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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
May 22, 2012 - 5:37:21 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| Mid unprecedented flooding, COL Robert J. Ruch, Omaha District Commander and his Executive Officer Thomas A. O'Hara III, an Army IRR Master Sergeant, monitor the levee system in Council Bluffs, IA, early on a recent Sunday Morning. |
OMAHA, NE - Sunday morning, July 30th, with the heat index already pushing 100 degree, "Steamy, sultry, muggy and just plain uncomfortable" easily came to mind. Not an ideal time for leisurely, riverside strolls.
Yet there they were, no few men in hard hats, safety vests and steel toed boots, traversing the top - as well as sometimes moving briskly up and down the steeped sides - of a Missouri River levee. Absent was any sense of levity. Apparent was an almost palpable feeling of intensity and focus on doing a job and doing it right. The Corps’ motto, "Building Strong," came to mind.
Nearby the "Big Muddy" still raged, showing a not so pretty side of itself - swollen, ugly and seemingly ready to reek more damage if unwatched.
The workers knew that the flood control storage level, of runoff water in the reservoirs, was receding. However, they also well recognized that one of their priority objectives - that of getting the river back within its banks - still remained multiple weeks off.
That noted, headway was clearly being made. In fact, some thought that it was time to finally take a break from the grueling pace of the last two months.
Not so for Col Robert J. Ruch nor any of his Omaha District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team.
"We feel good about the headway we are making, but this flood - and the necessary efforts to hold it at bay while striving to get the river back into its banks - are far from over," he loudly stated over the nearby sound of bulldozers busy at their dirty work.
Alongside his Executive Officer, Thomas A. O’Hara III, he surveyed the results as a serial of ten side-dump trucks, each carrying approximately 25 cubic yards of clay-like, composite material, that was being pressed into service as a new levee.
Soon they were joined by Greg Horihan, a Corps Construction Representative, whose task this morning was oversight of the work. Together the three trod through tread pressed muck and mire to investigate another aspect of the work recently completed.
What at first appeared as a leveled stretch of sand soon became apparent as a seepage berm with a series of relief wells, installed to thwart sand boils and river water from oozing under the levee from the river not far away.
Astride the earthen structure, atop the berm, crouched at the water’s edge and peering intently at a debris clogged drain, the colonel seemed everywhere. He checked, investigated and ensured that all that could be done was being completed and at the Corps high standards.
Rising from a crouch he brushed mud and twigs off the knees of his battle dress uniform, turned to Horihan, briefly smiled, shook his hand and said, "Good job Greg. Keep up the pace - just like the day, hot and heavy!" He then turned and off and - at a not leisurely pace - headed toward the next Corps’ work site a few miles downstream.
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