Army Corps achieves huge storm cleanup  

Mar. 28, 2008

By Elizabeth McGowan
Waste News

Marilyn Pazisley could barely put her gratitude into words in early 2006 when she met Dale Winfield in a Dollar General Store parking lot near New Orleans.
 
After Hurricane Katrina ruined her Plaquemines Parish home when it ripped into Louisiana in late August 2005, the 60-something widow figured she had lost everything she left behind upon fleeing her neighborhood.  But Winfield's crew, cleanup contractors hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, had unearthed a memento she'd inquired about.
 
They arranged to meet so Winfield could hand her the folded flag that had been draped on the casket of her husband, a Vietnam veteran, at his funeral.  One of his workers had discovered the treasured item amidst the rubble in Pazisley's house.
 
Hundreds of such remarkable recovery stories played out during a $3 billion two-year cleanup mission executed by the Army Corps after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through Louisiana.  The portion administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrapped up in late September.
 
Incredibly, the 28.3 million cubic yards of debris that was recycled and trashed is enough to fill the Superdome at least seven times.

Check out some of these numbers: almost 7,100 buildings demolished (of more than 12,000 eligible structures), 71,000 private properties cleaned up, 259,000 tires recycled, more than 58,300 trees mulched and more than 5.5 million hazardous household items disposed of or recycled.  The latter consisted of everything from hairspray to propane bottles to drums of chemicals.
 
This stellar effort has earned the Army Corps this year's Waste News Environment Award in the government category.
 
The mess Katrina and Rita left behind was unprecedented in the country's history - more enormous than destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew and the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
 
Separately, Army Corps action in Mississippi finished up last year.  About 23 million cubic yards of material were picked up in Mississippi under the Corps' guidance. 
 
"The Corps of Engineers proved to be a great asset and partner," said Jim Stark, who directed FEMA's Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office.  "We greatly appreciate their cooperation and dedication.  Without their help, we never would have gotten this far in removing debris and demolishing structures." 
 
Three days after Katrina roared in, Army Corps employee Jim Pogue traveled from his Memphis headquarters to set up the public affairs portion of the Louisiana Recovery Field Office on a barracks barge along the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge. 
   
"Normally, our disaster response is six to eight weeks, and you're on your way home," Pogue said.  "But when we got there we all knew this was bad.  Soon, we wondered: Is this ever going to end?"
   
Early on, the Army Corps disposed of 50 million pounds of rotting meat and seafood under grueling circumstances.  Pogue can still conjure up the hellacious stink emanating from thousands of abandoned refrigerators and freezers as workers clad in hazardous materials suits and respirators toiled under a searing sun. 

"I saw our people shed more than a few tears," Pogue said about seeing his cohorts reconnect hurricane survivors such as Pazisley with their cherished belongings.
 
Pogue, who rotated in and out of Louisiana for two years, described the hurricane wreckage as unearthly.  He figured his images of never-ending trash would persist.  So he was surprised by his reaction to a dump truck on a Memphis street the other day. 
 
"That's the first time I've been able to look at a big dump truck and not think of New Orleans," he explained.  "There, it was just truck after truck after truck loaded to the gills with debris."

Editor's note:  This article is used with permission.