JACKSON, Wyo. – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District, personnel wrapped up emergency repairs this week on flood-damaged levee sections within the Jackson Hole Levee Project.
Corps emergency management experts deployed to the Jackson area May 18 to support Teton County’s flood preparation efforts and monitor levees along the upper Snake River near Jackson. Weeks of warming spring temperatures and seasonal rainy weather melted a near-record-level snowpack resulting in unusually high flows in the river basin. Those flows damaged sections of the levee system that provides flood-risk management benefits to nearby communities.
During the eight-plus weeks Corps staff were deployed to Jackson, 13 flood-damaged levees along the river were repaired – Walton Quarry Access Road, John Dodge, Evans, Imeson Access Road, 95 Ranch Number 1, Taylor Numbers 1, 2 and 3, Lucas, Nelson, JY Ranch, Imeson Number 2 and Morgan. Many of those levees sustained flood damage to multiple sites that required repairs.
Corps technical experts also took the opportunity to perform gradation tests on the levee rock, record high-water elevations and capture updated GIS data with an aerial overflight. The information gained from these additional tasks will help Corps staff identify potential trouble spots that may be developing on the levees and help them continue to maintain the levee system to its design criteria. Deployed Corps personnel returned to their normal duty locations on Friday.
As previously reported:
Corps water management officials continue coordinating with other federal and non-federal dam managers to make adjustments in river system operations that will best accommodate changes in inflows. The Corps works closely with other agencies and local government entities to notify the public as early as possible when these changes to flows are necessary.
The Corps is authorized to work with states, counties and other public entities to provide necessary resources and information. The Corps does not have authority to provide disaster assistance directly to individuals. The organization monitors evolving situations within the Snake River Basin and responds, when requested, with whatever assistance is authorized, appropriate and available.
The first responsibility for protecting homes and property from flood damage rests with the individual. Local governments and agencies, such as flood control districts, may share in this responsibility, and together form a community's first line of defense in preventing flood damages.
Occasionally, however, local resources are not able to control or contain a flood emergency situation. The Corps’ flood disaster assistance program is intended to supplement and assist local governments, institutions and special-purpose districts when more help is needed.
The Walla Walla District is prepared to assist states and municipalities with flood-management support, if requested, said Jeff Stidham, Walla Walla District emergency management specialist. That assistance could include technical expertise, supplies and materials, equipment or contracts for emergency flood-fighting work.
State and local agencies needing disaster assistance from the Corps should contact the Walla Walla District Emergency Management Office at 509-527-7146, or 509-380-4538.
For more information about Emergency Management Assistance, check out the District’s Web site at www.nww.usace.army.mil/html/offices/op/em/flodasst.htm or call 509-527-7145.
For Corps updates and photos of flood-fight efforts in Idaho and Wyoming, visit our Facebook site www.facebook.com/WallaWallaUSACE.
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