FEMA Mitigation Dam Task Force Strategic White Paper on Dam Risk

[Holding Pattern]

https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=789250

I keep an eye on hsdl releases that mention CAP. This one mentions CAP.

It talks about the aerial recon CAP does and makes some suggestions.

Thoughts?

[RRLE]

General Recommendation 10: Improve Coordination with Civil Air Patrol (CAP) for Dam-Related Incidents
Civil Air Patrol provides an excellent resource during the initial phase of response operations. It is recommended that FEMA coordinate with the Civil Air Patrol to provide specific dam information. This information would allow CAP to provide photos and additional observations to the state EMA, the state dam regulatory agency, and FEMA during the flooding event. It is also recommended that appropriate parties coordinate in advance with CAP on the criteria for dam photos, the locations of dams, and other important details to inform operations during future flood events.

CAP could be a bit proactive and learn the location and characteristics of dams in their local area before an event occurs. The public has limited rights to the US Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams.

After playing around a bit, the best bet for local research seems to be to use the Interactive Report Feature and select by state. You can then narrow the search further by Congressional district and maybe other means.

[SarDragon]

Unlocked at the request of the OP, given the current situation in NorCal.

[PHall]

What current situation???  OES stood us down since the dam is again "stable".

[Holding Pattern]

I wanted to create a followup post to the original given that:

1. FEMA did suggest we take pictures of dams
2. The dam situation was getting a bit interesting there for a while!

With that in mind, are we involved at all with any aerial photography for the dam during this incident, and/or did we ever take the time to take pictures of the dam in advance?

I'll post further thoughts on Tuesday, but I ended up in the middle of nowhere with a REALLY slow internet link.

[Meridius]

I wanted to create a followup post to the original given that:

1. FEMA did suggest we take pictures of dams
2. The dam situation was getting a bit interesting there for a while!

With that in mind, are we involved at all with any aerial photography for the dam during this incident, and/or did we ever take the time to take pictures of the dam in advance?

I'll post further thoughts on Tuesday, but I ended up in the middle of nowhere with a REALLY slow internet link.

As a dam professional (engineering geologist) working for the federal government in a Safety of Dams program, the problem is, among my colleagues, is that CAP expertise and relative low costs (especially when considering paying for a NG blackhawk), is that the dam professionals are unaware of CAP's capability, and frankly, applicability.  I was shocked when I got the bill for flights I ordered through FEMA for Hurricane Matthew.  Let me define shocked = where I thought I was looking at tens of thousands of dollars per sortie, it was a couple of hundred dollars and that in some cases was also shared by other agencies.

The PROBLEM:  CAP and CAP USAF does not do a good job in marketing the assets of skills that CAP brings to the playing field during emergencies.  When I looked at some of the aerial photography from Oroville, I immediately saw issues where I could have gotten contractors to start mitigating problems and start planning strategies for saving the dam.  CAP and CAP USAF should be actively marketing emergency management agencies and contacting various trade organizations such as the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (in the case) and other areas such as fire management, emergency management, etc, and speaking during their collective annual and/or quarterly meetings.

This is my professional opinion...CAP is an under utilized resource.

[Eclipse]

Wing DOS' should be identifying vulnerable facilities and infrastructure in advance of incidents
and those areas should be used for real-world tasking during training and Evals and provide the
output to the various agencies unbidden.

That builds a history and might identify something when people are actually looking, it also gets the word out.

Far too often training scenarios are based on "the thing near wing HQ", versus a place you'd actually go in a
real-world disaster.

[Holding Pattern]

I wanted to create a followup post to the original given that:

1. FEMA did suggest we take pictures of dams
2. The dam situation was getting a bit interesting there for a while!

With that in mind, are we involved at all with any aerial photography for the dam during this incident, and/or did we ever take the time to take pictures of the dam in advance?

I'll post further thoughts on Tuesday, but I ended up in the middle of nowhere with a REALLY slow internet link.

As a dam professional (engineering geologist) working for the federal government in a Safety of Dams program, the problem is, among my colleagues, is that CAP expertise and relative low costs (especially when considering paying for a NG blackhawk), is that the dam professionals are unaware of CAP's capability, and frankly, applicability.  I was shocked when I got the bill for flights I ordered through FEMA for Hurricane Matthew.  Let me define shocked = where I thought I was looking at tens of thousands of dollars per sortie, it was a couple of hundred dollars and that in some cases was also shared by other agencies.

The PROBLEM:  CAP and CAP USAF does not do a good job in marketing the assets of skills that CAP brings to the playing field during emergencies.  When I looked at some of the aerial photography from Oroville, I immediately saw issues where I could have gotten contractors to start mitigating problems and start planning strategies for saving the dam.  CAP and CAP USAF should be actively marketing emergency management agencies and contacting various trade organizations such as the Association of State Dam Safety Officials (in the case) and other areas such as fire management, emergency management, etc, and speaking during their collective annual and/or quarterly meetings.

This is my professional opinion...CAP is an under utilized resource.

Thank you for your feedback on this, I'll be using bits of this as part of a letter to our wing PAO (through appropriate channels, of course.)