Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
Then it's hard for some people to understand that there is a reasonable answer for why
they're doing what they're doing. It's different than what we're doing but it's still okay.
General Kelly [Major General Patrick J. Kelly, Director of Civil Works,
and
FEMA had a meeting a while back to talk about this. They kind of agreed they would
both go their own way like they have been in the past.
Right now I'm looking at something that the Corps put together, talking about this
difference. Somehow FEMA is going to have to agree to it before they put it out, I'm
sure. But it was written in a kind of a way that made FEMA look bad. Makes it sound
like the Corps is right and FEMA is wrong. It should be written making both of them
right and not trying to infer that one is smarter than the other or anything like that.
It's not going to sell. Whoever wrote it wasn't thinking about that, I don't believe, when
they put it'together. Either that or they just didn't recognize the implications of what they
said. But it will be changed I'm sure.
Q ..
The whole subject of floodplain management, you made the point that that was something
that was relatively new to the Corps, so new that they brought a consultant in. How, over
time, did the Corps acclimate itself to that responsibility or did it?
A
Well, you see, through the years the floodplain management in the planning side of the
house, the feasibility reports and so forth, they do go into the full scale review of different
options for reducing future flood damages. But the actual group that Jerry Peterson is in
charge of right now, there was a time
weren't sure where they were going or
what they were going to do because the need for the flood information reports, which they
were producing, was kind of going out of business because FEMA was preparing all the
flood insurance studies.
FEMA was doing the thing that the Corps had started off doing in flood information
reports. As a matter of fact, a lot of these flood information reports that the Corps did
early were almost like putting a new cover on them and making them a flood insurance
report. I mean as far as the technical work is concerned, they didn't really have to redo
it. They just used what was in there.
So after the flood insurance program got real active and it was obvious that FIA [Flood
Insurance Administration] was going to do all these reports, then there wasn't really a role
so much for the Corps anymore. So there was a little question about what their role was.
So they've been getting into other areas that they didn't do before. They've done studies
on evacuation planning from communities and things like that that they had never done
before. Certainly a worthwhile effort.
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