiscal year 2018 was $5.8 billion. Semonite recently shared his perspectives with USA TODAY about the Corps’ ongoing responses to 2017’s natural disasters, and how USACE is innovating to meet the changing demands now and in the future.

How is the Corps forging ahead during this period of devastating natural disasters and a tough funding environment? SEMONITE: Many people have been hit by the natural disasters since last year, and working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the response has come a long way: In Puerto Rico alone, we have installed 59,469 temporary roofs; removed 3.7 million cubic yards — that’s 97 percent — of debris; thousands of

generators (have been) provided, and there’s been significant power grid repairs — with 95 percent of customers now with power. In the (U.S.) Virgin Islands, 100 percent of the requests for roof repairs have been fulfilled, and we have removed 94 percent of the debris. Those are hard missions. We’ve completed recovery operations in Florida and in the Caribbean, Texas and California, we’re providing engineering solutions in a CO N T I N U E D

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Q&A

“I’m a big believer in trusting, not micromanaging, our people, because the people of the Corps do phenomenal things. ” — LT. GEN. TODD SEMONITE, USACE chief of engineers

JAY FIELD/USACE

Semonite, center, assesses damage in California following deadly mudslides in January.

USACE

President Donald Trump meets with Semonite and others in Puerto Rico to discuss disaster relief and recovery efforts there and in other U.S. territories.

speedy manner with due diligence as well as compassion. That’s what we do. I’ll add that it’s in the aftermath of such disasters that the value of engineering and a robust public infrastructure becomes quite clear. So how do we forge ahead? By continuing to ask what are the capacity and capabilities that will ensure that we are a world-class, cutting-edge organization; by not resting on our laurels; and by continuing to build in the direction that (the) nation wants us to go.

How is the Corps responding to the criticism about the delayed response to island areas that has come in the aftermath of the natural disasters? When criticisms come, they tend to center on issues of time and costs, and we are always making concerted efforts to drive down the time, to delegate and streamline in order to deliver the desired results for our customers on time and on budget. And we are doing that based on valid science and engineering — so we can

look stakeholders in the eye and say, ‘This phenomenal things. is the right way to do it.’ The right way — the men and women of What’s next in terms of your leadership the Corps know — is through maintaining and the Corps’ mission? a strong foundation, and we are focused on We are looking at how we can hire that each and every day in everything that people faster, how to improve contracting we do. That means we always demonstrate and methods of delivering our program. that we are reliable and trustworthy We’re investing in relationships with our partners; that our teams ask and answer employees, the Office of the Assistant the right questions, such as, ‘Do we have Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the capabilities, capacity and authorities?’ Office of Management and Budget, before we start a project, and that we Congress, industry partners, local and state empower leaders to think strategically. government, and our stakeholders and end That is why I have been, and remain users. ... We need to work together in order committed to, instituting changes to the to be firing on all cylinders. Corps’ delivery process in order to become a more efficient and effective organization. Is there an experience that sums We are revolutionizing our processes. up what’s been happening in recent Many leaders call for reform, but we months and how the people of the want to do even better. A key, Corps go about their guiding question is how do we, business? as leaders, not just take on a I’ve been to Puerto Rico six Read more project, but expedite it? The times, and one of the many about the Corps has worked with the tasks that has been striking Corps’ administration on this and was has been restoring four major disaster instrumental in developing power lines over a mountain recovery 20 different legislative range there. The Corps’ Task efforts proposals that are part of Force Power Restoration (team) on page 24. President (Donald) Trump’s is doing the work as part of infrastructure package. Those the overall power restoration proposals are centered on making changes mission assignment by FEMA. The Corps that can improve infrastructure delivery. is working with FEMA and the Puerto Rico We are looking internally at our Power Authority (PREPA) on that. There organization, authorities, policies, were no roads, so we had to fly in 120-footregulations and procedures to identify high towers via helicopter and flew in opportunities for increased efficiency and workers, and then power cable in other effectiveness. We are fully engaged in helicopters. Our team bolted the towers administration efforts to streamline our on and threaded the cables from tower regulatory processes. For example, we deal to tower. Our people, our contractors and with about 80,000 permits a year, and PREPA have done a phenomenal job, and it there are plenty of checks, so one of our is 95 percent complete now. goals is to simplify the process for gaining Again, a very tough mission, but we’ve infrastructure permits while protecting got to figure out how to do this fast. We’re the environment. There also are sustained pushing like heck to finish this job and efforts to delegate more decisions to the many others, to get people back to a quality lowest appropriate level. I’m a big believer of life. This is the reality. This is the ethic of in trusting, not micromanaging, our accomplishing the mission, and that’s what people, because the people of the Corps do the Corps is about.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

THE ENVIRONMENT

DOING MORE

Corps Values

Protecting the environment remains a high priority for the agency

The Corps’ Environmental Operating Principles were introduced in 2002, but received an update in 2012. In the decade between their initial adoption and the reinvigoration of the seven principles, the nation began to focus more on sustainability, and more attention was given to conserving resources, Corps officials said. The new and improved principles addressed these growing concerns by offering more detail and including more proactive steps.

ENVIRONMENTAL OPERATING PRINCIPLES uFoster sustainability as a way of life throughout the organization. Florida Everglades RHONA WISE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; USACE

By Col. Jason Kirk

HE SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENTS (of 2017 have)

prompted nationwide efforts to restore our natural and man-made environments. Given the dynamic nature of today’s meteorological conditions, it is more important than ever to devote efforts to restoring and protecting our environment to maximize resiliency and establish the framework for a sustainable future. During this past year, I’ve had the privilege of leading both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Recovery Field Office in Florida and Task Force Power Restoration in Puerto Rico in response to hurricanes Irma and Maria. I have witnessed firsthand the tremendous power of federal, state and local agencies working together to respond and recover from ravaging storm damage. It is important to focus on protecting and preserving our environment, not only during emergency response activities, but every day across our nation. So much that we do within the Corps has far-reaching and lasting value to the

that we estimate our growing region nation. Our ongoing efforts to restore will require over the permit’s five-year America’s Everglades is a signature duration. example. More than 2.4 million acres of These activities demonstrate the south Florida ecosystem, including Lake power of our Environmental Operating Okeechobee, benefit from this program. Principles, (introduced in 2002), which Along the Florida coasts, we protect serve as the foundation for all Corps billions of dollars of infrastructure along activities across all mission areas. They more than 134 miles of shoreline under are embedded in all that our Flood Risk Managewe do to strike an intricate ment Program. Under balance of protecting our navigation program, our environment while the Jacksonville Harbor enabling future opportuniMile Point Navigation ties. Project not only removed Each and every day we restrictions due to work toward providing difficult crosscurrents in engineering solutions the St. Johns River but to the nation’s toughest also worked to restore Col. Jason Kirk environmental challenges. approximately 53 acres of We all possess the power salt marsh at Great Marsh to set conditions for a more Island. sustainable and resilient future. ProtectAdditionally, under our regulatory ing and preserving the environment for program, we partnered with National future generations is one of the many Marine Fisheries Service to develop a ways we are building strong. programmatic Biological Opinion — covering Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Col. Jason Kirk is the Jacksonville (Fla.) Virgin Islands — that will enable more District commander for the U.S. Army efficient processing of the 40,000-plus Corps of Engineers. Endangered Species Act consultations

uProactively consider environmental consequences of all Corps activities and act accordingly. uCreate mutually supporting economic and environmentally sustainable solutions. uContinue to meet our corporate responsibility and accountability under the law for activities undertaken by the Corps, which may impact human and natural environments. uConsider the environment in employing a risk management and systems approach throughout the life cycles of projects and programs. uLeverage collective knowledge to understand context and effects of Corps actions through partnerships and collaboration. uEmploy an open, transparent process that respects views of individuals and groups interested in Corps activities.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Making Way for Mollusks Corps helps regulate use of new oyster-growing system By Stacey Freed

HE LARGE AND GROWING

U.S. oyster industry has nearly doubled in value since 2003, to $214 million in 2017, according to Fish 2.0, an industry group in the sustainable seafood sector. Recently, the OysterGro system, a new method for growing the mollusks, hit the shores of Charleston, S.C., making it easier for farmers to grow oysters that are larger, rounder and mature more quickly. Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which distributes permits to oyster growers, must balance the needs of oystermen against potential navigation, aesthetic or fish and wildlife issues.

OYSTER LIFE Oysters often grow in clusters, especially when there’s finite growing space, such as in Charleston’s intertidal waters. The larvae, which can attach to any hard, flat surface, will often adhere themselves to older oyster shells. After a while, these layers build up and the oysters at the bottom can get choked out or pushed into the mud. The ones in the middle may not grow to their full size, and many of them will be blade shaped, rather than round. While cluster-grown oysters are perfectly fine to eat, commercial harvesters are looking to sell their crop to

restaurants and other consumers seeking large, plump, rounded specimens. “The single oyster market here is untapped,” said Jared Hulteen, director of operations for Barrier Island Oyster Company in Charleston, a wholesaler selling directly to restaurants.

NEW GROWING METHOD OysterGro, developed in Canada, is a system of stacked cages — each about 18 inches wide, 35 inches long and 3 inches deep — held aloft by airtight floats. The cages, made of 12-gauge vinyl-coated wire mesh, hold bags of oysters allowing them to grow in place singly and not in clusters. With the plastic floats exposed atop the water, the cages hang down, submerged, so the oysters remain in their natural environment. Being near the top of the water column means “there’s more (for them) to eat and the oysters grow faster,” Hulteen said. The cages also are flipped to “expose the oysters to sunshine and fresh air to prevent fouling organisms like boring sponges that might kill the oysters,” said Tracy Sanders, a biologist in the regulatory division with the Army Corps’ Charleston District. “You grow a very clean kind of premium oyster that South Carolina doesn’t normally see,” said Hulteen, whose company uses OysterGro.

GETTY IMAGES (2)

PERMITTING PROCESS The cages may be located close to shore or “in the acres of salt marsh, so that you can’t even see them with a passing boat,” said Sanders. Wherever they are on the water, USACE must determine if they pose a navigational hazard or whether the structures affect recreation, historic properties or fish and wildlife. The Corps complies with Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act for construction of structures in navigable waters, “so (harvesters) would need our permit to set out the structures,” said Sanders, who noted that USACE shares responsibilites with two “sister” agencies that work together to help potential applicants get through the permitting process. The Corps encourages applicants to participate in a preapplication meeting. “This makes the process easier for every-

one,” said Sean McBride, public affairs specialist with Charleston District. “The meetings aren’t just for oyster growers, but also for all the regulatory agencies. If applicants come to us before they apply, they can tell us what they’re looking to do, and we can work with them to make sure their project will have the least amount of impact on any issues, which in our case might be navigation. If it was going to impact that, and we knew that up front, we’d work with the applicant to find a better location.” It took 13 months for Hulteen to get his oysters in the water, but he said he appreciated the help he received from USACE. “Tracy (Sanders) was proactive, good at making sure other federal agencies … got their comments back so she could get her part done quickly. I appreciate the due diligence by the agency.”

