Nashville – Thirty-two Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) Troopers recently completed homeland security training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), located in Anniston, Alabama. The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and is the only federally-charged Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.

Mobile Field Force Law Enforcement Strike Team Troopers from all eight THP districts across the state recently underwent the week-long domestic preparedness training. Strike Teams respond to incidents that call for special training and added manpower. Incidents include disasters, manhunts, search and rescue and traffic crashes involving hazardous materials.

“THP’s Strike Teams provide critical resources and stabilizing service after a disaster has struck. Troopers serving on Strike Teams are there to help restore order to an affected area as soon as possible,” said THP Colonel Mike Walker. “The enhanced WMD training provided by the CDP at no cost to the state equips THP’s Strike Teams with the interdisciplinary training that enables them to serve the immediate needs of communities and citizens in a disaster.”

Mobile Field Force Law Enforcement Strike Team Troopers

Troopers and first responders attending the CDP training are specially selected from the nation’s 11 million emergency responders. Training at the CDP ensures that responders gain the critical skills and confidence to effectively respond to local incidents or potential WMD incidents.

With the completion of the latest CDP training, the Tennessee Highway Patrol now has a total of 147 Troopers who have undergone the selective homeland security training and are able to effectively respond should a WMD incident occur.

The Center for Domestic Preparedness provides federally-funded, interdisciplinary training for emergency responders from across the United States and U.S. Territories, for 10 responder disciplines that include: Emergency Management, Fire Service, Hazardous Management, Emergency Medical Service, Law Enforcement, Public Health, and Public Safety Communications.

A number of training courses culminate at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological

Training Facility, the nation’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment, using chemical agents. The advanced hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.

Additional information about CDP training programs can be found at http://cdp.dhs.gov. For more information, contact Kathy Wood, CDP Communications Director, at 256-847-2316 or Kathy. .

THP Troopers who attended Homeland Security Domestic Preparedenss Training

About the Tennessee Department of Safety

The Tennessee Department of Safety’s mission is to ensure the safety and general welfare of the public. The department encompasses the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Office of Homeland Security and Driver License Services. General areas of responsibility include law enforcement, safety education, motorist services and terrorism prevention.

FEMA Emergency Operations staging at Fort Campbell will provide disaster assistance to the state of Kentucky. US Army photo by Ken Woller.

Between midnight and 8 a.m today, 24 semi-trucks of supplies, including water, generators and Meals Ready to Eat, arrived at a secure location on Fort Campbell. By mid morning, the trucks had moved on to critically hit areas in Western Kentucky. Fort Campbell will continue to serve as a staging area as long as resources are being provided in response to the incident.

Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper today said “This week’s ice and snow storms have affected Clarksville’s neighbors to the north fairly significantly and many families in Kentucky have been out of their homes since the beginning of the week due to widespread power outages.”

Mayor  Piper is asking Clarksville’s hotels, restaurants and other businesses  “to be helpful and extend their generosity to the many families and individuals staying in Clarksville while crews work to restore power to the region just north of us.  With no real timeline for how long the power outages may last, the potential need for these visitors to extend their stay in Clarksville is evident and could be very costly and frustrating for those who have been displaced ”

Many hotels have filled up and are helping people find rooms in Nashville and other nearby communities.  Several retailers have banded together to restock desperately needed items such as generators and other supplies.

“This is certainly indicative of Clarksville’s generous spirit and I think as more people hear about the situation our neighbors are facing, more help will be extended to those in need,” said Mayor Piper.

These and other factors that make Wolf Creek one of the five worst dams in the country, one with a high risk of failure. If Wolf Creek fails, parts of Clarksville will be underwater in about 33 hours.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Major Rehabilitation Report issued in 2006 recommended a $306 million fix for the Wolf Creek Dam, a project that began over a year ago and is expected to take four years to complete. (At right, workers inside the dam effecting repairs)

Failure of the Wolf Creek dam is scenario on the top of the list for Emergency Management officials at the federal, state and local levels; they meet weekly to address a multitude of issues that could affect our community at large, coordinating services and support systems for a safe and fast response if the worst should happen.

For Cecil Stout, Director of Emergency Services for the Clarksville-Montgomery County Chapter of the American Red Cross, Wolf Creek is just one more thing to worry about and plan for, not just for the enormity of response such a disaster would require. The Red Cross office and thousands of homes and businesses along the city’s rivers could be underwater if the dam fails. Pictured at right, Logistics Specialist Mike Vogt (l) and Stout (r), looking over a map of potential Wolf Creek flood zones.

Stout said his agency continually contracts with sites that can operate as full service shelters in times of emergency — be it flood, tornado, or any other disaster. Start-up supplies are continually stocked and staged around the city, networks and collaborations to meet community needs already exist and are continually nurtured. His volunteer staff is trained and continues to train for management such disaster scenarios. FEMA, TEMA and other local response agencies have disaster management plans in place for immediate implementation if warranted.

Stout, and logistics coordinator Mike Vogt , have the potential flood area outlined on an oversized map in their office hallway. They already know they would have to evacuate Red Cross headquarters and move to a pre-planned alternate base of operations during such an emergency. They already know that travel in and around the city, and therefore access to emergency services and supplies, would be significantly disrupted.

“My worst nightmare is that the dam and a seismic event like New Madrid would happen at the same time,” Stout said.

Disaster preparedness is a complex process

“We may have to shelter people, feed them, handle communications that will connect them with other family members, and assist with basic needs and links to to other agencies also providing services.” Stout noted that Red Cross Disaster Action teams are part of the first response in many disasters, supporting victims, firefighters, rescue crews and police. But the job doesn’t stop there; Red Cross social services makes referrals to other agencies that can assist with more permanent solutions for displaced disaster victims.

