20 Years Ago: The Great Flood of 1993

St. Genevieve, MO

St. Louis, MO -- (June, 1993)  After 2 months of unending Spring rains, Old Man River finally rebelled. Runoff from storms in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois forces the Mississippi well over its banks. The same river that left behind fertile valleys after hundreds of previous floods, reclaimed the land with savage fury.  Along the Mississippi River in St. Louis, the waters were so high, that they nearly reach the base of the Gateway arch, 5 stories above flood stage.

In the aftermath, experts called it the most devastating flood in US history. During the Great Flood of 93, fifty lives were lost and property damage exceeded $40 billion, making it the third most costly US disaster ever. (as of 1993)

Weather forecasters blamed it on a stalled Bermuda high pressure system, but locals simply referred to it as bad luck. With floodwaters rising at a rate of 1 foot per day, The US Army Corps of Engineers were able to provide adequate warning to communities along each affected river. Some families were forced to evacuate -- others chose to relocate -- but many decided to remain and stand their ground.

In early July 1993, as flood waters crept into low-lying areas, many residents began a race against the clock. But holding back steadily rising rivers wouldn't be an easy task. To be successful, communities needed help.

During these early stages of the flood, hundreds of sandbagging operations were taking place throughout the St. Louis metro area. It was a scene that was repeated in communities throughout Missouri and Southern Illinois. In river towns all along the flood plain, citizens prepared for the worst.

Spanish Lake, MO

 On July 6th, I was given a long-term assignment with a simple mission statement – videotape and photograph the flood. But it wasn't long before word leaked that I had some disaster experience and I was drafted to serve as an aide to Captain Vince Wright (STLFD Squad-2).  It was my job to serve as a liaison between emergency services and FEMA as well as the Salvation Army.

I knew very little about the area, which extended from Hannibal to the North, to Cape Girardeau in the South, roughly the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. FEMA provided me with a fire department Suburban, a few old ESSO maps and a cellular phone. I was told to report back on conditions in the field.

Everywhere I drove -- everywhere -- folks were sandbagging. Children, the elderly tourists -- anyone who could fill a bag and toss it onto the levee. On the first day it took me 14 hours to make my rounds. On the second day I was able to shave-off an hour. By the third day, I was assigned to tour the area in a helicopter.

From the air, the Great Flood lived up to its name. It was still early July, but it was clear to emergency personnel that within weeks the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers would overflow their banks in a very big way.

Chopper Pilot Rich Barkledge and I decide to make this our first stop, and he eases the unmarked Jet Ranger onto a landing zone prepared by local firefighters. Soon after we land, the leaders of this renegade band of baggers stop us cold dead.

"We need sand! We need bags! We need food and cool drinks!” And one final plea, “We desperately need porta-potties!"

Fire service and law enforcement were serving in their best capacity. Keeping the homes secure and the sandbaggers safe. If OSHA or NIOSH were here, though, they'd close this site down in a nanosecond. I made some quick calculations, and noted that the 1000 plus sandbaggers were working in polluted waters on a haphazard dam some 10 feet below the water line.

If a "blowout" were to take place, it would take at least 100 emergency personnel to make rescues and safely evacuate the area. I glanced over at the standby emergency team -- a 4-man engine company, 2-person medic unit, 2 deputy sheriffs, and a retired Salvation Army captain. I shook my head, and never allowed that thought to enter my mind again.

 Wall of Wonder

During the next few weeks, Spanish Lake was to be our "first" and "last" stop each and every day. Like so many, we were convinced that the folks here could hold back the river.

Building the sandbag wall was a monumental task: Hundreds of truckloads of sand were used to fill nearly 2-million sandbags. Medics gave out hundreds of injections to protect volunteers against hepatitis. Relief agencies served thousands of meals. It was a Wall of Wonder, with its own designer, a retired bridge engineer.

The town became the gathering place for international media. In fact, there were more satellite uplink trucks than dump trucks -- more camera crews than firefighters or police officers -- and enough still photographers that a local camera shop was selling film from the back of a rented van.

 There were volunteers from throughout the world, many devoting their time while vacationing in the Gateway city. One couple in particular, newlyweds from Bradford, England, had arrived directly from Lambert-St. Louis International. Another family from Auckland, New Zealand claimed a certain section of the wall for the folks down under. Everyone who worked at Spanish Lake signed their own bag, and that section remains as a memorial to all of the volunteers, who devoted their time and energy to holding back the 500 year Flood.

Three generations of the Scott family, who lived in these homes, kept a constant vigil around the clock. I know, they'd page me at 3 AM to ask for shovels, sand and bags. During the course of 4 weeks, I signed for tens of thousands of dollars in emergency resources, and this was just one location out of dozens.

Losing The Battle

But the floodwaters just kept rising and rising, and the wall couldn't be built strong enough or fast enough. Leaks developed, and the super saturated ground prevented volunteers from working safely. Finally, during the last week of July, the town's Fire Chief gave the order to abandon the effort

To say this was an emotional moment for the volunteers and families is an understatement. After 30 long days, time and hope had run out. No one questioned the decision, though. Instead, volunteers retreated to safer, higher ground, popped open beverages donated by the local brewery giant, and celebrated a victory of the human spirit.

