Corps of Engineers tackling aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Blackanthem.com, FORT KNOX, Ky., September 25, 2005

Now that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been able to drain part of New Orleans from the flood that was caused when the levees broke as a result of Hurricane Katrina, it has discovered that the damage is quite extensive.

"As the water goes lower, we are seeing more and more damage," said John Rickey, chief of public affairs for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Division.

Rickey, who served as the public affairs officer for Fort Knox from 1992 until 2002, said the levees surrounding New Orleans were built in the early 1960s, before the Saffir-Simpson scale was invented, and were built to withstand what would today be a Category 3 hurricane. But at the time, the levees were built to withstand the type of storm known to frequently hit the Gulf Coast.

The Saffir-Simpson Scale was derived by a meteorologist and a structural engineer, and is used to determine the strength and severity of a hurricane. The scale separates hurricanes into five categories according to their power and potential for damage, which is determined by sustained wind speed and pressure.

But it wasn’t invented until 1974, said Rickey, several years after the levees were built.

Earlier this week, when New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was encouraging residents and business owners to return to several parts of the city that he and his staff deemed safe, the Corps of Engineers thought differently. Nagin changed his mind Sept. 19 as then-Tropical Storm Rita approached the Gulf of Mexico.

"We have made it quite clear that the level of protection for the city from storms or hurricanes does not exist anymore, and until such time as the system is stabilized and rebuilt, anyone coming back into that area is assuming a high level of risk," Rickey explained. "We have personnel in the area to rebuild, but we know this is the race against the calendar, not the clock. You cannot build this overnight, and people should be prepared to evacuate if any warning is issued until we can re-establish the level of protection that existed prior to Hurricane Katrina. We don’t anticipate reaching that point until prior to next hurricane season."

Col. Duane Gapinski, the Task Force Unwatering commander, said that residents may be placing their lives and property at risk by re-entering flooded areas until additional emergency levee repairs are made. State and local leaders are being informed as assessments are completed and repairs made.

"We want to be clear, however, that weather conditions can change, and this may affect our estimates," Gapinski said of the corps’ October estimate of having New Orleans dried out. "We’re watching (Hurricane) Rita’s projected path and, depending on its strength and how much rain falls, everything could change. Residents moving into the area may have to evacuate again.

"Additional traffic in the city in the past three days has already caused some delay in traveling to worksites, and is also a safety concern for the corps and its contractors hauling stone, steel piling, pumps, generators and other emergency repair equipment," he added. "We understand the desire residents have to get back to their homes. We hope this can be balanced with their safety and the safety of the work crews who are trying to restore a level of protection for the city."

According to Rickey, the plan for further water drainage is broken down into three phases:

• Immediate - "unwater" the city and assess flood protection;
   

• Intermediate - provide an interim level of protection to get the city through hurricane season and later high water; and
   

• Long-term - return the system to pre-hurricane conditions. This will take a tremendous amount of study, research, funding and construction.

Several families who evacuated the Gulf Coast are, or have been, staying with family members at Fort Knox. In addition, Louisville and Elizabethtown have accepted families displaced by the storm and are providing for their needs until they return home or permanently relocate.

But the rebuilding and recovery effort is only part of Rickey’s concern, because, he pointed out, not only did Corps of Engineer employees from along the Gulf Coast face the storm, having evacuated to Vicksburg for the hurricane, they did it after they watched their own houses wash away on national TV.

As the hurricane approached the Gulf Coast, personnel and their families living in its path were ordered to evacuate. About 2,000 Corps employees evacuated to Vicksburg, to the division operations center.

"The most important thing to me was that we had a crisis-management team here from New Orleans," he said. "We were fortunate to work with (them) because they were here when the levees broke."

After the hurricane, when everyone thought New Orleans had dodged a bullet, the crisis-management teams in Vicksburg were trying to locate contractors and other emergency personnel.

"People here were calling out asking if we’d seen so-and so," Rickey recalled about the confusion surrounding the aftermath. "Then the room went silent, and you realized the people there were watching the levees they lived behind give way, and in some cases watched their houses wash away.

"I saw (Hurricane) Andrew, and (the earthquakes in) L.A., but I’ve never seen anything as dramatic as the destruction here," he said. "For the first five days or so there was no power, air or gas, and the biggest thing to hamper us was the loss of the communication system. The landline (phone) was the only thing working sometimes."

One of those who reported to work while Katrina made its way along the Gulf Coast, and has worked lengthy days in the field since then, was U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District’s structural engineer, David Wurtzel. He said that while he cannot live in his house yet, the damage is minor.

"I’m a lot more fortunate than many of my colleagues and neighbors here in New Orleans," Wurtzel said.

And finding the affected areas is not as easy as responding to a phone call or watching the scene play out on TV.

Jean Vossen, a civil engineer with the corps, was asked by news crews what they could do.

"If you could do anything for us, when you fly over New Orleans, please show a street sign so we know the area where there is too much water," she replied.

The corps’ Website instructed employees who were working on disaster-management teams to take time to manage their own personal affairs as well.

Anyone wishing to help those employees displaced by the storm may follow the instructions on the Website to offer aid.

Rickey is due to retiree in a few weeks and will return to the Radcliff, Ky., area where his wife, Bev, is waiting for him. He will spend time with her and then, he said, he wants to go back to the Gulf Coast.

"I think I will come back and volunteer with the Red Cross for awhile," he said.

For more information on the Army Corps of Engineers’ response to Hurricane Katrina, visit its Website at www.usace.army.mil.

By Rachael Tolliver/Turret