Home / Missions / Emergency Operations / Hurricane Season / Irma

Hurricanes Irma and Maria News Releases

  • No Items.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria News Stories

  • January

    Leah and Evan Morgan, husband and wife team from Huntington District, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, share the hand-drawn Christmas tree, sent to them by their Sunday school, age group 7 to 11, of First Missionary Baptist Church, Culloden, West Virginia. Leah, an administrative support assistant, deployed Nov. 14, and Evan, a civil engineer technician, joined her Dec. 22 to support the Corps Task Force Power Restoration mission.

    Task Force Power’s husband, wife team deliver ‘inseparable’ disaster support

    Evan and Leah Morgan have been inseparable since 2010, their freshman year at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia. The husband and wife team from Huntington District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, knew they wanted to support the recovery mission in Puerto Rico. The only consideration was timing: would the stars align so this couple could deploy together? The answer came on Nov. 14, when Leah, a district contract purchasing agent, deployed to Puerto Rico to support the Task Force Power Restoration mission. Evan, a civil engineer, wouldn’t join her until Dec. 22.

  • Brig. Gen. Holland New Year's update from Puerto Rico (video)

    Brig. Gen. Diana Holland, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, provides an update on USACE's recovery operations in Puerto Rico from the very historic site of Old San Juan.
  • men evaluate blue roof installation

    USACE Blue Roof mission progresses across Puerto Rico as installation rate increases

    With the new year fast approaching, Quality Assurance specialist Andrew Lorenz was busy visiting Operation Blue Roof installation sites in neighborhoods across Mayagüez, a city of 80,000 people on Puerto Rico's west coast. Here and across Puerto Rico, the effort to provide residents with the temporary blue roofs has gained steam, with nearly 4,000 installations occurring island-wide each of the past two weeks.

  • December

    Task Force Power Restoration Program Manager, Philip R. Tilly (right), shows Jay Field, TF Power public affairs, the path the storm took as it made landfall onto Puerto Rico, Sept. 20.

    Task Force Power Restoration operations chief bids fond farewell

    Philip R. Tilly, a program manager with the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was making final plans in September for a promised road trip he and his wife, Jeanne, of 35 years, would take to Acadia National Park in Maine, and a week-long retreat to Hocking Hills in southeastern Ohio.
  • two men stand in debris yard in Puerto rico

    USACE personnel come to the aid of injured Puerto Rican

    “Then I heard a faint call for help,” said Richard Cusimano, who spends his days here as a quality assurance inspector in at the Canovanas, Fajardo, Loiza, Rio Grande and Luquillo debris collection sites. “Then the calls got more assertive.”
  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Task Force Power Restoration continues their mission through the holidays. Corps Quality Assurance Specialist Amy Tillery observes as a contracted crew from Mas-Tec persist with a stubborn pole anchor and guy, while working to straighten a recently placed power pole Christmas morning. The previous pole along with most others in the area had either been broken or toppled by Hurricane Irma and Maria. Residences and businesses in the area have been without power for over 100 days.

    Work continues through the holidays to restore power to Cidra residents

    Residents and businesses of Cidra are poised to get their electricity back online, thanks to the continued mission of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Task Force Power Restoration team through the holidays.
  • More than 3,000 pressure-treated utility poles, along with hundreds of concrete and steel poles, arrive at the lay-down yard in Ponce, Puerto Rico, part of the tons of critical electrical components flowing in daily from throughout the nation to rebuild the island’s electrical distribution system. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Task Force Power Restoration team continues to amass an inventory of critical power grid materials for onward delivery to the workforce.

    Corps on track to deliver Puerto Rican citizens life-sustaining power

    In an effort to help Puerto Rican citizens recover from devastation in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Task Force Power Restoration continues its mission to restore the island’s electrical power grid Dec. 24.
  • Attorney Eliezer Aldarondo, USACE Puerto Rico Power Grid Program Director Jose Sanchez, Bayamon City Mayor Ramon L. Rivera Cruz, Task Force Power Restoration Commander Col. John Lloyd and Real Estate Chief Eric Sternberg meet Dec. 22 in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, to discuss use of city land space at the Bayamon sports complex for storage of critical materials used in the power restoration mission, including utility poles and other power grid supplies. The city is allowing the Corps use of its property and infrastructure to help expedite delivery of needed power grid supplies and equipment across the island.

    Bayamon mayor steps up for the whole island

    U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Task Force Power Restoration team members met with Bayamon city leaders to discuss the potential use of city land space at the Bayamon sports complex in the greater San Juan metropolitan area Dec. 22.
  • Delta Company, 249th Engineer Battalion Soldiers pose for a group photo USACE South Atlantic Division Commander Brig. Gen. Diana Holland and Task Force Power Restoration Command Col. John Lloyd after an award ceremony highlighting the unit’s successful mission during hurricane recovery operations in Puerto Rico.

    Prime Power Soldiers recognized for service in Puerto Rico

    Soldiers of the Delta 249th Engineer Battalion (Prime Power) are recognized in an award ceremony for their crucial work during power restoration efforts in Puerto Rico.
  • Omar Esquilin-Mangual meets with a local resident while working the Blue Roof mission in Puerto Rico.

    USACE Blue Roof mission in Puerto Rico is a family affair

    Omar Esquilin-Mangual, from Caguas, Puerto Rico, was born, raised and educated on the island before working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2010 after receiving his master’s degree in civil engineering degree from the University of Puerto Rico. Yamiretsy Pagan-Albelo, from Ciales, Puerto Rico, was born, raised and educated on the island and working for the USACE in 2011 after receiving her bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Puerto Rico.

Blue Roof Logo

Operation Blue Roof 1-888-ROOF-BLU (7663-258) is a priority mission managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The purpose of Operation Blue Roof is to provide homeowners in disaster areas with fiber-reinforced sheeting to cover their damaged roofs until arrangements can be made for permanent repairs.

Call centers for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands will be established as communications on the islands improve.


Fact Sheets

Emergency Operations

Redirecting...

Useful Links

Overview

  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is prepared and ready to respond to natural and human-made disasters and overseas contingencies. When disasters occur, USACE teams and other resources are mobilized from across the country to assist our local districts and offices to deliver our response missions.
    • USACE has more than 50 specially-trained response teams supported by emergency contracts to perform a wide range of public works and engineering-related support missions. 
    • USACE uses pre-awarded contracts that can be quickly activated for missions such as debris removal, temporary roofing, commodities distribution, and generator installation.
  • Every year, USACE, as part of the federal government’s unified national response to disasters and emergencies, deploys hundreds of people to provide technical engineering expertise and to promote capacity development at home and abroad. 
    • In 2016, USACE had 1096 personnel deployments in response to one or more of 33 disaster declarations.
      USACE serves as the lead agency to respond with public works and engineering support and to coordinate long-term infrastructure recovery.