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

Engineering Against Endangerment Bringing a species back from the brink By Matt Alderton

TRETCHING 150 MILES FROM Portland to Eugene, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is surrounded on three sides by verdant mountains, whose dense forests form a coniferous curtain around 5,300 square miles of prime real estate. Flush with fresh water, temperate weather and fecund soil, it’s the kind of agricultural Eden to which settlers have always flocked for food, shelter and subsistence. And flock they did in the 19th century, converting vast swathes of raw wilderness into working farmland. “The Willamette Valley was the original population center of the West,” explained Chris Allen, a biologist in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Oregon office. “When (Euro-American) settlers started to manipulate the valley in the mid-1800s, it became a breadbasket for the state and for the region.” For more than 150 years, that breadbasket has fed development across the valley and is now home to some 2.7 million people — approximately 70 percent of Oregon’s population. For those people, settlement of the Willamette Valley was a gift. What has been an economic blessing, however, has also been an environmental curse. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is partly at fault. In 1936, Congress authorized the agency to erect 13 dams and reservoirs on tributaries of the Willamette River. Built between 1941 and 1969, they were intended to provide critical flood control for the Willamette Valley’s growing population. And they did — at a cost. That flood control had the side effect of altering the area’s delicate ecosystem. Global conservation organization The Nature Conservancy estimates that the Willamette Valley has lost two-thirds of its native habitat. As a result, FWS reports, there are now 12 native species of fish, wildlife and plants whose numbers in the valley are so low that they are listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered

Adult chinook salmon DIANA FREDLUND

In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Oregon chub from the Endangered Species list. Species Act (ESA).

In recent years, those species have compelled the Corps to pivot. Based on 2008 recommendations by the National Marine Fisheries Service and FWS, USACE’s mission in the Willamette Valley is no longer limited to building and managing dams; now, it includes mitigating its impact.

“We’re operating dams for many societal benefits,” said Greg Taylor, a fisheries biologist overseeing the Corps’ Willamette Valley program. “The trick is: How do you keep the dams in place to do the things they’ve been designed to do, yet also address some of the issues that have impacted wildlife? We’re doing that by making improvements in a whole bunch of different arenas.”

SAVING SALMON If the Pacific Northwest had an official mascot, it would be either chinook salmon or steelhead trout, both of which are listed as “threatened” in the Willamette Valley.

“These species are an iconic part of Oregon,” noted Ian Chane, a program manager in the Corps’ Portland District, who added that the fish are significant economically, culturally, recreationally and ecologically. “Every year, they return to the Willamette Valley from the Pacific Ocean. They come back. They spawn, and they die. This puts nutrients back into freshwater ecosystems that are naturally nutrientdeficient. Because a lot of other species are dependent on this, these fish are really important to maintain.” The numbers are grim: In 2004, the CONT I NUED

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

FISH SPECIES OF THE WILLAMETTE The Corps works to restore marine life (fish not to scale)

CHINOOK SALMON

Average size: 10 to 15 lbs. Population in 2004: 96,725 Population in 2017: 36,628

STEELHEAD TROUT

Average size: 8 to 11 lbs. Population in 2004: 11,842 Population in 2017: 822

OREGON CHUB

Average size: 1 to 3 inches Population in 1993: Less than 1,000 Population in 2015: 100,000+ GETTY IMAGES; RICK SWART/ODFW JOHN DAY

SOURCES: Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife; Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Dam fish ladders are used to help facilitate the natural migration of marine life.

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife counted 96,725 spring chinook and 11,842 winter steelhead; populations in 2017 were 36,628 and 822, respectively. The Corps’ dams have contributed to salmon and steelhead decline in several ways. For one, they’ve blocked passage for adult fish swimming upstream to their spawning habitat and for juvenile fish migrating downstream to the ocean. Also, they’ve altered water temperatures in ways that make rivers and streams inhospitable. Meanwhile, the aforementioned floodplain loss harms juvenile salmon whose rearing depends on off-channel habitat for food and protection. Although progress is slow, the Corps is pursuing both short- and long-term remedies. In 2010, for instance, it unveiled a $10.4 million fish collection facility at Cougar Dam on the South Fork McKenzie River.

Fish whose upstream passage is blocked by the dam leap their way up a concrete fish ladder into a tank that’s emptied into a truck, which then transports them to the top of the dam. A $50.5 million temperature control tower installed in 2005 at the same dam allows operators to control the temperature of the released water by drawing it from the reservoir above at various depths; mixing warmer water from the top of the reservoir with colder water from the bottom creates the optimal temperature for fish downriver. At Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River, a similar temperature control tower is scheduled for construction, with downstream fish passage possible by 2023. The floating screen will collect juvenile fish so they can be transported safely downstream instead of dying in the dam’s turbines, as they often do now. In the meantime, dam operators are “spilling” warm

reservoir water over the dam in the summer, which moderates downstream temperatures while also granting passage to juvenile fish. Although the Corps is optimistic, it’s still too early to determine whether its plans will work. “These are really big challenges,” Chane said. “We can very easily calculate how water will behave (as a result of the changes we’re making), but it’s very hard to estimate how fish are going to behave.”

SMALL FISH, BIG VICTORY In size and significance, the Oregon chub pales in comparison to salmon and steelhead. Its good fortune, however, foretells what’s possible when the Corps commits to species recovery. Endemic to the Willamette Valley, Oregon chub are small minnows — at most 3 inches long — whose green and silver

coloring allows them to lurk inconspicuously in shallow side channels and backwater sloughs. Unfortunately, flood control across the valley has decimated chubs’ natural habitat. When FWS listed them as endangered in 1993, there were fewer than 1,000 surviving chub across only eight known populations. The Oregon Chub Working Group formed in 1991 to help protect the chub population. Consisting of FWS, the Corps and other state and local partners, it began a 23-year recovery effort that culminated in 2015 when FWS removed the Oregon chub from the Endangered Species List. “Oregon chub was the first fish ever protected under the Endangered Species Act to be delisted due to recovery instead of extinction,” reported Allen, who said there are now more than 100,000 chub across more than 100 known populations. “That’s a really big deal to our agency and to everyone working on fish recovery under the Endangered Species Act.” Allen said chub owe their rejuvenation to two Corps contributions. The first was financial: The Corps provided funding for finding and monitoring chub populations, which helped the Oregon Chub Working Group understand the conditions needed for new populations to thrive. The second was operational: The Corps increased minimum flows from its dams, allowing more water to flow into the Willamette Valley, where extra floodplain moisture created new off-channel habitats to seed fresh chub populations. “Those habitats had been drying up in the summer and late fall because of how the Corps was operating,” Allen said. “Increasing the minimum flows created a trend back toward what the (Willamette River) used to look like before these dams were constructed, and that definitely has benefited the chub.”

MORE THAN THE CHUB, IN FACT “Oregon chub represents so much more than recovery of a single species,” Allen continued. “We’re talking about a native species that evolved alongside a lot of other native species. If the chub has reached a point of recovery, that represents a milestone in the recovery of the entire ecosystem.” And that bodes well for the entire Willamette Valley. “The thing that we can all learn from the Oregon chub is that multiple entities can come together and work toward a common goal,” Taylor said. “Salmon and steelhead are tougher — there are more people involved, and it’s a lot more complex — but I’m hopeful that we can achieve the same level of collaboration and, over time, get those populations back on their feet.”

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Global Warning Study predicts climate change may cause more disasters By James Bruggers and Carrie Blackmore Smith

LOODING, DROUGHT AND POWER failures

could become more frequent and severe

as global warming intensifies in the decades ahead, according to a 2017 pilot study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Although the findings suggest that the most dramatic effects are likely two decades

away, a top Corps expert who oversaw development of the study, Kathleen D. White, cautioned that changes are happening more quickly than previously thought. CO N T I N U E D

Hurricane Harvey caused widespread flooding in Houston. KARL SPENCER/GETTY IMAGES

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PRE-EMPTIVE PLANNING Kathleen D. White of USACE’s Climate Preparedness and Resilience Community of Practice said those who live along America’s great rivers may feel the effects of global warming sooner than previously thought, and shoring up infrastructure to withstand these changes will take some time. Construction and other efforts to help the region adapt can take years to fund and develop. To defend against natural disasters now, the USACE and Ohio River Basin Alliance climate change report recommends these steps that communities can take to protect their residents:

uRevamp how reservoirs are managed. uRe-evaluate flood protection systems based on changing weather patterns. uModify power plant operations. uReduce water consumption. uBuild and renovate cities and suburbs to act more like sponges for rain than funnels. — James Bruggers

WHITNEY CURTIS/GETTY IMAGES

Storms like the one that caused severe flooding along the Ohio River in Metropolis, Ill., in April 2011, have sporadically caused rivers and streams to rise in parts of southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois, and experts predict similar intense weather events will occur more frequently due to climate change.

“The changes are happening today,” said White, head of USACE’s Climate Preparedness and Resilience Community of Practice. “This isn’t something that’s just in the future.” USACE worked on the Formulating Climate Change Mitigation/ Adaptation Strategies Through Regional Collaboration study with the Ohio River Basin Alliance to help the more than 25 million inhabitants of the area understand that they will not escape the effects and challenges of climate change. The study predicts that Cincinnati could see a 12.3 percent increase in temperature, a rise in the level of the Ohio River, stronger storms and drier land. As a result, wildlife will be stressed. Humans will notice the changes, too.

The strain will hurt critical infrastructure. Seesawing river levels could affect drinking water, sewage treatment and regional power plant facilities. Retooling these facilities to be resilient in the face of climate change is costly, but potentially as much as 20 times less expensive and less dangerous than dealing with emergency shutdowns, according to the study. “The potential impacts to infrastructure, energy production and both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems ... range from minimal in some (areas) to dramatic and potentially devastating in others,” the report concludes. A team of 18 experts from inside and outside of the Corps worked CO NTINUED

MILLION PEOPLE RECEIVE DRINKING WATER FROM THE OHIO RIVER

GETTY IMAGES (2)

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on the study, starting in 2009. The report was published in May 2017, even as President Donald Trump was pulling the United States out of an international agreement to fight climate change, which scientists largely believe is a result of human activities. The Army Corps is required by law to anticipate all changing conditions, White said. The study was conducted, in part, by USACE’s Institute for Water Resources, which first began studying climate change in 1977. Since then, the Corps has launched a Response to Climate Change Program with the mission to “enhance resilience or reduce vulnerability of USACE projects, systems and programs to observed or expected changes in climate.” For its part, the Corps is particularly concerned about an extensive network of facilities and projects that manage or use the Ohio River and its major tributaries, said R. Gus Drum, who has served as a community planner/landscape architect with USACE. Those assets are in a basin that extends from New York and Maryland to Tennessee and Illinois, including nearly all of Kentucky and most of Indiana. There are dozens of locks and dams on rivers, more than 100 systems of levees and floodwalls, and 109 large dams and reservoirs, providing river navigation, flood control, hydropower and recreation. The Ohio River alone provides drinking water to 5 million people, including nearly 1 million Greater Cincinnati Water Works customers. “If we were going to experience changes in air temperature and changes in water temperatures and changes in rain and streamflow,” Drum said, “would they affect the Corps’ ability to operate and maintain facilities and to perform their missions?” The answer is yes, Drum said. Of particular concern, the report identifies 400 power plants, many of which rely on abundant cooling water to meet energy demand. It concluded that cool water could become too scarce at times for some power plants to function. “In general, we are aware of the

RYAN METTLING/GETTY IMAGES

Nearly 1,000 miles long and bordering six states, the Ohio River is one of the most significant tributaries in the nation.