Stout, Vogt, Red Cross volunteers, multiple regional Emergency Management staff and Fort Campbell teamed up recently for back-to-back mock disaster drills for two potential mass casualty events: an F-5 tornado, and the detonation of a “dirty bomb.” Both drills took place on Fort Campbell and across north Clarksville. “Both were excellent opportunities to test ourselves,” Stout said. The results from both drills confirmed the fact that “training” pays big dividends in terms of disaster preparedness and response.

And every time Stout and Vogt move through the Red Cross office, they pass by the wall with the map and the flood stage markings.

A bit of Wolf Creek history

Wolf Creek dam was designed and built over a period from 1938 to 1952 as a flood control project, with the added benefits of hydro-power production and recreation via the reservoir (a.k.a Lake Cumberland) created by dam construction. The lake is largest reservoir east of the Mississippi River and includes 1796 feet of concrete dam and 3940 feet of clay embankments. Highway 127 in Kentucky runs across the top of the dam. The dam has been operating with a reduced level since 2005, reducing risk to people and property but also impacting recreational use of the lake. Currently Lake Cumberland is holding at a 680 foot level, but that could be reduced at any time if further problems develop. The Corp monitors the status of the dam and nine others on the Cumberland River system for any change in status that would affect public safety.

The trigger for the problems at Wolf Creek Dam lies in its foundation: a limestone base riddled with cavities and caves and prone to erosion. Limestone is “soluble in weak acid,” and over time that erosion has weakened the very base that supports the dam. Driving through any road cuts in the region offers a first-hand view of how limestones decays and breaks apart. “Karst topography” is a three-dimensional landscape shaped by the gradual dissolution of solid layers of bedrock, often carbonate rocks such as limestone of dolomite, which have distinctive patterns of underground drainage and little or no surface drainage, hence the formation of caves and caverns that undermine the surface, and in this case, the base of the dam.

Serious problems were noted in 1968 when wet areas developed near the base and muddy waters were observed, along with two sinkholes in the embankment, indicators that foundation and dam substances were being washed away by seepage. Emergency action was taken in 1968-69 to fix those problems. A grouting program completed in 1970 injected enough solids into the dam to pave a road six inches thick, 20 feet wide and 5.5 miles long. It solved the problem, and prevented dam failure, until now. Advisors to the Corps recommended construction of a concrete cut-off wall to be build along the axis of the dam under its embankment. In essence, a new barrier to hold back water and stabilize the dam.

Cut-off walls were added to two-thirds of the embankment, a decision some experts felt was “short sighted,” suggesting that eventually, a wall would be needed along the entire length of the embankment. That time has come.

Over the past several years, a combination of visual observations, instrumentational readings, and borings have proven that uncontrolled seepage, which is still occuring, threatens the stability and integrity of the dam.

Peripheral to the structural problems of the dam are other events that could converge to trigger disaster:

• a significant seismic event along the New Madrid Fault could devastate the greater Memphis area but depending on magnitude could be equally disastrous to Clarksville and as far as Wolf Creek.
• a stalled hurricane dumping double-digit rain totals over the region would stress the tributaries feeding the Cumberland River and Lake Cumberland, putting additional pressure on the dam and saturating the land around and beneath it.

So what happens next?

The water level behind the dam is holding at 680 feet, subject to further lowering if the situation warrants. Emergency repairs are underway, with three years (give or take a few months) before the project is done and the dam deemed “safe” again.

Meanwhile, emergency management officials at the federal, state and local level — everyone from FEMA, TEMA, police and fire officials, the Red Cross and others meet regularly to keep tabs on a number of things, including Wolf Creek.

If the Wolf Creek failed, the worst case scenario would be a gradual rise in Cumberland River (and tributary) waters that would bring major flooding to Clarksville within 33 hours. Riverside Drive and all its recreational spots and businesses would be underwater. Bridges would be closed and/or underwater. A number of areas in town would be cut off. Many areas would be completely evacuated. An estimated 3,000 businesses would be affected. Many subdivisions would be flooded or “islanded,” affecting thousands.Water, sewage (waste treatment) and electrical services would be affected in many areas. Should floodwaters travel from the dam to as far as Clarksville, a breach of the Wolf Creek Dam has the potential to affect one million people and thousands of businesses. The dollar value of damage would be staggering.

Emergency management officials note five potential water levels for the Clarksville area, from a modest level one to catastrophic level five. Maps of potential flooding are availabble through links on the Austin Peay State University, Clarksville Red Cross and Wolf Creek Dam websites, with GPS locating that can pinpoint how floodwaters might affect your home and neighborhood.

Even the Red Cross would be relocated since its headquarters off Riverside Drive would be inundated. That’s been planned for, along with a host of responses to projected needs for a potential Wolf Creek Dam disaster.

Should trouble develop at the Wolf Creek Dam, the Emergency Broadcast System would be activated over all weather, radio and TV stations and emergency management offices, beginning with those located closest to the dam and working downstream through Nashville and working downstream. Local emergency management teams are responsible for local notifications and evacuation plans.

Stout suggests that just as residents prepare for severe storms including tornados, they should be aware of the potential of a problem with Wolf Creek and prepare for that possibility as well..

In this half-hour film, Greg Palast and his team travel to New Orleans to investigate what has happened since Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast last year. On his visit, he discovers that the population of New Orleans is miniscule, the reconstruction sparse, suicide rates are climbing, and many have not, nor know how to, return to the city that care forgot. He examines why residents had to leave, what really caused the flood and why they aren’t returning.

Bonus Features Include: Tomorrow’s New Orleans – Whose City Will it Be? A half-hour conversation with Amy Goodman and Greg Palast where they sit down to discuss who is accountable for the ongoing disastrous situation in New Orleans.

Click here to view the embedded video.