Public Law (PL) 84-99 establishes an emergency fund to be spent by the Chief of Engineers on activities related to floods, droughts, and other natural disasters. Some of these are pre-disaster actions, such as the disaster preparedness and some are post-disaster, which include:
- flood fighting/ response
- post-flood response
- rehabilitation; and
- inspection of completed works
Disaster preparedness is the basic funding source for the Charleston District’s Emergency Management Division’s day-to-day operations. Disaster preparedness includes planning for all types of natural or fabricated disasters.
Flood response may involve providing technical or direct assistance in support of an ongoing flood fight. This allows the Charleston District to send experts to consult with South Carolina State Representatives or County Representatives for impacted areas, send sandbags or pumps for flood fighting purposes; or provide emergency contracting services to strengthen or raise levees, etc. According to the Corps’ policy (found in Engineering Regulation 500-1-1), this authority ceases to exist “when the flood waters recede back to bank full.” Thus, pumps may be provided to fight rising waters, but may not be sent to dewater an already flooded area (i.e., where the damage has already been done).
Post-flood response activities that are authorized include clearing debris from drainage channels, water supply intakes, transportation routes, etc. Significantly, this authority exists only for a period of 10 days and only where there has been no Presidential disaster declaration.
Rehabilitation work generally entails making repairs to Flood Control Works (FCW) and Hurricane Shore Protection Projects (HSPP) damage by floods or unusual wind or wave action. All federally constructed projects are automatically included within this authorization, and other publicly owned projects may be eligible for inclusion, but must be identified and inspected (Initial Eligibility Inspection – IEI) in advance of the disaster causing the damage. This authority requires the production of a report addressing, among other things, the costs and benefits or rehabilitation. Approval for rehabilitation of a FCW or HSPP comes from the Corps’ South Atlantic Division. Federally constructed projects are repaired at a 100 percent federal share; non-federal projects in the program are cost shared with the project sponsor.
Inspection of Completed Works (ICW) entails periodic inspection of a FCW and HSPP to ensure that the projects are providing the level of protection (i.e., maintenance is being done to maintain the project as built).