“The potential impacts to infrastructure, energy production and both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems ... range from minimal in some (areas) to dramatic and potentially devastating in others.” — Formulating Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation Strategies Through Regional Collaboration study

U.S. Corps of Engineers report and the risks it references,” said David Byford, spokesman for Dynegy, which owns many of Greater Cincinnati’s power plants. “Those

concerns have to be looked at and monitored, and we will continue to do that. However, at this time we don’t view those risks as having a major impact on our business.”

Though the Corps study used the Ohio River as its reference, experts agree that climate change could cause drastic effects for any areas near waterways. “Cities everywhere near water bodies, whether near lakes, the ocean or rivers, are facing these same problems, of what they need to do about existing flood management infrastructure that’s weakened by age or not properly maintained, and will be further stretched by climate change,” said Paul Kirshen, professor of climate adaptation at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and one of the report’s authors.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Challenge Accepted Brig. Gen. Diana Holland commanded hurricane recovery with a strong hand By Stacey Freed

UST MONTHS INTO HER tenure as senior

leader of the Corps of Engineers in the South Atlantic Division, Brig. Gen. Diana Holland drew on her experience, fortitude and stamina to guide Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria recovery efforts. In an interview with USA TODAY, Holland discussed the difficulties of bringing electricity back to the island — what went right and what needs to be addressed for the future.

Explain what

it was like to be thrust into such a demanding situation shortly after taking on this role. HOLLAND: It was about 45 days after I’d gotten this job that I became engaged with (the hurricane relief efforts). It was rewarding and challenging at the same time.

700 soldiers to Afghanistan and another time with 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan two or three years later. Those were stressful.

What was your mission in Puerto Rico?

Power grid repair. We normally do temporary power — single, large generators hooked up to critical facilities. (While) we have done power grid work in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, repair of the power grid isn’t normally something we’d do after a hurricane. … (We brought on) a lot of other subject matter experts … to help us figure out a grid that we are personally unfamiliar with, for a mission that we normally don’t do under these circumstances, and then having to work alongside the territory’s power authority. (This made for) an extra level of complexity in addition to the normal stuff we do, which is already complex. (What was needed in Puerto Rico) far, far exceeded anything else we’ve ever done in history. What challenges did you face

What in your background

on the ground?

prepared you?

Puerto Rico has a very old system; the power plants on average are almost twice as old as what you’d find on average

Leading people under pressure under very stressful circumstances is good preparation for any emergency. I’ve deployed as a battalion commander of

CONTI NUED

LEANNE BLEDSOE

Brig. Gen. Diana Holland is the first female commander of the South Atlantic Division, leading five USACE districts in the region and nearly 5,500 employees.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

on the continent. That introduces foundational problems right from the beginning. … Even the rest of the power grid — the power poles, the lines, the reliability of what is distributed to each neighborhood — was very challenged. (Then) put a Category 4 hurricane on top of that, and it was catastrophic.

What other challenges did the recovery efforts face? The No. 1 challenge to the islands in general in hurricane response is the fact that they’re islands … If Florida loses power after a hurricane, five or six different states with which Florida already has previous arrangements, put their utility trucks on the freeway and send them to Florida as soon as

it’s safe. That’s not possible in the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico. You’ve got to (use the resources and materials) you already have on the island, and Puerto Rico didn’t have enough to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. … Just getting an idea of what materials (were) needed was enormous. A couple of million items had to come from the continental U.S. or from somewhere else in the world — wherever our contract could get it from. That’s very timeconsuming.

Further complicating efforts was that there already had been hurricanes Irma and Harvey … that had taken a lot of materials out of the pipeline. We had to order 45,000 power poles. We did that in the first 10 days we were in Puerto Rico. … In many cases they had to be manufactured, had to be line-hauled to a port, had to be loaded onto a barge and sent to Puerto Rico. Some things we ordered in October, we were seeing in December with an October manufacturing date. That’s the big stuff; then there were

Disaster responders are still in Puerto Rico helping to restore and build.

all the little items that had to be purchased and brought in.

What lessons has USACE learned? What would you do differently? The No. 1 thing … is appreciating that disaster response on an island is different from disaster response on the continent … (see “Vulnerabilities Revealed” sidebar). How we go forward hasn’t been decided yet. (We have to discuss) how much do we stockpile, how much does FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) stockpile. They’re the ones who actually issue us everything. … Is FEMA going to decide to stockpile generators or more electrical supplies? CON TI N UED

Holland visits soldiers, USACE employees and contractors at a field office at Fort Allen in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico, in December. STAFF SGT. ERIC W. JONES/USACE

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

VULNERABILITIES REVEALED Corps plans to improve island recovery procedures

AIRMAN 1ST CLASS NICHOLAS DUTTON/U.S. AIR FORCE

Holland surveys the Guajataca Dam in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria hit the island.

They’re going to have make that decision. They lived it too, so they know the challenges. We also need to look at ways to be faster. How can we get the (temporary) blue roofs (Operation Blue Roof) sooner, earlier — more of them? Even after Maria hit, it still kept raining every day. People who didn’t have roofs continued to have more and more damage each day.

What was done well? (There was such) a unified sense of purpose and energy that everybody — the Corps of Engineers and every agency that was down there — put in to save lives and to help Puerto Ricans get back to normalcy. It was seven days a week — civilian, military, whatever status you were, everybody wanted to make a difference and do whatever was possible as quickly as possible. It was such an inspiration. (And, yes, the federal government) has its processes — because it’s accountable for tax dollars, and it’s important that we’re good stewards. But when there were challenges, there was so much creativity in facing them. How do we skip steps? How do we combine things in this situation? … I know in the big picture and from afar it seems like it was going slow. But it was incredibly fast when you’re in the middle of it and you see complications. I was inspired by that and really proud to be part of the organization that did that. I have all good things to say from a very complex environment.

The United States isn’t prepared to respond to disasters in Hawaii, Alaska or on Pacific Islands as fast as it’s able to on the mainland, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Islands such as Guam could experience the same fate as Puerto Rico, where thousands of residents waited for power to be restored months after Hurricane Maria struck the island. The Corps has plans in place for emergency power generators, debris removal crews, bucket trucks and linemen to roll into mainland states as a storm recedes. Those plans did not apply to Puerto Rico, where the Caribbean Sea posed an obstacle to getting supplies and people to the island. Lessons learned from the delay in restoring power to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria should be applied to other isolated states and territories, including Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Virgin Islands and U.S. atolls in the Pacific, said USACE Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite. “I don’t think you can treat the (U.S.) Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska and the atolls the same way you treat the Lower 48,” Semonite said in February. Brig. Gen. Diana Holland, commander of the South Atlantic Division that oversaw the USACE response to hurricanes Irma and Maria, said the

distance and logistical obstacles are only part of the challenge. “What makes Puerto Rico even harder than a Florida or a Georgia is the state of infrastructure before the storm,” she said. Future planning should include identifying priorities in every city and permanently parking supplies and equipment on isolated states and territories for emergencies, Semonite said. “I’m not satisfied that people in Puerto Rico should have to wait 158 days for power,” he added. “It’s too long.” The Corps sent staff to Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan, a few days before the storm, but an absence or lack of plans, contracts and supplies in place delayed the recovery effort. The logistics of transporting gear and materials such as cement, transmission towers and electric poles to the island remains an issue, he said. In the future, “I want them there earlier,” Semonite said. Disaster responders are still in the affected areas helping to restore and rebuild. Once the operation has ended, an After Action Review will assist the Corps, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Defense and other partners in developing a plan for future recovery in U.S. territories off the mainland. — Oren Dorrell

A damaged structure in Manati, Puerto Rico RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Sheltered in Place

More than 76,000 temporary roofs installed in hurricane zones

KENNETH WILSEY/FEMA

The Corps’ Operation Blue Roof program provides temporary coverings for homes, like these in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, until permanent fixes can be made.

By Amy Sinatra Ayres

N THE AFTERMATH OF 2017’s busy hurricane

season, the landscapes of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida were dotted with homes covered in temporary blue sheeting installed at no cost to homeowners, thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Operation Blue Roof. When large-scale disasters strike an area and more than 3,000 homes need roofing, the Corps can be called on by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to manage the operation, said

“Essentially, if you’re a homeowner, you’d be looking up and all you’d see is blue plastic.” — JOSHUA MARX, temporary roofing program manager, USACE Kansas City District

Joshua Marx, temporary roofing program manager with the USACE Kansas City District. The blue roofs allow residents to stay in their homes while they wait for permanent repairs to be completed. Hurricanes Irma and Maria initiated the first roofing mission managed by the Corps since Hurricane Ike hit Texas in 2008 — and the largest mission since hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck in 2005. Working with contractors, the Corps installed more than 76,000 blue roofs: 59,469 in Puerto Rico, 13,369 in Florida and 3,658 in the U.S. Virgin

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

STAFF SGT. ERIC W. JONES/USACE

Crews install a temporary roof on one of many damaged buildings in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in December.

REBECCA NAPPI/USACE

The Cyril E. King Airport in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, received a blue roof after sustaining hurricane damage in 2017.

Islands. The last roof was installed in Puerto Rico in March. “Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were obviously very devastating, but with the challenges that we had logistically, I’d say (2017) was probably the most challenging, as far as the island setting and what we had to go through in both the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico,” Marx said. Those challenges included moving quickly to make big changes to the program’s qualification criteria and installation methods to help those on the island, where engineers found that the structures were made much differently than on the U.S. mainland. Usually, to qualify for a blue roof, a home needs to have 50 percent of its rafters and decking intact, giving workers a foundation to attach plywood and blue plastic covering. The Corps rarely works on metal roofs and doesn’t work on tile and concrete roofs at all. “In Puerto Rico, 80 to maybe 90 percent of the homes there are concrete, and there’s such a large population base … that did have quite a few wood-

framed structures that had metal roofing,” Marx said. “If we used our standard criteria, we wouldn’t be doing any roofs in Puerto Rico.” Instead, the team devised a “shower cap solution” for the homes, Marx said. Because material that plywood could be attached to was missing, the blue plastic was laid over open roofs, and the workers put a frame around the perimeter with plywood and strips of wood. Then, they tied the plastic down with rope. “Essentially, if you’re a homeowner, you’d be looking up and all you’d see is blue plastic,” he explained. “This was a big change for our contractors and for us. It’s something we had to adapt to on the fly, and our teams did an excellent job of doing so.” The engineers were concerned about the longevity of this solution, but the modified blue roofs have held up. When Marx last visited the island in February, one of the first roofs to be installed was “still doing just fine,” he said. In addition, it was a struggle to get the process started in Puerto Rico. Normally, the Corps sets up centers that residents can visit to sign Right of Entry forms on iPads to allow contractors onto their property. But in Puerto Rico, this was more difficult because of the lack of electricity and internet, the language barrier and even the address system. “You can’t put an address into your phone and get there,” Marx said. So, the team went door to door collecting forms and mapping the latitude and longitude of the locations — a huge task when nearly 60,000 properties are involved. Operation Blue Roof’s team also jumped in to assist in getting temporary roofing on critical public facilities such as hospitals, schools and police stations on the islands, Marx said. In the Virgin Islands, for example, the team provided a blue roof for an airport so responders could begin arriving to help residents. Although the damage in Florida wasn’t as severe as it was on the islands, the storm (Irma) had marched right up the entire peninsula, leaving destruction in its vast path. That meant that instead of working in six to 10 counties, which has typically been the case for Operation Blue Roof, 31 of Florida’s 67 counties were eligible for assistance. “From a contract administration (standpoint) and trying to get Right of Entry, it was a tremendous effort just because it was two-thirds of the state,” Marx said. “The geography was tremendous for us to be working in, all the way north and south to Miami.” Despite the complexity of this latest mission, Marx said the challenges are helping the Corps enhance its field management platform, which uses iPads, iPhones and servers, for future assignments. “Improvements and added features to this system will help us better manage the mission as we head into the 2018 hurricane season,” Marx said.

