WALLA WALLA, Wash. – Two U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District employees deployed during the past weekend to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) power grid repair mission in Puerto Rico, according to District emergency management officials.
An electrical/electronics craftsworker from Ice Harbor Lock and Dam, near Burbank, Washington; and a power plant mechanic from McNary Lock and Dam near Umatilla, Oregon; will serve as quality assurance specialists, verifying work performed under government contracts. 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 two hurricanes which ravaged the island just two weeks apart -- Irma (Sept. 7, 2017 - category 5) and Maria (Sept. 20, 2017 - category 4). As of April 26, 2018, about 97.8 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/.
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