Preparing for the perfect storm
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division hosted a hurricane training event in Galveston, Texas that brought multiple federal, state and local government organizations together to prepare for the next disaster and to rehearse how the unified response would play out. The two-day exercise started with a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter staff and media aerial tour. The tour was set up to show exercise participants the path of Hurricane Ike, Corps protection structures, flood risk reduction reservoirs, temporary housing and debris staging areas, key terrain, critical facilities, and also to get an idea of how the island and inland areas have recovered since the storm.