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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
May 21, 2012 - 6:52:41 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| Be he in uniform, as an IRR Army Master Sergeant, or in mufti as the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Executive Officer, Thomas A. O'Hara has briefed on no few difficult situations. Here, pre-meeting remarks, he discusses the flood with Linda Reinard , Director of Sales for the Hilton Garden Inn of downtown Omaha and Josee Beier of the Council Bluffs Convention and Visitors Bureau |
It seemed obvious that too few knew much about a whole lot!
In fact, over the course of the last several weeks, Linda Reinard, of the Omaha Hilton Hotel organization had often heard questions such as “Is downtown Omaha closed?” “Is it safe down there?” “Are the levees going to protect the city center?”
For one who worked in the midst of Omaha’s business activity at the Hilton Garden Inn, downtown, the answers were obvious – the city was “Open for Business!” But, it seemed apparent that this message was not known by too many of those “out and away” from the riverside enterprises.
A take charge sort of lady – and conveniently the Past President of the Nebraska Chapter of Hospitality & Marketing Association - the short, attractive, dynamo took matters into her own hands. She contacted the Omaha District of the U.S. Army Corps of engineers with a request.
Her query was straightforward, “I believe that there has been some lack of information and misinformation on why the floods are happening and what we can expect to happen over the next few months.”
As a result, the District’s Executive Officer, Thomas A. O’Hara III recently spoke to a gathering of the organization’s membership appropriately, right on the river’s edge at Rick’s Boatyard in downtown Omaha.
As U.S Army Master Sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve as well as Corps team member, the lanky, fit professional is no foreigner to combat zone tours of duty. Simply, he’s seen more than his share daunting challenges – in and out of uniform. As a result he has a keen appreciation for what others want and need to know during stressful times and during unsettling situations such as these.
Thus, at the outset, O’Hara described to the group the “perfect storm” scenario which had led to this unprecedented flooding: Heavy Midwestern high plains snow, record rainfalls - in some cases 300 to 600 percent more than projected – and a much higher than normal mountain snowpack melt. “So great was the run off this year,” he explained, “that May and June, alone, constituted nearly entirety of the river’s yearly average.”
He went on to tell them that so extensive was the input flowing into the Corps reservoirs that, for example, that Gavins Point empties its total amount and refills every day and a half.
Perhaps the most often ask question received by the Corps’ Joint Information Center was among the first voiced by the attendees: “Was the water level in the reservoirs at the right level to accommodate the huge inflow once flooding began?”
O’Hara stated simply, “It was.” He then listed the eight Congressionally mandated water related requirements with which the Corps is tasked in its handling of the Missouri River: Water quality control, irrigation, navigation, hydropower, water supply, recreation, fish and wildlife and, of course, that which is on everyone’s mind presently, flood control.
With the latter in mind he elaborated with details that the Corps maintains enough space for 16.3 million acre feet (MAF) for flood storage. However, this year’s runoff was the highest since 1898. In the month of June alone, above Sioux City 13.8 MAF rushed downstream. This, O’Hara explained, was on top of May’s rainfall, the third wettest month on record, with 10.5MAF. “That’s a bunch of water,” he wryly observed.
Answering other questions – oft repeated and ones he hears almost every day - he assured the gathering that the system had been operated fully in accordance with the Corps Master Manual with flood control as the highest purpose; no decisions were driven by the Endangered Species Act as rumor had it; assured them that, indeed, the dams are safe and closely monitored; and, that flood water was released when it could and should have been to minimize flooding problems.
Following his remarks, as numerous attending business men and women lingered near him with additional Missouri River flood thoughts and queries, one was heard to say, “This was helpful as I’m better informed as to what happened where, when and why, Now, the chore before us is to assure other folks around here that Omaha is, indeed, open for business!”
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