River boss praises unity shown during 2008’s floods

Published 12:00 am Thursday, December 18, 2008

Cooperation during the spring’s floods on the Mississippi River prevented further loss of life and property, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ top river flood control official said Wednesday.

Summarizing the Army Corps of Engineers’ response to the worst flooding of the lower river since 1973 — breaching several earthen levees in June on the Upper Mississippi above St. Louis and flooding many north Vicksburg residents out of their homes two months earlier — Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh cast the vision for flood control on the 2,340-mile river as one that demands agreement from multiple states on multiple concerns as riverside populations grow.

“We used to have our backs to the river,” said Walsh, commander of the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division. “Now, people are moving to the river. There’s ecological things we need to be doing with this river in the next 100 years. How do I get 38 states to play into what the vision will be for the third-largest watershed in the world?” Walsh asked.

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Twelve levees were damaged as a result of flooding before June, according to figures cited by Walsh in his presentation to the local Chamber of Commerce. Aided by late-winter snow melt in the Midwest, stages on the river at Vicksburg reached 50.9 feet in April and remained above flood stage until May 10. Damage was measured in the millions, as 201 Warren County residents received $1.259 million in assistance from FEMA following the flood, according to state emergency management officials.

A number of smaller rivers feeding into the Upper Mississippi flooded for several weeks in June and was blamed for 13 deaths and more than $6 billion in damage. In total, the Corps responded to the flood-ravaged areas with 480 employees and, to date, more than $126 million in funding for levee improvements.

A task force set up after the flooding has recommended better coordination between the Corps and the two agencies which forecast weather and river conditions, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey, Walsh said.

Walsh assumed command of the MVD and was designated president of the Mississippi River Commission in February after the retirement of Brig. Gen. Robert Crear. The MRC board is appointed by the president and includes three officers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an official of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and three civilians, two of whom must be civil engineers.

MVD offices are in Vicksburg and its work is conducted by Corps district offices in St. Paul, Minn.; Rock Island, Ill.; St. Louis; Memphis; Vicksburg; and New Orleans. Under the most recent Corps reorganization, MVD was given oversight of the river basin from the border with Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Districts report to divisions, and divisions report to headquarters in Washington.

The Mississippi River Commission was established in 1879 to handle flood protection and train the Mississippi River for navigability. After the 1927 floods, the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project became the primary mission of the commission.

Walsh said the project to shore up levees along the river is 88 percent complete, with $12.9 billion invested since the start. Final revetments and improvements are expected done by 2031. In 2007, work began on about 20 miles of levees in the Mississippi Levee District, which covers all or parts of six counties in the lower Delta, including parts of north Warren County.

In 1928 and today, Walsh said, differences in opinion had to be worked out between civil and military engineers as to how to proceed with the project, now entering its eighth decade. Walsh said differences ironed out at the time had the potential to stymie the massive project before it got off the ground.

“It probably would have stopped in the 1930s,” Walsh said.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., native and former commander of the Sacramento and San Francisco Corps Districts referenced the long-running dispute between Florida, Georgia and Alabama over the use of Lake Lanier reservoir in north Georgia as an example of a current conflict.

“You can’t get those three governors in the same room on water issues,” Walsh said.

Walsh touched briefly on projects in coastal Louisiana related to hurricane recovery and wetlands restoration, which he pegged at $15 billion. On Tuesday, a notice to proceed was issued by the Corps to a contractor to close the maligned Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet in St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans. The shipping channel has been blamed for funneling storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Work on a $695 million storm barrier between levees in eastern New Orleans began this month and is expected to be complete by June 2011.

On the anti-terrorism front, the District remains involved in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 65 MVD personnel are deployed in the two countries at the present time, Walsh said. More than 545 have been deployed since military intervention began after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Walsh said having personnel overseas at nearly the same time as disaster recovery missions at home is positive in that officers learn problem-solving.

“It’s a real learning experience for these guys,” Walsh said.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.