While the Corps is best-known for flood control, inland waterway and environmental protection work, its post-disaster efforts are what ENR reporters often find themselves covering—this week the Los Angeles fires reported by Editor-in-Chief Scott Blair. “The Corps has a diverse role in the military and beyond,” he notes. “In the last 10 years that I have been in the field covering disasters, it has been the go-to entity that the Federal Emergency Management Agency uses to clean up and manage much recovery and rebuilding work.” Other devastating disasters are Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017 and Hurricane Harvey flood damage in Houston the same year.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating flooding of New Orleans and damage to the Gulf Coast. Since that catastrophe, the Corps implemented the New Orleans Hurricane & Storm Damage Risk Reduction System, a $14.5-billion program completed in 2018 that has helped substantially reduce flood risk to the city and region and stands as an example to other cities

In the aftermath of the California fires, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and FEMA performed environmental hazard cleanup, which took about a month, and contracted the Corps to take charge of the rest of the cleanup effort, including hiring industry contractors in conjunction with county and local government officials.

In his experiences with the Corps, Blair says he was often impressed with management skill and dedication of its team members, especially as deployments that often lasted as little as one month were done with seamless transitions and excellent communication.

“As an institution,” he concludes, “the Corps remains unique.”