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Major weather events test disaster response By Tamara Lytle

F THE STORMS OF the past year were scenarios for training exercises, they would have been considered a far-fetched combination. Hurricane Harvey hit Texas with 50 inches of rain, dumping 2 feet of water on Houston in 24 hours. Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Irma hit Florida and the Caribbean, killing more than 100 people. Two weeks later, Hurricane Maria hit, wiping out homes, roads and power in Dominica and Puerto Rico. In the following months, deadly wildfires in California stripped the hills of vegetation, leading to mudslides. It reads like an elaborate

After Hurricane Harvey, a resident in Fort Bend, Texas, surveys flood damage at his ranch. DANIELLE PARHIZKARAN/NEWJERSEY.COM/USA TODAY NETWORK

CO N T I N U E D

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Hurricane Harvey caused widespread flooding in the Houston area. SCOTT OLSON/GETTY IMAGES

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Hollywood script for the next apocalyptic blockbuster film, except it was a harsh reality for thousands of people. The three hurricanes rank in the top five for tropical cyclone damage, as measured by the National Hurricane Center, kept the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers moving its recovery efforts from one devastated area to another. USACE, with 32,000 employees, works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as its engineering arm for floods — providing sandbags and technical advice for communities managing levees, dams and pumping stations. For wildfires and ensuing mudslides, USACE removes debris. After hurricanes, USACE assists in providing temporary roofing and power and removing debris. In Puerto Rico, extra missions were added for repairing generators beyond those owned by the federal government, fixing critical facilities like hospitals and, most dauntingly, restoring power permanently. Puerto Ricans like Camille Figueroa, 31, of San Juan, faced dire circumstances after Maria. Her home had no power for five months after the storm, and the hotel where she worked was so oppressively hot that she quit. Still, she was relieved that her relatives’ damaged homes quickly received temporary roofs from USACE. Debris was cleared fast and, although the power took a long time to be restored, she saw people working on it daily. “I didn’t expect it to be restored quickly given the impact of the hurricane, and our power system wasn’t prepared for that ... but I wasn’t expecting it to be that slow,” she said. “But we are grateful and thankful for the work they are doing to restore power.” But not everyone was so patient. USACE faced criticism when the weeks ticked by after the storm and most residents still had no power to help them put their lives back together.

Houston neighbors work together after Hurricane Harvey. ERICH SCHLEGEL/GETTY IMAGES

“There’s no chamois cloth out there big enough for 50 inches of rain.” — ANTHONY SEMENTO, chief of readiness and continuing operations, USACE Southwest Division

Hurricane Maria caused damage to businesses in Rincon, Puerto Rico. GETTY IMAGES

“I would love to have been able to have done it faster,” said Brig. Gen. Diana Holland, commander of USACE’s South Atlantic Division, which oversaw response to hurricanes Irma and Maria. But given the extra challenges of the island location, the level of devastation and the aging infrastructure, “we knew this was not going to be (like) restoring power in Florida,” she said. Lt. Col Roberto Solórzano, who headed the Corps’ Puerto Rico Recovery Field Office, knew

how daunting the job would be right away, even before USACE deployed 900 people to help. The day after Maria, his 25-mile drive to the office took eight hours, past downed power lines and high water that came halfway up the door of his fourwheel-drive vehicle. “Unless you are here on the island and see the difficulties we encountered, day to day, you can’t understand it,” Solórzano said.

PROJECT CHALLENGES Daniel Aldrich, director of

security and resilience studies at Northeastern University in Boston, lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina sparked angry criticism of USACE over the flood protection infrastructure it built before the storm. Since then, Aldrich said the agency has done a better job of having needed infrastructure in place beforehand and positioning equipment like bulldozers before storms hit. Anthony Semento, chief of readiness and continuing operations for USACE’s Southwest Division, said the Harvey recovery was hampered by the flat topography. “There’s no chamois cloth out there big enough for 50 inches of rain,” Semento said. “There is nothing anyone could do — or not do — to make that water move out more quickly.” USACE provided 6-foot sandbags before the storm, Semento said. And afterward, the Corps installed 45 generators for temporary power and assessed thousands of critical public facilities like schools. USACE also put up temporary structures for classrooms. “It’s so important to get that normality back. If you can’t get your kid back in school and back to life, people move,” Semento said. In 2017, five of the 20 most destructive wildfires in California’s history caused devastating destruction. In Northern California, 44 people died, 245,000 acres burned and $4.4 billion in damage was left behind, said Army Lt. Col. Travis Rayfield, commander of the Northern California Wildfires Recovery Field Office. USACE set to work clearing 4,000 parcels of land, including complex properties built into hillsides with retaining walls that needed to be preserved, and other structures in remote areas with washed-out driveways. The sheer volume of debris — 1.7 million tons — was another major concern. Southern California had its own problems. The challenges

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Workers sort through debris after fires in Coffey Park, Calif. ED COFFEY/USACE

“I was kind of shocked by the power of Mother Nature. I saw pictures on television, and it doesn’t do it justice ...” Responders removed 1.7 million tons of debris left behind after natural disasters hit northern California. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

— SCOTT JOHN, mission manager for debris, USACE Los Angeles District

there included rocks, trees and other debris that slid into the channels and basins designed to protect homes. “A lot of them were completely full. If another storm were to come, you’d have increased danger,” said Scott John, mission manager for debris, after the January mudslides. John, who works with the Los Angeles District, noted the 366,000 cubic yards of debris USACE cleared would fill the length of a football stadium piled up 17 stories high. “I was kind of shocked by the power of Mother Nature. I saw pictures on television, and it doesn’t do it justice when you see the size of the rocks, how far they traveled and the houses ripped off their foundations.” When Irma struck the U.S. in September, Col. Robert Clark,

commander of the U.S. Virgin Islands Recovery Field Office, saw land go from lush green to resembling Mount St. Helens after its 1980 eruption. The $260 million of mission assignments entailed installing 180 generators, assessing 350 critical facilities, installing 3,663 temporary roofs and collecting debris, including 500 boats tossed about by the storm. Recovery in Puerto Rico involved was a witch’s brew of issues: two storms in a row with Irma then Maria, massive destruction, an island location that was cut off from supplies, an aging power system infrastructure and a language barrier for many who came to help. And then there’s the politics. A contract with Montana-based Whitefish Energy Holdings to restore power was canceled amid public outcry. And Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and other politicians expressed anger over the slow progress, including the Corps’ initial speed in restoring power to the island. In March, nearly six months after the storm, 9 percent of customers still had no power. One measure of the devastation in Puerto Rico, Holland said, is the vast number of generators needed to provide temporary power. In Florida after Irma, 45 generators were hooked up. In Puerto Rico that number surpassed 2,000 — more than were needed for hurricanes Katrina and Rita and Superstorm Sandy combined. Supplies on the mainland ran out and more had to be manufactured and shipped, Holland added. When storms hit Florida, utilities from other states sent help, but in Puerto Rico, getting workers there was more difficult. The poor state of infrastructure before the storm was also a factor. While the average age of power plants in the mainland U.S. is 25 years, in Puerto Rico they are 44 years old on average. “Puerto Rico has struggled with CO N T I N U E D

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

stable power for years before the storm,” Holland said. Brian Choate, mission manager lead for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, said rundown infrastructure, like bridges, also failed, making it a challenge to bring power to remote areas.

UNUSUAL MISSIONS The severity of many of the past year’s storms forced USACE to rethink the usual approaches and add new missions. In Northern California, for instance, the scope of the damage was too much for the state to handle alone, so USACE picked up two new assignments: carting away foundations and working extensively on private property. The foundation work meant much heavier debris to remove. And the private property assignment, requiring the approval of thousands of homeowners, created mounds of paperwork, Rayfield said. The mission was so rare that USACE only had a one-page guide for handling private-property cleanups. “People’s private property is a highly emotional issue,” said Rayfield. Making sure everyone is treated with respect throughout that process is a real challenge, he added. The special circumstances in Puerto Rico also led to unique challenges. Providing temporary roofs had to be done very differently because the blue plastic sheeting usually used after hurricanes is designed for use on asphalt shingle roofs and expected to last approximately 30 days until permanent repairs can be made, but the roofs on the island were concrete and metal. The going was slow. Concrete makes it tough to attach the blue roofs. Termites had eaten wooden parts of homes, and metal roofs couldn’t be patched in sections. Instead of a team finishing five roofs a day, it could take all day to do one. In March, USACE finished installing 59,469 temporary roofs, said mission manager

A USACE crew installs new power poles in San German, Puerto Rico. MAJ. MICHAEL N. MEYER/USACE

“We’re dealing with people that don’t have a lot to begin with. They have nowhere else to go.”

Flooding and soil saturation destroyed roads in Caguas, Puerto Rico.

— MICHAEL RODGERS, mission manager for temporary roofing, Recovery Field Office, Puerto Rico GETTY IMAGES

for temporary roofing Michael Rodgers. Kimberly Blood, USACE’s mission manager for critical public facilities in Puerto Rico, led the mission to assess and repair critical public facilities like hospitals, fire stations, police stations and other government buildings. After examining 350 buildings, Blood said 117 of them were slated for $6.3 million in emergency repairs and were scheduled to be completed in mid-May. It was the rainy season, and the work needed to be done quickly. Local governments were too overwhelmed to take the job on themselves, Blood said. USACE stuck mainly to emergency repairs, removing moldy material, sealing roofs, rebuilding walls and covering windows. “We provided them with at least a shell that was safe to work in,” Blood said. Just getting to some of the facilities was difficult on roads closed by debris. Another complication was determining what building damage had resulted from the storm and what was caused by years of poor maintenance. As the manager of nonfederal operation and maintenance of temporary power, Elliott Porter led a mission that was a first for the agency. FEMA provides generators that USACE maintains after storms, but typically the Corps does not work with generators owned by anyone else. The need for power was so desperate in Puerto Rico, the federal government stepped in to help hospitals, 911 call centers and the water and sewer authority. Porter’s team fixed and changed parts on 420 generators. Unlike FEMA’s own generators, the nonfederal units were not standard and some were downright ancient, so finding parts for them was complicated. Choate said another atypical mission involved installing CO N T I N U E D

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Operation Blue Roof installed more than 59,000 temporary coverings on structures in Puerto Rico. SGT. AVERY CUNNINGHAM/U.S. ARMY

micro grids — groups of generators — to power small towns cut off from power. But the plants where USACE installed them were without Wi-Fi and other tracking technology, making it more difficult for workers to monitor them from afar. And when it came to permanently restoring power in Puerto Rico, USACE took on another new and massive role. “It’s the first time the Corps of Engineers has done something of this magnitude for power restoration,” said Jose Sanchez, who led the effort. About 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s power system had been destroyed. “Anything above 50 percent is a nightmare.” Some power poles had to be brought in by helicopter, a much slower process. “I wanted people with power (quickly), but I was faced with reality as an engineer,” said Sanchez, USACE deputy director of research and development. Because permanent power restoration is usually done by local authorities, USACE did not

have contracts ready or teams assigned to do the job. For the future, that will need to change, Sanchez said. He’d also like to see USACE offer incentives to contractors to work faster in emergencies.

