WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Nineteen U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District employees deployed during the past week to support Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) hurricane-recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, according to District emergency management officials.
Fifteen of those volunteers deployed with the District’s temporary emergency power response team to support FEMA’s non-federal generator operations and maintenance mission. Four volunteered to provide support to FEMA’s power grid restoration mission.
Additionally, a safety and occupational health specialist from McNary Lock and Dam, near Umatilla, Oregon, deployed to support FEMA’s California wildfire recovery mission in Sonoma County; and two engineers with expertise in cost estimation are providing reach-back support to FEMA missions from their offices in the District Headquarters in Walla Walla, Washington.
Deployees volunteered from duty locations throughout the District, including the District Headquarters in Walla Walla, Washington; Ice Harbor Lock and Dam, near Burbank, Washington; McNary Lock and Dam, near Umatilla, Oregon; Little Goose Lock and Dam, near Starbuck, Washington; Lower Monumental Lock and Dam, near Kahlotus, Washington; Dworshak Dam and Reservoir, near Ahsahka, Idaho; and Lucky Peak Dam and Lake, near Boise, Idaho.
While deployed, they will serve in a variety of roles, including quality assurance specialists, mission managers, contract specialist, area officer, mission liaison, electrical engineers and electricians, safety specialists, and more. In addition to having the technical knowledge and skills needed for a specific deployment position, employee-volunteers must have their supervisor’s permission to deploy, meet a variety of FEMA and Corps training requirements, and complete a medical screening to be approved to go.
BACKGROUND
As assigned by FEMA, the Corps leads the federal effort to repair the hurricane-damaged electrical power grid in support of the Government of Puerto Rico. Working in partnership with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the Department of Energy and FEMA, the Corps’ priority is to safely restore reliable power to the people of Puerto Rico as quickly as possible.
Puerto Rico has about 2,400 miles of transmission lines across the island and 30,000 miles of distribution lines with 300 sub-stations. It is estimated that 80 percent of the grid was affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria. As of March 22, about 94.6 percent of the 1.47 million customers who are able to receive electric power have their service restored.
Since late-August 2017, more than 100 hurricane-related deployment positions, nicknamed “taskers,” have been filled by Walla Walla District volunteers, supporting missions that provide emergency temporary power, manage storm debris disposal, assess damaged critical infrastructure, provide temporary housing and roofing, restore power grid capability and logistics-management services.
For more information about the Corps’ ongoing hurricane-response missions in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, visit http://www.usace.army.mil/Hurricane-Irma/. For more information about the Corps’ ongoing support to the California wildfires recovery efforts, visit http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/CAwildfire/.
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Release no. 18-028