Corps ENDS Demolitions & Debris Pick up
Please share this message from the Corps’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office with your association members, friends, family and others who might need this information. Thanks! Michael Logue, Public Affairs Mission Manager, LA-RFO
- CORPS ORLEANS DEBRIS MISSION ENDS AUGUST 29
To our friends in the neighborhoods of New Orleans:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set September 29 as the last day of operations for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office (LA-RF0), with debris work in Orleans Parish coming to an end August 29.
Debris removal operations will transfer to the City of New Orleans on August 29 with the expiration of Corps/FEMA interagency agreements for Orleans Parish on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
FEMA has also indicated that the LA-RFO will receive no additional demolition assignments after September 1 to allow Corps contractors to complete the work within their 30-day contract clause.
We have been asked to return demolitions remaining after September 29 to the City of New Orleans for local action under the FEMA Project Worksheet Program which reimburses local governments for eligible work and administrative costs.
The citizen drop-off site at Crowder Avenue will close the week of August 29. We will keep the Elysian Fields (Florida) drop off site open until September 29.
In Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes, where our work is focusing on clean up of private property debris and canals, respectively, we expect operations to be complete by September 29.
In times of disaster, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assumes a predetermined set of FEMA emergency responsibilities to restore essential public services and facilities.
The Corps’ FEMA role is clear and terminal: to set the stage for communities to get back on their feet. The National Response Plan dictates that, once FEMA has determined that state and local governments are able to manage the remaining work with FEMA funding and technical assistance, our recovery volunteers go home.
We completed the following missions in early 2006 using a Corps workforce that peaked at 1,700: emergency ice and water, 310 temporary critical facilities, power generation, mortuary center construction, disposal of 50 million pounds of rotting meat, housing site evaluations, and 81,000 roof repairs under Operation Blue Roof.
By September 29, we expect to have removed, recycled or processed almost 29 million cubic yards of debris, enough to fill the Superdome 7-8 times, demolished about 8,000 structures, and cleaned up almost 70,000 private properties in south Louisiana.
The debris mission involving right of way pick up is now but a sliver of the peak of almost 200,000 cubic yards per day. Our debris pick up requirements have fallen to about 3% of that total, or about 6,000 cubic yards per day. One truck can carry about 40 cubic yards.
Our experts have been assisting FEMA and the City of New Orleans for several months with technical coaching and assistance to help maintain recovery momentum using City contracts and in-house services.
Our contracts will also end with contract companies familiar on area streets such as Phillips and Jordan, ECC, Ceres, and others who brought an estimated team of 100,000 to the area disaster response.
The LA-RFO is a temporary entity separate from long-term Corps operations such as the New Orleans District and Hurricane Protection Office. The work of those Corps sister elements to rebuild the area will continue unchanged. www.mvn.usace.army.mil
For more information on the Louisiana Recovery Field Office, visit the LA-RFO web site at www.faceofthecorps.com We will update the site with new information related to our deactivation.
If you have questions about the deactivation of the Louisiana Recovery Field Office as it relates to your property, just reply to this e-mail and we will get you an answer very quickly.
If you have debris that needs to be picked up or need instructions on scheduling a demolition, you can continue to call the New Orleans debris hotline 311 or 504-658-2299.
For two years, we ‘white shirt’ Corps of Engineers volunteers have answered numerous historic, unparalleled missions, engaging about 10% of the Corps’ worldwide team as volunteers in Louisiana alone. Over 3,500 Corps of Engineers volunteers from around the world have answered FEMA’s call for response and recovery operations in 40 parishes across South Louisiana following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
It has been our distinct honor as a team and as individuals to serve the inspirational citizens of Orleans Parish in their historic effort to recover from Hurricane Katrina.
From our entire Corps recovery team, thank you for your support, patience, hospitality, and, above all your courage, that has daily inspired us to overcome the challenges we faced daily in this unprecedented recovery field.
Best wishes to each of you on your continued efforts to build a better, greater City of New Orleans.
Michael D. Smith
Director, Louisiana Recovery Field Office
New Orleans, Louisiana
www.faceofthecorps.com