The Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District will be forming a working group to address issues that could potentially arise on the Ohio River in an emergency scenario, such as an earthquake on the New Madrid fault, or other natural disaster.
The Emergency Operations Center hosted a meeting in the winter of 2015 to brainstorm and articulate some examples of consequences of a potential natural disaster. Representatives from agencies such as Kentucky Emergency Management, the Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Transportation (federal and state) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are government candidates for the working group. Industry groups, barge associations and port authorities would also be important stakeholders in the planning process.
Attendees considered these scenarios as examples:
- keeping the navigable channel open or clearing the channel; this in itself could take months, the group agreed, depending on the natural disaster.
- an emergency response plan for navigation
- clearing a collapsed bridge out of the channel
"If the river shut down (in an emergency), lost revenue equals $1.2 billion," said Don Walker, emergency operations.
Walker said the Corps' goals would be to:
1) clear the navigation channel
2) open the locks and
3) clear the river.
As in a flooding scenario, Corps personnel would likely deploy to the State of Kentucky Emergency Operations Center when it would be activated in a New Madrid earthquake.
Barry Vessels, operations, said, "We would use equipment to move material; the river would readjust." Vessels and his cadre have sophisticated river mapping systems which are used widely and would be helpful during an emergency.
Walker said this will be the first meeting that will initiate a plan and move it forward.
"It's a good start," he said.
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