Responding to disasters is one of several missions the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is tasked with. Part of answering this call is through specialized teams that go out and conduct infrastructure assessments in disaster areas.
"On Aug. 29, the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deployed an Infrastructure Assessment Planning and Response Team (PRT) management cell to Louisiana," Infrastructure Assessment Action Officer Doug Weber said.
"When I first started on the Infrastructure Assessment team, I thought it was all about placarding peoples’ homes for safety, " Mission Specialist Adrienne Murphy said. "But in our last two deployments, we’ve been asked to perform inspections of drinking water systems, wastewater systems, and public facilities like hospitals and fire stations."