Photo By Stacey Reese | Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Emergency Management Specialist Derrick...... read more read more
TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa District, U.S Army Corps of Engineers Emergency Management team recently held a tabletop exercise for a simulated flood event on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas Navigation System.
In addition to Tulsa District personnel, the meeting was attended by representatives from Sebastian County Department of Emergency Management and Van Buren Police Departments from Arkansas as well as The Choctaw Nation, Le Flore County Emergency Management and the National Weather Service.
“Emergency management is fluid,” said Tulsa District Emergency Management Specialist Derrick Guy. “Having a plan is important, but plans should be updated and adjusted as needed.”
“Having the input from stakeholders is also important to an emergency plan,” said Guy. “Stakeholders must understand their responsibilities for a plan to effective during a disaster.”
The meeting began with presentations from Tulsa District staff, followed by personnel from the National Weather Service. The presentations covered methods, roles, and responsibilities of flood warning dissemination in the case of a high-water event. Emergency Management Specialist Derrick Guy briefed on emergency management roles, funding, and the silver jackets program.
Oklahoma Silver Jackets coordinate with state and federal governments to develop solutions to flood risk management in Oklahoma. The program's goals include sharing information on current and future projects, identifying risk communication opportunities and gaps, combining resources to minimize duplication of effort, and promoting successful best practices for flood risk management.
Dam safety information covered dam risk in formation and mapping tools that can be used to improve emergency response and decisions on evacuation plans. These tools help community leaders and risk managers make informed decisions and communicate flood risk to individuals who may be impacted during an event. Growing individual awareness of dam flood risk helps them effectively prepare before an event.
National Weather Service Meteorologist Nicole McGavock gave an overview of the their role in a significant rain event emphasizing that it is the federally mandated organization that releases watches, warnings, and advisories while also sharing ways to get the most up-to-date information on local weather forecasts and river flooding forecasts.
Dylan Oney, civil engineer with Tulsa District Hydrology and Hydraulics water management section, finished the morning with information on forecasting and how they coordinate with stakeholders in an impacted area, among other services their group can provide.
Additionally, Oney covered water control plans.
“Each reservoir has a water control plan based upon congressionally authorized project purposes,” Oney said. “However, while these projects have their individual plan each reservoir is part of a system plan and the goal of any flood risk management operation is not to exceed the downstream channel capacity while protecting the integrity of the dam.”
The group finished the morning with a high-water exercise scenario, which gave participants a chance to discuss different roles and responsibilities of their organization during an emergency event.
“The upstream lakes in Oklahoma play a critical role in managing flooding during extreme rain and high-water events,” said Oney. “These lakes can hold and release water as dictated by downstream conditions allowing reservoirs to work together as a large system to mitigate high water flows within the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers.”
The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation system is a 445-mile navigation channel which crosses the state of Arkansas into Oklahoma. There are 18 locks along the system, four in Oklahoma and 13 in Arkansas. It was the largest civil works project at the time of construction. Construction costs were $1.39 billion. It would cost $15.77 billion to build today.
| Date Taken: | 10.08.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.08.2024 09:32 |
| Story ID: | 482730 |
| Location: | OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 69 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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