LESSONS LEARNED Although USACE is still reviewing the Puerto Rico response, mission managers have already given much thought to what can be improved. The administrative process to help provide temporary roofs had to be radically changed for Puerto Rico. Usually after storms, residents go to centers to turn in forms requesting aid and allowing repair workers to enter their property. USACE later sends someone to the address to assess the need and then dispatches a contractor to install the temporary roof. But in Puerto Rico, with no electricity or GPS available at first, and with address conventions that were difficult for outsiders to understand, this process didn’t work. So

Army Corps employees walked through neighborhoods simultaneously collecting forms and making assessments. In future temporary roof missions, that system will be considered, as well as the more flexible rules used in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on how much roof structure must remain to qualify for help. “We went above and beyond standard operating procedure as far as qualifications,” Rodgers said. “We’re dealing with people that don’t have a lot to begin with. They have nowhere else to go.” Holland said the Corps will also look at how much should be positioned on islands before storms strike, so that if ports are closed, recovery can still begin. He added that federal officials also need to understand the readiness level of each state so that when disaster strikes, they can predict how much government aid will be needed. Solórzano said helping with nonfederal generators is something USACE will consider doing again because it quickly

brought assistance to many people. The Corps will critique operations to see how they can be accelerated. “Can you ever go fast enough for those in need?” Clark said. “Some days you are overjoyed you are helping people, but heartbroken because you can’t do it faster.” Jasmine Smith, debris mission manager, learned several lessons from the massive cleanup. Having bilingual employees was a huge help in communicating within the 55 municipalities where USACE was asked to help, Smith said. The mission was slowed because it took a while for all the towns to get their requests in for help. “The mayors weren’t that aware of the steps needed to get assistance,” Smith said. In the future, more of that information should be communicated before storms. Chuck Oliver, emergency management and security branch chief for USACE in Louisville, Ky., and Ryan Jeffries, chief of the civil engineering branch there, said this year’s Ohio River flooding showed the value of sending teams out into the field proactively to monitor areas with rising water. The teams gave local officials advice on how to keep the waters from flooding homes and cropland. Their office also learned the benefit of borrowing a second machine to lend to communities so they can quickly fill enough sandbags to protect levees. Blood said she has ideas to improve future infrastructure repair missions, such as sending people out to communities to spread the word about what help is available and setting up contracts for repairs differently so they can be done faster. Although USACE is still mopping up from last season’s string of disasters, Holland said, “we’re not far from the beginning of the next hurricane season. We also have to be focused on preparation. We could be going out the door. Let’s hope it’s a calm storm season.”

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

2017 USACE Disaster Response

KEY: Division Headquarters Location Severe Winter Weather

Severe Storm

Northwestern Division

Washington flooding OCT. 20 - 23

Wildfire Red River & Souris Basin flooding MARCH 17 - APRIL 17

Portland, Ore.

Flooding

Bighorn River ice jam

Northwest flooding

FEB 11 - 19

MARCH 10 - JUNE 27

Hurricane

North Atlantic Division

Wyoming flooding JULY 14 - 18

Mississippi Valley Division

Lake Ontario high water

Tropical Storm

* Ongoing relief aid

MAY 12 *

Hurricane Jose SEPT. 17 - 24

Hayden Pass Wildfire ENDED: MAY 15

California & Nevada severe weather

Nebraska severe weather

JULY 18 - SEPT. 21

Illinois flooding

Elkorn & Platte River ice jams

JULY 21 - 28

JAN. 2 - 21

JAN. 8 - NOV. 13

South Pacific Division

Northern California wildfires OCT. 9 *

Great Lakes & Ohio River Division

ADDITIONAL EVENTS:

uTropical Storm Bret (June 17 Active/ Prep - Caribbean)

uTropical Storm Fernanda (July 17 Active/

Cincinnati

West Virginia flooding 2016

Junkins & Beulah Hill wildfires

Prep - Hawaii)

ENDED: DEC 23

ENDED: MAY 1

San Francisco

New York

Central U.S. flooding

East Tennessee wildfires

JAN. 12 - 17

Southern California wildfires DEC. 5 *

Mississippi River Basin winter flooding ENDED: MAR 9

Southwestern Division

Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Matthew 2016

Southeast U.S. severe weather

Key events

Hurricane ENDED: AUG. 11 Irma

5,700+ Members deployed

AUG. 31 *

** Key events are those that require at least a weeklong response and exceed $25,000.

JAN. 24 APRIL 28

ENDED: NOV. 1

JUNE 20 - 24

Hawaii

South Atlantic Division

Louisiana flooding 2016

Hurricane Nate

Tropical Storm Cindy

Pacific Ocean Division

APRIL 25 - MAY 12

Atlanta

JULY 27 - AUG. 21

Vicksburg, Miss.

Honolulu

North Carolina flooding

JAN. 3 - JAN. 20

Arizona flooding Dallas

Alaska

RESPONSE TOTALS:

APRIL 28 - OCT. 10

Central U.S. blizzard

Puerto Rico

OCT. 6 - 8

1,390+ $4.7+

New Orleans severe weather

Members supporting

AUG. 11 - OCT. 17

AUG. 22 *

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma AUG. 31 *

AUG. 31 *

Billion spent

Hurricane Maria SEPT. 16 *

SOURCE: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ICONS: GETTY IMAGES; MAP ILLUSTRATIONS: MIRANDA PELLICANO

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

Shoring Up the Shore Corps rebuilds parts of Atlantic City’s iconic boardwalk By Adam Stone

ATTERED BY A HURRICANE in September 1944

and a brutal March 1962 nor’easter, the stretch of Atlantic City, N.J., shoreline known as Absecon Inlet had long been overdue for repairs.

Then in October 2012, Superstorm Sandy all but wiped off the map these few dozen blocks of oceanfront property, tearing away historic homes and obliterating the boardwalk. “There were a few homes left on the southern end of CO NT I NUED

Workers use stones to reinforce the seawall in Atlantic City, N.J. TIM BOYLE

USA TODAY SPECIAL EDITION

USACE

Engineers have compared placing the stones along the Absecon Inlet to solving a puzzle. SYLVANA REGA/GETTY IMAGES

the project, and then it’s planning and deep technical just wide swaths of vacant expertise. Army Corps property,” said local engineer experts and local officials Russell Cipolla, who assisted said the end result could lead the Corps in planning the to a new era of economic project. “It’s mainly just development. open area now.” GIANT JIGSAW Today, there are no The Corps set to work hotels, condominiums or in fall 2015 on what would restaurants in the area. With become a $34.1 million the boardwalk gone and no project. Over seawall to time, the hold back effort came the force “These to include the of future installation of storms, properties 1,340 feet of developers could never steel sheeting have steered as a seawall. clear of the be developed Engineers place. All that carefully put in the past could change, into place though, as with all the 50,000 tons the Corps of stone to puts the flooding that shore up the finishing occurred.” wall and also touches this rebuilt the year on the — DON GUARDIAN, boardwalk, massive Atlantic City mayor reconnecting Absecon Isthe scenic land Coastal promenade Storm Risk to the rest of the famed Management project meant Atlantic City boardwalk. to secure the land against It was a highly complifuture natural disasters. cated undertaking. Among The immense engineering other factors, the ocean has effort required thoughtful

no “pause” button. Storms continued to roll in, even as contractor J. Fletcher Creamer & Son labored to secure the steel wall. “More than 20 miles an hour (winds), a crane can’t boom out, so crane operations stop when you have windy weather,” said Christian Bickings, USACE resident engineer. “At the onset, we had steel sheets that weren’t supported on both sides by rock, and they got knocked over by stormy seas.” Turbulent ocean waters and unpredictable tides made it difficult to place the wall, especially at the south end of the construction site. “It was slow going for the first couple of blocks of the project,” Cipolla recalled. Beyond these initial hurdles, the team faced the even more daunting challenge of placing the stones that would serve as the shoreline’s future fortification against periodic nor’easters and other destructive forces. CO N T I N U E D

ILLUMINATING ABSECON Atlantic City lighthouse beacon of Corps’ past

The new reinforced boardwalk at Absecon Inlet isn’t the Corps’ only tie to the New Jersey tourist destination. Part of the state’s tallest lighthouse that stands among the modern-day casinos and hotels in Atlantic City was built more than 160 years ago by members of what would become the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Originally the idea of Jonathan Pitney, known as “The Father of Atlantic City,” the Absecon Lighthouse (abseconlighthouse.org) project was eventually managed by officers of the Army Corps of Topographical Engineering in 1855. The group became a part of today’s Corps in 1863. With 228 steps, the lighthouse stands 171 feet and is one of the city’s oldest structures, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the lighthouse and nearby keeper’s house are fully restored and open to visitors who can enjoy picnics on the grounds, take in a 360-degree view of the shore or attend monthly events, such as haunted tours and nighttime climbs. On special occasions, such as Atlantic City’s centennial, a light emanates from the structure, just as it did when the Corps first completed the project. — Tracy Scott Forson

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After Hurricane Katrina, businesses fled the area around Atlantic City, N.J., but the revamped boardwalk is expected to attract new companies to the destination.

To make a seawall worthy of the name, engineers piled the stones in a specific pattern. The Corps described it as more like a jigsaw puzzle project — one made up of thousands of pieces, each weighing around 10 tons. “The stones have to interlock. One stone is held in by five stones or seven stones around it,” Bickings said. Some of the behemoth boulders were lowered into place by crane, with sonar helping to guide the operator. In other cases, an excavator would delicately leverage a stone into place with two human spotters offering the machine operator visual guidance. “Sometimes they placed one stone in an eight-hour day. For eight hours they were figuring out what stone best fits in this location, what stone best interlocks with the

stones around it,” Bickings said. The net result is a seawall sturdy enough to keep the forces of nature at bay — perhaps not forever, but for the foreseeable future. The new seawall will defend the shoreline by serving not just as a barrier to rushing tides, but also as a kind of shock absorber: All those tightly fitted stones will absorb the energy of incoming waves, dissipating the power of a storm before it can tear into the land. “It will effectively break the waves,” said Keith Watson, USACE project manager. “So you’ve gone from an area that had no protection — in fact you had an eroding shoreline, taking land away — to one that’s now fixed and will remain so for hundreds of years.” The newfound stability could open the door to renewed economic

activity along this storm-ravaged seaside strip.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES City officials are optimistic that the Corps’ elaborate engineering effort could drive change in this community. “This has always been a precarious location for storms. When we get nor’easters, that area is very exposed to high tides, to storm-blown tides,” Cipolla said. “A developer or homeowner is going to feel a lot more comfortable investing in property along that seawall now that we have such a significant amount of protection.” Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian agreed that the new structure will reassure builders and businesses that the area is now flood-resistant.

