Photo By Rebecca Nappi | The delivery of the vessel, Bahama Express, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Oct. 25,...... read more read more
ST. CROIX - With the final delivery of hefty temporary power equipment to the water-locked disaster area of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Corps has effectively increased the temporary power mission in a logistically challenging environment.
The delivery of the vessel, Bahama Express, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Oct. 25, 2017 marked an anxiously anticipated delivery of the final pieces of temporary power equipment to the U.S. Virgin Islands that will now help to increase the power team’s capacity to increase generator installs.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Task Force Virgin Islands has been mission assigned by the Federal Management Emergency Agency (FEMA) to provide temporary power to critical public facilities such as: schools, police stations, fire stations, waste water treatment plants, water pump stations and hospitals. USACE temporary power is utilizing FEMA assigned generators to provide connectivity to these essential services following two major hurricanes, Irma and Maria.
“To date, USACE has installed 116 generators across the three main U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Tonya Combes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mission Power Liaison.
Logistically, there have been numerous issues with locating equipment to sustain the needs of the emergency generators in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The USACE Logistics Agency (ULA) team members deployed to the U.S. Virgin Islands to assist with lodging, transportation, and cargo movements of backhoes, forklifts, vehicles and other pertinent supplies.
Many of the generators used in the U.S. Virgin Islands were barged into St. Croix between Hurricanes Irma and Maria and were held at the Incident Support Base (ISB) along with many other necessities such as generators, water, meals ready to eat, tarps and gasoline.
“The ISB houses our southwest Tulsa Power Team and our contractor team that install the generators once they arrive for install,” said Combes. “Inside the ISB we have different size generators that will be sized accordingly to the building they are powering.”
Generators and equipment had to travel from Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once in San Juan, the generators could take another few days to get the green light to debark the equipment. Then FEMA would assign a barge to load the gear up to finally transport to the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“Some of the challenges of getting gear and generators into theatre has been a big issue for us,” Combes said. “Sometimes we would be told that are gear arrived at port and in reality the gear wasn’t even ours.”'
The Corps’ Temporary Power Mission are a necessary stop-gap to allow power companies the time they need to restore primary power infrastructure.
“Utility providers are not slow,” said Combes. “They move with amazing speed. That’s why the Corps focuses on critical facilities and services.”
Currently in response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the Corps of Engineers at the national level has more than 240 personnel operating in coordination with the U.S. Virgin Islands Territory and FEMA partners. The Corps serves as the lead agency to respond with public works and engineering support and to coordinate long-term infrastructure recovery in any disaster.
“The Tulsa Power Team is made up of seasoned responders, and our number one priority continues to be the life, health and safety of all were affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria,” said Combes.
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.27.2017 17:08 |
| Story ID: | 253326 |
| Location: | VI |
| Web Views: | 267 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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