A few days later the river won and floodwaters overran the wall, inundating the church and all of the homes. Over 6,000 people had come here to assist the Scott family, and each year, on the anniversary of the flood, the Scotts send out thousands of cards of thanks.

 Onto Other Problems

This scene was repeated every day for weeks. Grafton, West Alton, Potage des Sioux, St. Charles, Valmeyer – they were all inundated by flood waters, some 20 feet deep.On August 3rd, Captain Vince Wright, Pilot Rich Barkladge, and I were surveying areas downstream of St. Louis from the helicopter, which had become home.

I hear the pilot's voice through the headset, “Guys, we can make it in 15 minutes.”

 As news choppers circled, we dropped down to 100 ft. for a closer look. I stepped onto the skid, and shot that evening's lead national story. The levee had been breeched, and the 24 square mile island was filling so fast, that many residents were trapped.

 Along with a helo from USCG Station St. Louis, we began picking up trapped residents and flying them to the relative safety of the West levee, where the Army had set up an evacuation ferry. It didn't take long for floodwaters to fill farmlands and the town itself. Kaskaskia was gone in less than two hours.

We landed on Main Street to check businesses for any strays. No one in sight. But as we were about to lift-off, we noticed a lone woman with three Holsteins in tow. As was our routine, Vince tossed the coin. And as usual, I lost and got to stay behind.

As the crew lifted the farmwoman to safety, I led the cows to the safest (and highest) place I could find -- the Catholic Church. As we walked down the aisle together, all four mooing, I tied the bovine churchgoers to the main altar. The Coast Guard led them out a few weeks later. They survived the flood, but I doubt that they survived the slaughter house.

Later that day, while returning to the St. Louis Fire Department helipad, we watched as another levee had been breeched, and was quickly overrunning a nicely kept farm. As the owner sat on a nearby hill, he watched as the river swept away his home, furnishings, farm buildings and heavy equipment. I can never forget that scene, nor the lethal blow that Mother Nature dealt that man and tens of thousands like him.

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Posted in memory of my partners during the Summer of 1993, Captain Vincent Wright and Pilot Rich Barkledge

Italy's FEMA arrives in L'Aquila within 8 hours

UPDATED

by: Lou Angeli

L’AQUILA, Italy (April 7, 2009) -- Nearly 5 DAYS since a 6.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the Abruzzo city of L'Aquila, rescuers are continuing to search for victims, who may be trapped deep in the debris of a university dorm.

The death toll has climbed past 250, another 50 citizens are missing, and 2000 have been injured, some critically. The Ministry of the Interior reports that 15,000 structures have been completely demolished, and the number of homeless is placed at 30,000.

To make a tragic situation even worse, the area has been hit with dozens of aftershocks, the most recent registering a 5.6 magnitude.

Unlike disasters here in the states, the press won’t be reporting on delays in emergency personnel and supplies. Why? They were on location within hours. How did Italian emergency responders mount such a quick response? Simple. The lack of red tape and a damned good preplan.


According to David Alexander, who teaches emergency planning in Europe, the Italian government designed their Disaster Response plan around a "key component found in every province and locale"…the Fire-Rescue service or the Vigili Del Fuoco.

The Vigili Del Fuoco is much different than fire departments here in the states. In Italy, the fire-rescue service is a single, national entity and is paramilitary in design.. So whether a firefighter is assigned to a small station in the Alps, or working a big city like Naples, tactics, command and apparatus are identical.

Comapre that to the states where we have 31,000 agencies with 31,000 different commanders. And even though most of America's Fire-Rescue-EMS service have integrated Incident Command into the operations, our system continues to focus on mitigation of the incident, then followed by caring for those who are homeless.

“In America, we instruct our citizens to be prepared to remain self sufficient for at least 72 hours.” say Dr. Francis Howard of Columbia University. “That concept proved itself to be a disaster during the hours and days following Katrina.”

“When the disaster presents itself in Italy,’ says Howard, ‘the unified response system kicks in immediately.”

The Italian system, known as the Augustus Plan, takes our Incident Command system a step further by automatically integrating municipal emergency agencies – like police and EMS – into the Fire-Rescue system.

The most interesting component of the entire system is Augustus’ ability to place thousands of well-trained, disaster responders on the scene in just a few hours. When the quake struck the Abruzzo region early Monday morning, the Italian goverment declared a national emergency thus authorizing the Civil Protection Department to mobilize a substantial -- and immediate -- response. More than 100 volunteer search and rescue teams were deployed, some of whom assisted in the search and rescue effort, but most of whom began to erect temporary housing, provide meals and tend to the immediate needs of the citizens.

On the Vigili del Fuoco national website you can follow emergency operations in L’Abruzzo with updates on an hourly basis. As of 0600 hours 9 April 2009, the following resources and staffing were operating at dozens of disaster scenes.