The project “will protect valuable waterfront properties and promote their development. These properties could never be developed in the past with all the flooding that occurred,” Guardian said last year in a statement. Having the boardwalk back in place could also make a big difference in that respect. While it may not add to the structural resiliency of the shoreline, the seamless pedestrian tie back to the heart of Atlantic City — now firmly back in place, as part of the USACE project — could prove a draw for businesses, too. “It’s a quality of life thing,” Cipolla said. “It enhances property values. People enjoy getting on their bikes and taking a ride all the way from one end of town to the other. That’s a selling point to developers.”

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ENGAGING FUTURE ENGINEERS STEM activities, conducted by USACE team members who volunteer for the duty, are designed to spark interest, inform and engage youngsters. The Corps and the Department of Defense have an active STEM ED program for K-12 students that includes:

uCorps volunteers participating in traditional events, such as job fairs, career days and school presentations to teach various grade levels about their programs.

MARK RANKIN; GETTY IMAGES

Members of the USACE Nashville District Real Estate Division speak to students at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Real-life Lessons Recruiting from unexpected field of study

By Scott Berman

HILE REAL ESTATE ISN’T

the first thing that comes to mind when contemplating the many duties of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it is a key and robust USACE function. The Nashville District Real Estate Division, for example, manages more than 400,000 acres of federally owned land with more than 5,000 tenants, according to the team that includes realty

specialists, an accountant, two appraisers and two geographic information systems (GIS) mappers. Mike Abernathy, real estate division chief, said his team works on appraisals, leases, easements, licenses, right of entries and acquisitions. In layperson terms, when the Corps must acquire land for a project on behalf of the country, it counts on these real estate professionals to get it done. Students at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro learned about the Corps’ real estate role when Abernathy’s team visited the

campus last year to discuss Corps career options. The scholars in attendance included those studying real estate and engineering, disciplines that require skills that pertain to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). “Corps real estate careers are very much STEM-related,” Abernathy said. “Complying with the National Environmental Policy Act is required for many of our actions. Also, it’s essential for realty specialists to understand science as it CONTINUED

uThe Philadelphia District’s internship program with George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science that allows three to four senior-year interns to work with technical, planning, engineering, construction, operations and Marine Design Center personnel. uOmaha District engineers conducting frequent presentations at the University of Nebraska’s Omaha and Lincoln campuses “to help future engineers learn what to expect,” said Ryan Hignight, district public affairs officer. uFrequent interaction with campuses and high schools is part of the district’s overall community relations and outreach effort across its 10-state region. The district is also developing a Real Estate Division internship program, Hignight added. — Scott Berman

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EDUCATION & CAREERS

STUDYING STEM Higher education institutions nationwide offer outstanding STEM programs. Here are some of the institutions preparing tomorrow’s engineers: Drexel University This Philadelphia university offers several programs in engineering, including bachelor’s degrees in architectural engineering and environmental engineering, and master’s programs in civil engineering and systems engineering. udrexel.edu/academics/explore/engineering Middle Tennessee State University This Murfreesboro institution offers Bachelor of Science degrees in computer engineering technology and mechanical engineering technology. There’s also a master’s program in engineering technology. umtsu.edu North Carolina State University Civil engineering and mechanical engineering are among the STEM-related Bachelor of Science programs at this Raleigh college. Master’s degrees in mechanical engineering or electrical engineering are offered. uncsu.edu

LEE ROBERTS/USACE

Marcus Hooper, left, with Nashville District’s real estate chief Mike Abernathy, joined the team after graduating from Middle Tennessee State University.

relates to environmental coordination and concerns. And finally, the use of technology has become a critical skill with everything we do.” In turn, STEM-related real estate is at the center of the Corps’ overall mission, which “begins and ends with real estate,” said Brenda Johnson-Turner, director of real estate at the Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C. Internationally, USACE’s Real Estate Division manages more than 25 million acres, including thousands of miles of shoreline protection, commercial inland waterways and levees, hundreds of harbors and more than 100 Army installations, she said. “Few real estate organizations have more job variety than USACE Real Estate.” Such variety is found across Corps’ wide range of divisions and missions. That range — and with it the opportunity to do things that are off the beaten path — often piques the interest of students looking for something different. For Marcus Hooper, a 2017 MTSU graduate who now works for the Nashville District as a real estate specialist, the Corps’ unique responsibilities, such as protecting against natural disasters and preserving the nation’s history, appealed to him. “What got me hooked

was when the Corps representatives spoke to aspects of real estate that otherwise I would not have known,” he said, referring to the district’s work acquiring land to reduce flooding and to relocate Revolutionary War-era military graves threatened by a landslide near the Cumberland River in Baxter, Ky. About 40 districts actively recruit on higher education campuses, emphasizing engineering and physical and computer science programs at historically black colleges and universities and minorityserving institutions, said Kurt Metcalf, national recruiting coordinator at the D.C. headquarters. The Corps “encourages our Engineer Research and Development Center to maximize use of their direct hire authority for STEM students and recent graduates,” Metcalf added. The Corps also offers student internship programs. At Nashville, the district’s educational efforts can be seen as part of a broad, ongoing effort to help chart the course for the future. The program at MTSU is an example of how the district professionals see their responsibilities. “Attracting qualified graduates for the work that we do is extremely important to me,” Abernathy said.

Northeastern University Located in Boston, Northeastern has bachelor’s and master’s programs in environmental engineering. There’s also a Master of Science in engineering and public policy with two concentrations. ucoe.neu.edu Rochester Institute of Technology The College of Applied Science and Technology at this New York school lists computer engineering technology, civil engineering technology and electrical mechanical engineering technology among its bachelor’s programs. urit.edu/overview/coe University of Vermont Located in Burlington, the University of Vermont’s College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences offers accelerated Master of Sciences degrees in civil and environmental engineering, electrical engineering and more. uuvm.edu/cems University of Wisconsin-Madison The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering boasts bachelor’s degree programs in civil engineering and geological engineering, and master’s or doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering. uengr.wisc.edu U.S. Military Academy West Point continues its tradition of excellence within its Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering. The curriculum includes a core engineering sequence, civil engineer major and mechanical engineer major. uusma.edu/cme — Scott Berman

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EDUCATION & CAREERS

Uncommon Pursuits 4 employees with atypical careers By Patricia Kime

GETTY IMAGES; PROVIDED BY THE INDIVIDUALS; STEVE MUNRO: PROVIDED BY WILLIAM DOWELL/USACE

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EDUCATION & CAREERS

Carl S. English Jr . Botanical Garden s

Gil Garcetti exhi bit

KELLY BARNES

STEVE MUNRO

Champions conservation of world’s most valuable resource: water

Propogates exotic plants for the public’s enjoyment

KELLY BARNES STUDIED ART

and architectural history in college, traveling as far as Stymphalos, Greece, to excavate archaeological ruins. The USACE Institute for Water Resources (IWR) seemed an unlikely workplace, let alone a nt for nurturing environment ne with creativity, for someone arnes an artistic bent, but Barnes was hired in 2006. As part of her duties, shee helps publicize the he need for preserving the world’s most valuablee resource: water. “This year, (Cape Town), South Africa, is running out of water — I don’t think people understand this could actually happen nearly anywhere,” she said. In 2013, after seeing the works of Gil Garcetti, a photographer who chronicled the struggles to obtain safe drinking water in West Africa, Barnes organized an

exhibit at the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. State Department to mark World Water Day. The photography series, “Women, Water and Wells: Photographs of West Africa by Gil Garcetti,” was so successful that the exhibit was show shown in 2015 at the 7th Wo World Water Forum in Gye Gyeongbuk, South Kore an international Korea, con conference where water exp experts come together w policy makers. with “This exhibit makes it in your face with the cch challenges people have if they don’t have safe drinking water. We take this for granted in our country,” said Barnes, who keeps looking for opportunities to use art to highlight her office’s mission. “I don’t know any other art history majors working at Corps of Engineers, but it fits very well,” she said.

GETTY IMAGES; PROVIDED BY KELLY BARNES (2)

STEVE MUNRO ARRIVES AT his gardening job at the

botanical gardens in Seattle before visitors arrive, making sure the grounds are clean and that any heavy or loud equipment is put away. The attraction welcomes nearly 1.3 million guests each year and has the distinction of being den the only botanical garden ated by owned and operated the U.S. Army. At the gardens m that abut the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, Munro carries on a legacy started by the garden’s namesake, nurturing the 900-plus species on exhibit and propagating exotic and rare plants from seed. “There’s something different every day. A tree may need to be pruned or cut down or there may be an irrigation leak or there is all sorts of mischief caused by mammals, either Homo sapiens and others, like

beavers. It’s a fun place to be,” he said. The gardens date to 1915, when Army builders designated a natural space next to the locks for Seattle denizens to enjoy. On any given day, commuters pass through, neighbors drop by and tourists come to see the blooms and watch salmon swim up th locks’ fish ladder. the Munro, who worked as a groundskeeper in college while he studied history, was hired full time by the Corps in 20 2009. He considers th job a perfect fit. “The the gardens provide this elusive sense of place. What also makes them unique is that they are a working project. You can come here and see the boats go through, watch the maintenance crews working on something, the gardeners working on something. It’s a dynamic place,” Munro said.

PROVIDED BY WILLIAM DOWELL/USACE (2)

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EDUCATION & CAREERS

Martin Army Co mmunity Hospital at Fort Benning, Ga.

Ascension Island in the South Atlan tic

VICTOR WILHELM

LAUREN HOUPT

Surveys, supports and executes district and federal Corps projects

Provides interior design services for medical facilities

VICTOR WILHELM HAS SLOGGED through the snake-

filled Florida Everglades and flown to remote Ascension Island, a 34-square-mile outcrop of volcanic rock in the South Atlantic 1,000 miles from the nearest continent, Africa. A land surveyor and elm engineer by training, Wilhelm C now works in USACE’s Jacksonville, Fla.,, District unmanned aircraftt n systems section ga (UAS), leading three-person team that uses Sensefly eBee and eBee Plus survey drones to support district and federal missions. They have photographed erosion and mapped Corps project sites, monitored the spread of invasive species and air-dropped plant hoppers to devour invasive flora. “We essentially released these bugs from UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in places

where it is very difficult to access the area … it was a pretty unique application,” Wilhelm said. Wilhelm is responsible for getting the necessary permits, flying and maintaining the drones, crunching data and writing reports for projects across the federal government. In April, his UAS section was managing a dozen projects, from capturing the data to analyzing it and creating a product for the customer. “I do it al as does everyone all, o on the team,” he said. The Jacksonville rog UAS program launched in 2010 and was the first in the Corps. Wilmhelm predicts that eventually every USACE district may have its own drone office. “It’s an inexpensive capability that meets an engineering information need. … I can’t envision a district that would not benefit from this technology,” he said.

