The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District Emergency Management personnel provided flood fight training to members of the City of Frankfort Street Division, Feb. 9, 2023, in Frankfort, Kentucky.
The training consisted of manual and automated sandbagging techniques using the automated sandbagging machine and constructing flood mitigation structures like boil rings and levees using sandbags.
“It is reassuring to see a levee sponsor take their responsibility to operate their levee system seriously,” said Neil Cash, Louisville District Levee Safety Program Manager. “This training strengthens our partnership with the local sponsor which will prove to be vital during the next flood event.”
Louisville District Emergency Management has been conducting flood fight training with municipalities since 2015. Many of the recipients of the training are Levee Safety Program sponsors who want to become more familiar with USACE flood fighting capabilities while getting hands-on flood fight training.
“An effective response to a disaster, starts with being prepared,” said George Minges, Louisville District Emergency Operations chief. “Flood fight training for municipalities helps build capability and confidence at the local level.”
The training with the City of Frankfort resulted from discussions about flood fighting that occurred during a levee safety inspection of the Frankfort and South Frankfort Levee Systems. The City of Frankfort Street Division superintendent indicated that his staff had limited experience in constructing sandbag closures. After collaborating with Louisville District Emergency Management, a more hands-on training event was scheduled.
“This is the first time we have had this type of training from the Army Corps of Engineers,” said Daniel Doss, City of Frankfort Street Superintendent. “I wanted to make sure if we had to put up flood fight material that it was put up correctly.”
Through the Levee Safety Program, USACE and levee sponsors partner to manage more than 1,600 levees across the United States. The program, which is intended to improve consistency and coordination on how levee-related activities are implemented across USACE, includes levee inspections, risk assessments and sharing levee information.
“Having Emergency Management as a resource to provide flood fight training to our sponsor is a great help with achieving our mission,” Cash said.