WALLA WALLA, Wash. – A public affairs specialist from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District deployed today to support the Corps’ South Atlantic Division Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta, Georgia, as they prepare for Hurricane Irma’s anticipated landfall in Florida, according to District emergency management officials.
Brigida I. Sanchez, is an Army veteran with broadcast news and media-relations experience, whose family resides near Ocala, Florida.
The Corps is leaning forward in partnership with local, state, and federal response in preparation for and response to Hurricane Irma, and are operating in coordination with county, state, and FEMA partners. The Corps’ headquarters has received FEMA mission assignments for temporary power, and is deploying two Power Planning and Response Teams to assist with assessments and generator installations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prepared and ready to respond to natural and human-made disasters. When disasters occur, Corps teams and other resources are mobilized from across the country to assist our local districts and offices to deliver our response missions. The Corps is part of the federal government’s unified national response to disasters and emergencies, and serves as the lead agency to respond with public works and engineering support, and to coordinate long-term infrastructure recovery. The Corps conducts its emergency response activities under two basic authorities – the Flood Control and Coastal Emergency Act, and mission-assigned by FEMA, under the Stafford Disaster and Emergency Assistance Act.
In any disaster, the Corps’ top priorities are 1) support immediate life-saving and life-safety response priorities; 2) sustain lives with critical commodities, temporary emergency power and other needs; and 3) initiate recovery efforts by assessing and restoring critical infrastructure.
FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror. For information about FEMA’s preparation for Hurricane Irma, visit their website https://www.fema.gov/hurricane-irma. Check out http://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/EmergencyOperations.aspx for more information about the Corps of Engineers’ emergency management mission and roles in supporting national disasters.
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Release no. 17-100