- Command has divided the disaster region into four sectors, from 4 base camps.
- 169 senior officers
- In addition to 1000 firefighters on scene, another 2650 are responding.
- 90 specialized recovery teams from 6 surrounding regions
- 48 Volunteer First-Responder Teams of 100
- 6 Urban Search and Rescue Teams
- There are 1,000 Engines or Tankers on scene.
- 24 Ladder Trucks
- 30 Rescue Vehicles
- 6 Cranes
- 4 Bell 412 helicopters
- 6 Agusta EMS helicopters
- 3 Satellite Transmission Vehicles

You can keep track of the progress online at the National Corps of Vigili del Fuoco website.

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Learn more about Italian Emergency Management

A Bittersweet Commemoration and FEMA’s Bitter Mandate

by Lou Angeli

New York, NY (September 11, 2007) -- Today I joined thousands of Ground Zero responders in Lower Manhattan to commemorate the 6th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Of that group, two hundred of us were were invited to read the names of those who perished 6 years ago, the first time that emergency personnel were offered such a privilege. Needless to say, the event was bittersweet.

For those of you who served at Ground Zero, you’ll recall that we were isolated from the rest of the World in our emergency village. There were no TV's, no newspapers at the disaster site, so we never saw the faces of the missing nor heard the pleas from their friends and families.

But today, 9/11 responders finally came face-to-face with the hundreds of families who lost loved ones during the collapse of the twin towers. When it was my turn to walk onto the stage to stand behind the podium, my reading partner and I were overwhellmed by the thousands standing before us holding out photos of their loved ones and waving so many signs of thanks.

Following the collapses, there were 20 rescues by official count -- perhaps one hundred others that were never recorded. Such rescues, especially those of Port Authority Police Sgt John McLoughlin and his partner Officer Will Jimeno, did a great deal to bolster the spirits of the thousand working at Ground Zero. Unfortunately, only one other rescue was made. Rescue turned to recovery within 48 hours.

In the years since 9/11/01, some fire-rescue personnel still feel that they had failed at their mission. One of them, Jeff Johns, a Transit Authority foreman and Ground Zero rescuer, ended his reading by apologizing to the families saying that, “We wish we could have done more. We tried” Failure is something firefighters, paramedics and law enforcement officers don't take to very well. Neither does Jeff Johns.

70,000 emergency and volunteer responders answered New York City's call for help during the ten day period following the disaster. They came from every state as well as Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, Italy, Israel and France. It was a nation coming together -- the world coming together in the spirit of volunteerism.

Some say that we've lost that spirit, but Americans proved again during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, that they were up to the challenge. As Americans, it is one of those things we do best -- Helping our neighbors in time of need.

Feds Attempt to Break That Spirit

However, the federal government has taken a bold step to esnure that volunteer responders, like most of us who were assembled at Ground Zero, won’t be able to respond to America’s next disaster. And that was the buzz at the World Trade Center site following this year’s commemoration ceremony.

Please take note that my definition of a volunteer responder has nothing to do with a person’s avocation. It includes professional firefighters, paramedics, law enforcement officers, building trades, and medical professionals, who respond to offer their skills during a disaster.

There’s a second equally important tier of responders, those who I refer to as support volunteers. They are the students, housewives, retired folks and church groups who are drawn to the disaster site to help in whatever way that they can. Without them, the crews at the WTC disaster site would not have been nourished or provided supplies.

But FEMA says – NEVER again!

To coincide with the 6th commemoration of the World Trade Center attacks, FEMA announced an ambitious ID program for rescue workers to keep SCUVs from swarming to a disaster scene. SCUV is FEMA’s acronym for self responders – Self Convergent Unafilliated Volunteers.(1)

According to an AP report, The Federal Emergency Management Agency came up with the idea after the World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when countless Americans rushed to help — unasked, undirected, and sometimes unwanted.

Volunteers and front line professionals who I’ve spoken to are livid. Even professional organizations, like the Disaster Research Center disagree with FEMA’s move to eliminate volunteers from disaster response.

“The rescue effort at the World Trade Center reminded us of the important role that emergent groups and volunteers have during major emergencies and disasters.” says DRC’s Patricia Smythe. (2)

Others aren’t as polite as Dr Smythe.

Popular internet journalist, Lew Rockwell suggests that FEMA is simply trying to enhance its credibility by discrediting the volunteers. “FEMA hates volunteers,’ Rockwell says, ‘since they do the actual rescuing and rebuilding, as in Katrina.” (3)

Oddly enough, following 2003’s Hurricane Isabel, FEMA’s issued a report that was clearly very favorable to the volunteer response to that disaster. (4) The headline reads, “Volunteers Perform Vital Function in Disaster Recovery.”

In the next edition of “Rescue Us” we’ll examine FEMA’s Volunteer Embargo with more detail, review the agency's track record and discuss what all of this will mean to the unlucky American community, which will play host to the nation’s next major disaster.

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(1) Feds To Restrict Volunteers From Helping During Disasters - MSNBC

(2) Disaster Research Center (University of Delaware)

(3) “Fema-nists Hate Volunteers” Lee Rockwell

(4) FEMA Release Number:1490-60 (October 20, 2003)