OMAHA, Neb. -- Col. John Hudson, Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District issued a public service announcement Friday regarding the district's efforts in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and levee repairs.
The PSA is available to the media for downloading on DVIDS at:
It is also available on YouTube at:
The full transcription of the PSA follows:
“Hello, I'm Colonel John Hudson, the Omaha District commander. As our nation grapples with the COVID-19 challenges, I want to let you know how Omaha District is helping to support the efforts to keep America safe and respond to this crisis.
Currently we're working with FEMA, state and local officials across Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North and South Dakota and Nebraska, where we're conducting site assessments of potential locations for Alternate Care Facilities to help deal with the overflow of patients, which can't be handled within our current medical facilities.
We continue to do these assessments and out of these assessments, we've already identified two locations--the Denver Convention Center and the Ranch events complex in Loveland, which will be used as Alternate Care Facilities.
We have contracts in place to enable 2,000 beds to put in the Denver Convention Center and another 1,100+ beds to be put into the event center at the Ranch in Loveland. While this is ongoing we continue to execute the rest of our mission to include the levee restoration on the Missouri River after last year's floods. Nearly all those levees have been closed and are now at their full authorized levels.
Now we continue to work on them as grass is yet not fully established. But, a lot of the risk has been significantly reduced. This point, we do not expect major flooding due to snowmelt as the plain snowpack has essentially melted and the snowpack in the Northern Rockies is averaged to slightly above average.
However, we are still vulnerable to major rain events; currently, none are forecasted. But should we have any this summer, they likely will cause at least minor to moderate flooding within the Missouri Basin. So please remain vigilant, monitor the weather, and stay in contact with your local management officials if you live along the river. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Be safe, and thank you.”