GETTY IMAGES; PROVIDED BY VICTOR WILHELM (2)

LAUREN HOUPT WAS INTERNING for a hospitality

design firm in Dallas in 2008 when the economy tanked. Finding herself without a job, the Auburn University graduate applied to the Corps. “I heard they were hiring, so I went for it,” she said. During the interview process, she eeded learned that USACE needed recent graduates for a program that buys furniture for Army barracks, offices, lodging and schools. Houpt and several other interior designers were hired, and thee program transformed ign shop into a full-fledged design known as the Furnishings Program, offering interior design services, project management, installation and quality assurance. “It’s grown because of the caliber of designers we have been able to pull in. The Army sees value in what we offer.” Now, Houpt provides

interior design services for Army medical facilities. The job, she said, demands familiarity with health and safety, an understanding of infection control and a need to ensure that furnishings are durable, easy to maintain and appropriate for the space. d I’m learning more “Every day as n new technologies come out. I’ve had the opportunity to learn and grow,” she said. Houpt’s job has taken her from Fort Benning, Ga., where s helped design the she inte interior of a new hospital, V to Vicenza, Italy, where a projec called for specialized project understanding of European design priorities and building code standards. She said that with each project, she puts an emphasis on design that promotes healing and reduces patient anxiety. “I can’t think of a customer that’s more worthwhile to support,” she said.

PROVIDED BY LAUREN HOUPT; GEORGE JUMARA

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ASBESTOS, MOLD & LEAD ABATEMENT

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HYDROPOWER A 249-ton rotor is guided into hydropower unit two at Center Hill Dam in Lancaster, Tenn., in 2017. The Nashville District is rehabilitating three units at the facility.

LEON ROBERTS/USACE

Making the Upgrade Hydropower rehabilitation project is seeing its first successes

By Adam Hadhazy

ROM ITS APPALACHIAN SOURCE, the Cumberland River

sinuously flows like a liquid ‘S’ across Kentucky’s and Tennessee’s state lines. Along the way, the river and its tributaries wend through nine hydropower plants operated by the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Nashville District. Twenty-eight generators convert this flow into 3.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year — enough to power a city the size of Louisville, Ky. Keeping the hydropower running

has become increasingly challenging in recent years, though. The generators have never been replaced, and the oldest dates back to 1948; even the “newest” of the Cumberland River system’s plants is vintage, having opened in 1977. Despite the Corps’ diligent maintenance as funding has permitted, the plants have seen their performance falter, endangering power flexibility for the region’s residences and businesses. However, that worrying trend is being reversed, thanks to a $1.2 billion, decadeslong rehabilitation and modernCO N T I N U E D

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HYDROPOWER

LEON ROBERTS/USACE

When the $1.2 billion project is completed, engineers expect the rehabilitated hydropower units to generate the same amount of energy using less water.

LEON ROBERTS/USACE

The Center Hill Dam hydropower plant is the first of nine to undergo unit restoration, part of a project that’s expected to take more than a decade to complete.

ization program begun in 2004. “The work that our team is putting in, we’re seeing it come to fruition,” said Loren McDonald, project manager for the Nashville District. “Hydropower is a significant part of the regional energy portfolio because of its flexible operation, meaning that it can be placed online or taken offline within a matter of minutes to supply peak energy demands,” said Jamie James, program manager with the Nashville District. The Water Resources Development Act of 2000 authorized funding for the rehabilitation program through the recouping of revenue by USACE from the sale of hydropower generated at its facilities. By enabling this partnership between stakeholders, the legislation recognized the aging status of the Cumberland River

system’s infrastructure, where much of the equipment is far beyond its design life of 35 years. “It’s a testament to the maintenance the Corps has done over the years to make these (pieces of equipment) last as long as they have,” said Jerry Lee, a USACE project engineer. “We’ve patched things up and got by for so long.”

FIRST UP Lee works for the Center Hill TurbineGenerator Rehab Project at the Center Hill Dam hydropower plant, the first of the nine scheduled to be revamped by the early 2030s. Located in Lancaster, Tenn., Center Hill was identified by USACE as the plant in the most need of an overhaul. The facility is built around three 45-megawatt Francis turbines.

To preserve some hydropower generareally is.” tion capacity and to make use of limited The two remaining units at the Center floor space within the plant for labor Hill plant are scheduled for completion and parts, only one unit can be shut in July and then June 2019, respectively. down at a time. Because much of the “My goal here is to leave it at least as equipment is too expensive to replace, good as the last generation that put it in the work by USACE and contractors there,” said Lee. focuses on rebuilding and restoring major PLANT BY PLANT components, but with an eye toward 21st The next plant on the docket for century efficiency and safety. rehabbing is Barkley, located a couple “To take something that was designed hundred miles from Center Hill in Grand in the ’40s and bring it back up to modern River, Ky., to be followed standards is a real chalby Old Hickory, located lenge,” said Lee. “Hydropower is northeast of Nashville, With the rehab of the USACE’s regional oldest and most dilapidated a significant part Tenn., headquarters. unit of the Center Hill trio It is still a long road reaching completion in of the regional ahead to get all of the work October 2017, the rejuveenergy portfolio at the eight remaining nated unit is now operating plants finished, but those at up to 12 percent greater because of involved in the Cumberland efficiency than its original River system rehab project version, cranking out more its flexible are drawing inspiration energy with the same operation.” from its results. amount of water. “(Helping) keep One of the most difficult — JAMIE JAMES, tasks in the Center Hill program manager, energy costs low for the people in the community is effort involved lowering a USACE Nashville District incredibly rewarding,” said rebuilt 249-ton rotor into McDonald. the hydropower unit. The That’s a source of pride for workers. crane operator had only about a half-inch “We’re actually helping everybody, gap between the rotor and the statuary because electricity is something we all portion of the unit, with any contact use,” added Lee. “I’m real excited to be potentially marring the components. able to do something that I can tell my “One mistake could cause significant kids, whenever they look up and the damage, delays and costs,” said James, lights are on, that I had a little something adding that the team made the “rotor to do with that.” installation look much easier than it

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WATERWAYS

Working Together Partnerships help keep commerce flowing By Patricia Kime

HORTLY AFTER CONGRESS LIFTED the

U.S. ban on oil exports in 2015, the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas, launched an aggressive effort to expand, seeking to grow its business by deepening and widening the shipping channel to accommodate the

CO NTINU ED

A petro-chemical tanker in Oso Bay in the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas GETTY IMAGES

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WATERWAYS

A dredging vessel used to excavate sand GETTY IMAGES

world’s largest vessels. Work on the project, which is expected to be completed in 2021, is underway. Dredging the main waterway from 47 feet to 54 feet deep and widening it from 400 to 530 feet will allow for two-way vessel traffic. The initiative got a boost last September when the port, which exports 60 percent of all U.S. crude oil, signed a project partnership agreement, or PPA, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The PPA is one of several cost-sharing arrangements between the Corps and multiple U.S. ports designed to keep international trade flowing. According to Ian Mathis, an economist at the Corps’ Institute for Water Resources, USACE is a linchpin to port expansion projects aimed at drawing large ships, known as post-Panamax vessels, to U.S. shores. “What we are responsible for is basically the federal waterway system,” Mathis said. “Deepening is the most common thing we do right now because widening has been sufficient for many years. But widening has become more important … and we also look at reach — how far should the project go.” Since 1996, container ships have increased in size by 90 percent; ultra large crude carriers traverse the globe; and liquefied natural gas vessels measuring

nearly 1,200 feet carry exports to more than 20 countries. Because of this, more than 20 ports across the U.S. have or are seeking to dredge to depths of 50 feet or more, while some need to expand their channels to ensure that large vessels can move safely in and out. To address the expected increase in trade and traffic, U.S. ports are planning to invest roughly $2.1 billion a year in infrastructure enhancements, according to the American Association of Port Authorities. As part of the process, USACE conducts feasibility studies, assesses environmental impact, analyzes economic impact and provides funding for parts of the project that involve water. For example, the Corpus Christi PPA calls for USACE to provide oversight, dredging and widening. The Corps is expected to pay $225 million of the estimated $327 million total cost.

IMPERFECT PARTNERSHIP In 2012, USACE published a report, U.S. Port and Inland Waterways Modernization, largely concluding that postPanamax ships eventually will dominate the global fleet and the U.S. must have an adequate number of ports that can accommodate them. The report also noted that Southeast

An oil tanker at Corpus Christi GETTY IMAGES

WHAT IS A PPA? A Project Partnership Agreement is a legally binding agreement between the government and a nonfederal sponsor (state, municipal government, flood control district, port authority, etc.) for construction of a water resources project. It describes the project and the responsibilities of the government and the nonfederal sponsor in the cost sharing and execution of work. SOURCE: USACE

and Gulf Coast ports presented opportunities for expansion but also pointed out that funding such projects would remain a challenge. That rings true at Corpus Christi: The port has raised its share of the cost, $102 million, while President Donald Trump’s proposed 2019 budget includes $13 million for the project. That means the Corps does not have the full $225 million now, but Congress normally does not allocate the entire cost of a yearslong project at its onset. “One of the challenges with the Corps is that they have more work than they have capacity,” said Sean Strawbridge, Port of Corpus Christi CEO. “I blame Congress for really not giving the Corps the necessary resources to execute these projects.” When a port wants to expedite improvements, having a PPA and available funds can help move things along while the red tape is unraveled, added Nicholas Laskowski, USACE project manager. In the case of Corpus Christi, contracting work was able to begin before the 2019 federal budget is approved. “Corpus Christi was in a unique financial situation … that allowed us to complete the plans and specifications and start the contracting work,” Laskowski said.

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WATERWAYS The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses heavy machinery to dredge a main channel of the Delaware River.

USACE

Deeper Opportunities

After more than 30 years, Delaware River Project comes to fruition By Brian Barth

N RECENT YEARS, BOATERS and beachgoers along the Delaware River might have felt what they thought were minor earthquakes. The vibrations and distant booming sounds could have easily been passed off as tractor-trailers rumbling over a nearby

bridge. In fact, these little shake-ups originated underwater — the work of contractors blasting rock to deepen the Delaware shipping channel. To remove underwater outcrops, crews drilled roughly 5 to 10 feet into the metamorphic rock on a 10-foot grid pattern, said Anthony DePasquale, chief of operations for USACE’s Philadelphia

District. The holes were filled with a liquid explosive, capped and detonated; plumes of bubbly water erupted on the surface like a hot tub when its jets are turned on. “You can hear it on shore, but it’s faint because the water blankets the sound,” DePasquale said. CO N T I N U E D

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WATERWAYS

DELAWARE RIVER PROJECT 1983 Congress directs Corps to study 40-foot channel 1992 Feasibility study recommends 45-foot channel 1992 Congress authorizes construction

USACE

A dredging vessel works to deepen the Delaware River channel, where accommodating larger ships may bring increased commerce.

