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Recovering and Rebuilding After Hurricane Katrina
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This levee east of New Orleans forms part of the Hurricane Storm Damage and Risk Reduction System.
he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District is responsible for maintaining navigation, reducing flood risks, and restoring ecosystems in the distinctive landscape of southern Louisiana. With the mighty Mississippi and its yearly floods on one side and the Gulf of Mexico with its hurricanes on the other, New Orleans faces special challenges. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the New Orleans District played a central role in the city’s recovery and in the rebuilding of its levees and storm defenses. In this interview, Colonel Michael Clancy, who served as district commander of the New Orleans District from June 2016 to June 2019, speaks with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about how the Corps handles the constant work required to maintain public safety in southern Louisiana.
Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
14 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
Joshua Dill: What are the responsibilities of the New Orleans District commander? Michael Clancy: As New Orleans District commander, I was responsible for the civil works program in southern Louisiana. Through the civil works program, the army is the nation’s primary water resource agency. The program’s main components nationwide are navigation, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration. Other missions include hydropower, water supply, recreation, and the regulatory program. The Corps’s district boundaries follow watershed lines, unlike those of other federal agencies. The New Orleans District area of responsibility is approximately 30,000 square miles and includes everything between the Sabine River, which is the border of Louisiana and Texas, the Pearl River, which is the border of Louisiana and Mississippi, and the Red River, which slices across northern Louisiana. Every district is a little bit different based on its geography, but in the New Orleans District, my three main responsibilities were navigation, flood risk reduction, and ecosystem restoration. I was responsible for maintaining about 2,000 miles of federally authorized navigation channels. When it comes to flood risk reduction and flood control, the district deals with hurricane exposure as well as the yearly spring floods on the Mississippi River. Between river levees and hurricane levees, I was responsible for
PHOTOS COURTESY OF U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.
Michael Clancy: I am an officer in the U.S. Army. I am a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. I have spent most of my career in doing regular army stuff—serving in infantry brigades and other things people see in movies—but I’m also a civil engineer. I have a civil engineering master’s degree and a professional engineer license as a civil engineer. This is my third assignment in the Corps. I have had two assignments in the New York District and also spent 6 months in the Gulf Region Central District in Baghdad. The Corps of Engineers is a branch of the Army, but it is 99 percent civilian. There are just under 1,100 employees in the New Orleans District,
only 6 of whom are in uniform. Most Corps districts are commanded by a colonel in the army. I was promoted to the rank of colonel and selected to be the commander assigned to the New Orleans District.