Enaineer Memoirs
plane wasn `t at National Airport, where it belonged, and soon realized that it had been moved
becau se of the weather conditions.
and immediately took off. The storm had passed.
So we arrived at the plane early, about
General Clarke, Major [Walter] Smith, his military assistant, several civilian personnel from
OCE, and I flew to the Chesapeake Bay and up the Susquehanna River till we got to
Conawingo Dam in Maryland, north of Havre de Grace near the headwaters of the
Chesapeake. When we arrived, there were barrels floating down the river. The water was
pouring over the spillway, and obviously upstream flooding was going to be rather serious.
I remember General Clarke saying, "This is pretty bad. We'd better start doing something
about it." So he had Major Smith contact Colonel Lee Little, who was handling military
personnel in OCE, and had him arrange for 150 officers to be prepared to move up to the
flood area Monday morning. This was Saturday A.M.
We flew farther and came to Harrisburg, and the impact of this flooding was even more severe
than expected. We saw the governor's house in Harrisburg standing in water up to the second
floor. General Clarke then turned to Smith and said, "Besides those hundred or so officers,
I'd like 500 civilians ready to come up here first thing next week." I was impressed by his
perception and decisiveness as he went about the business at hand.
when
Remembering my experience with "Operation Snowbound" back in the late
neither my wife nor I knew where I was going or what I was expected to do, I asked General
Ploger, the commanding general at Fort Belvoir, to assemble the selected officers and their
wives in the theater on Sunday so I could explain the mission.
General Clarke's decision-making process was so crisp and effective that you have to wonder
why we have had so many major problems with storms like Hugo and Andrew. In the early
1970s we didn't have FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Office of
Emergency Preparedness headed by General George Lincoln was the responsible federal
agency. Lincoln, a retired Corps of Engineers officer and outstanding political scientist, was
appointed to this position by President Nixon.
General Lincoln and General Clarke had known each other quite well, and Lincoln authorized
General Clarke to do whatever was necessary. General Lincoln asked to be kept apprised and
also, if there were any major decisions, that he be briefed on them in advance. Well, with that
kind of authority, the Chief was able to move briskly to handle the Agnes event.
I do recall that before landing in Wilkes-Barre, we knew we would find trouble. When we
entered the terminal, Congressman Daniel Flood had already set up a field office for his
congressional district, and he was getting people's names and giving them encouragement.
As soon as he saw General Clarke walk in, he called for a large number of typhoid fever shots.
Of course, we weren't prepared to get the serum or really what to do with the problem. My
recollection is we said, "Yes, Sir," and proceeded with trying to get the overall situation
organized. The serum did arrive promptly.
Now, Agnes turned out to be quite a management effort. Baltimore District normally would
be responsible for this, but Colonel Lou Prentiss, district engineer, had so much to do that we
couldn't ask him to take on this problem as well. It required a lot of attention and a field
office. General [Richard] Groves, the division engineer of North Atlantic Division, suggested
that we set up a provisional district. General Clarke agreed and the Susquehanna District soon
became operative. Colonel John
became district engineer.
As I recall, officers and civilians arrived as requested. Local retired personnel who were
aware of the problem volunteered to help, and they were used. Contracting arrangements were
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