The work is one of the final stages in a 35-year effort to deepen the Delaware River shipping channel. Though the physical work began in 2010, USACE began investigating the project in 1983 at the behest of Congress. When the project is completed in March 2019, the 102.5-mile channel from the Port of Philadelphia to the open ocean will have been deepened from 40 to 45 feet, greatly expanding the possibilities of ocean-going commerce in the region. In addition to the port in Philadelphia, those in Camden, N.J., and Wilmington, Del., as well as several other facilities along the channel, will benefit. Ships traveling through the Delaware River ports will be able to carry a lot more cargo, said Ed Voigt, chief of public and legislative affairs at the USACE Philadelphia District. More cargo per trip means cheaper shipping, which means ports in the area can remaine competitive against wider and deeper waterways elsewhere. Dennis Rochford, president of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, a trade association that acts as a chamber of commerce for the ports and related businesses in the area, put it this way: “The first objective of the deeper channel is to keep the business we have. We can then work to attract new business.” Rochford said ports along the river currently see about 2,400 cargo vessels

PORT PRIORITIES Satisfying environmental advocates who wanted assurances that the project would not be detrimental to Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon was one of the reasons for the yearslong delay in deepening the channel. Several measures were taken to mitigate the impact of rock blasting on the species that inhabit the river bottom, including limiting blasting to the winter, when the fish don’t spawn. For two weeks before any blasting activity, sites were trawled to catch any nearby sturgeon, which then were released safely upstream. About 3,500 fish have been relocated to date, according to USACE. Finally, just before any blasting took place, engineers detonated a series of sonic booms in the water to scare off any straggling fish. Only three sturgeon casualties have been recorded, USACE reported. The good news now for all aquatic life in the area is that the blasted rock has been turned into artificial reefs. — Brian Barth

annually, some of which could have been siphoned off to other ports if the deepening didn’t happen. USACE’s economic analysis of the $400 million project, which Voigt characterized as “very conservative,” found that adding 5 feet of depth will produce about $13 million in economic benefits annually to the U.S. economy over the life of the project. The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority has contributed 35 percent of the cost, while the federal government is covering the remainder. That doesn’t include all the benefits to the local economies, which may be even greater. Project proponents say that the 500,000 shipping containers currently coming through the ports, which are associated with approximately 10,000 jobs, could grow to five or six times that amount, with a proportionate increase in job opportunities. Plus, said Rochford, “the deepening project has already spurred upwards of $1 billion in investments to port infrastructure, which will help to attract new shipping activity.” The widened channel doesn’t just benefit cargo vessels. There is also an advantage for beachgoers: 2 million cubic yards of dredged sand from the project was deposited at Delaware’s Broadkill Beach. “It used to be a tiny little strip of sand,” said DePasquale. “Now they have a 2-mile-long ocean-style beach. It’s been a win-win for everybody.”

1997 Final design, supplemental Environmental Impact Statement complete 1998 Corps recommends construction 2002 Government Accountability Office audit 2004 Economic re-analysis complete 2008 Project Partnership Agreement with Philadelphia Regional Port Authority signed 2010 First deepening contract awarded 2019 Estimated completion of 45-foot channel

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DAMS & LEVEES

Corps engineers have been building the Olmsted Locks and Dam for decades, and the job is nearly complete. CAPT. JEREMY NICHOLS/USACE

Colossal, Complex & Complete

Despite challenges and costs, massive Olmsted Locks and Dam scheduled to open soon

By Scott Berman

OR NEARLY 90 YEARS, locks and

dams 52 and 53 have helped control water flow along the Ohio River, but that will soon change as USACE puts the final touches on the new Olmsted Locks and Dam, expected to open this summer. When the Olmsted Dam Project was first approved in 1988, experts believed it would only take seven years to have it up and running. Thirty years later, the effort is considered one of the largest of its kind ever undertaken in the U.S. The size, scope and complexity of the project slowed the process and raised the cost to $3.1 billion from the initial $775 million estimate. The point of the mammoth undertaking at Olmsted, which stands in Kentucky near where the Ohio, Mississippi and Tennessee rivers meet, is to ensure that this crucial inland marine thoroughfare stays open, enabling efficient, reliable

freight traffic. Olmsted regulates depths so that vessels can navigate the river, pass through the locks and continue onward. Eighty to 90 million tons of cargo pass this point annually. The system also regulates water supplies needed by communities and industries.

LIKE LEGOS “There is a tremendous sense of pride and accomplishment finishing a nationally critical project which employed an unprecedented construction method,” said Michael Braden, division chief for the Olmsted Locks and Dam Project at the Louisville District, in reference to USACE’s use of an “in-the-wet” construction process, which has been compared with building with LEGO bricks. The process uses standardized parts built off-site and attached to preinstalled foundations by lifting or floating them into position. CO N T I N U E D

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DAMS & LEVEES

USACE commander Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite tours the Olmsted Locks and Dam site in Illinois in June 2016. LEON ROBERTS/USACE

For years, behemoth gantry cranes moved concrete monoliths of the dam from a riverside precasting yard, slowly down a skidway to a 115-foot-tall catamaran barge, which transported the sections, each weighing many tons, to their positions in the river. Divers cleared river sand by hand from foundation surfaces to enable precise placement of concrete shells. Mick Awbrey, the Olmsted division’s deputy chief, said 3D modeling software and positioning and sensor systems were used to ensure objects were placed where necessary. Engineers hoped the process, a first for USACE on a project the size of Olmsted, would speed construction, reduce environmental impact and keep the river open to traffic. The latter two goals were met. However, delays and cost increases resulted. Still, Congress and the Corps remained focused: In 2013, Congress reauthorized construction, allowing more

The water levels of the Ohio River than $1 billion be spent to complete the fluctuate by about 45 feet each year. Low project. levels necessitate that the dam’s tainter This funding was key in hastening the gates close and pool the water, making start date of the dam’s operation, which it deep enough for traffic was once scheduled for to then pass through the 2020. Its designation as a locks. High water allows “mega-project” provided traffic to pass by opened a vigorous “focus on the COST OF THE tainter gate bays. most efficient product OLMSTED PROJECT: The structures, delivery,” said Braden. completed in 1929, DETERIORATING intermittently created DAMS bottlenecks and delays, Building an innovative but a larger concern was multibillion-dollar dam their stability. They were just 25 miles from older “overstressed during BILLION structures was not an normal operating condiexercise in vanity for the tions” and significantly Corps. The older Ohio past their design life, River locks and dams according to USACE. 52 and 53 were malfunctioning and The last phase of the project will involve unable to meet the needs of modern-day demolishing the deteriorating locks and waterway traffic, making Olmsted a dams. necessity. With Olmsted operational, engineers

$3.1

expect an economic benefit of more than $640 million annually. Maintenance costs will be lower, and total lockage time will be reduced by more than four hours, according to Corps officials.

END OF AN ERA Despite criticism of the project over the years, Braden praised the Olmsted team. “These professionals never got discouraged. In fact, quite the contrary,” he said. “The criticism seemed to only strengthen our relationships that would become the foundation of our success.” As the massive project nears completion, the workforce has decreased, bringing about some reflection and nostalgia — a time for memories and maybe even a bit of sadness mixed with pride in a job done well. “We are all aware that’s part of the construction cycle,” Braden said. “Nonetheless, it’s an emotion that accompanies the end of an era.”

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DAMS & LEVEES

The Corps keeps track of levees it maintains and others managed by state and local entities. LEON ROBERTS/USACE

Building Barriers Nation’s levees closely monitored By Gina Harkins

FTER LAST YEAR’S HISTORICALLY severe weather

events, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leaders are already calculating the levee heights necessary to stop rising sea levels from spilling over into heavily populated areas decades from now. Inspecting the nation’s estimated 30,000 miles of levee systems is serious

business. Getting it right could save billions of taxpayer dollars spent on disaster relief each year — especially if the U.S. continues facing unpredictable swings in weather patterns, said Eric Halpin, special assistant for dam and levee safety with the Corps of Engineers headquarters in Washington, D.C. “We’re seeing more floods and droughts being more frequent and prevalent in the U.S.,” he said. “At the same time (last year), the Southwest

was under a long-term drought, and you Program. Although the Corps only manhad Hurricane Harvey hit and drop two ages about 10 percent of the country’s feet of rain on Houston in a day — the levees, it still inventories, inspects and greatest amount engineers could’ve ever determines risk to banks maintained expected in that area.” by state and local entities all over the When assessing levees in and around country as part of the program mandated coastal areas, Halpin said by Congress after New there’s research that helps Orleans was devastated the Corps determine what by Hurricane Katrina in adjustments are needed. 2005. That’s not always the case With forecasters when it comes to other warning that serious hurareas of the country. ricanes could wreak havoc “When we do inspecon the U.S. again this year tions and risk assessments OF THE NATION’S after Harvey, Irma and in places like New Orleans, LEVEES ARE MAN- Maria tested levees and we have that science to dams in 2017, the state of AGED BY USACE back us up to say, ‘In 50 the protective barriers is years, we expect two more of real importance. feet of sea-level rise, and About 11 million people this is what it does to the risk,’” he said. live behind levees that the Army Corps “Inland, it’s a little bit harder. The climate maintains, Halpin said. There are science behind flooding of inland rivers is also 300 colleges and universities, 30 not as settled.” professional sports arenas, 4,500 public Bracing for climate change is just one schools and 25 percent of the nation’s oilof the factors on the minds of those CO N T I N U E D who work on the USACE’s Levee Safety

10%

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DAMS & LEVEES

Levees are man-made barriers along a water course constructed for the primary purpose of providing flood, storm and hurricane protection. Although levees were originally constructed to protect property and reduce damage from flooding, they have often inadvertently increased flood risks by attracting greater development to the floodplain. In fact, many levees built to protect agricultural fields now stand between waterways and large urban communities.

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

Corps officials stand atop a levee along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES JENNIE WILSON

A volunteer fills sandbags using a gravity-fed machine during levee safety training.

refining capabilities behind those levees, according to Infrastructure Report Card, an assessment of the nation’s infrastructure prepared every four years by the American Society of Civil Engineers. “There is a lot of justification to do more,” Halpin said. “If you look at the National Levee Safety Committee report to Congress in 2009, what is said is that we can’t afford to live in a disaster-relief environment where we spend billions of dollars after the storms but not much before them.” Here’s how the Corps keeps an eye on the nation’s massive system of levees: The National Levee Database. In 2007, Congress tasked USACE with building a national database to record information about levees across the country. The

database includes Corps levees and those managed by state, local or tribal leaders who submit them for inclusion. The USACE record does not include all levees nationwide. Once a levee is entered into the database by those who maintain it, the Corps performs a one-time inspection and risk assessment, which is why it’s important to get them recorded. Whenever USACE can relay information about the state of a levee with those who maintain it, that’s good for the public, Halpin noted. “Most communities love that feedback.” The annual inspection. Every spring, just before hurricane season hits, a 10-person team from USACE’s New Orleans District drives on and around the

SOURCE: USACE

The 17th Street Canal levee was breached during Hurricane Katrina and later repaired by the Corps.

city’s levees to spot signs of vulnerability. The team includes personnel from across several disciplines, including civil and structural engineers. “If we find anything, that can hopefully be remedied before hurricane season starts,” said Mark Woodward, the district’s levee safety program manager. Similar reviews are completed in districts nationwide. The inspectors look for stability problems, erosion or seepage, which they investigate further to assess the need for action. These tasks are also repeated with more vigor if water starts to rise and threatens a levee. Assessing flood risks. Every five to seven years, engineers and other inspectors will set out on foot to assess the state of levees in detail. This allows the Corps

to spot deficiencies that could leave a levee vulnerable in the long term. They look for vegetation, how well the grass is maintained and whether livestock are using the levee area for grazing, Halpin said — things that aren’t likely to leave the public in immediate danger but could harm a levee’s effectiveness over time. Those levees might get a rating of “unacceptable” or “minimally acceptable,” which sends a signal to local leaders that the levee needs some attention. “When we look at it from a risk perspective, really only about 25 percent of levees in the U.S. are what we would consider moderate to high risk and actionable based on that risk,” Halpin added.

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