Corps of Engineers Flexes Emergency Response Muscle
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been up against a daunting foe in coping with a three-hurricane response. It is engaged in its most complex relief operation since launching its regional emergency management response plan in 1998 to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with disaster relief, say Corps officials. The concept is to pull response expertise and resources from multiple locations, and not necessarily depend on the one division or district closest to the disaster.
This time, the agency has found itself in an extreme version of regional response. The Jacksonville, Fla., district was deployed to handle response along Florida's West Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. When Hurricane Frances then hit the state's east coast, Jacksonville would have been the logical responder, but the Mobile, Ala., district was dispatched. Then, when Ivan hit Alabama and the Florida panhandle, the Corps' Wilmington, N.C., district was sent to Mobile to handle emergency response. "We looked like an old Twister game," says Allen Morse, a Corps emergency response team leader. Morse was charged with handling Frances response, but had to turn over his responsibilities to return to Mobile to evacuate his own family when Ivan took aim on Alabama.