"Because we have a great team" Arthur Martin has returned to school briefly, taking an unparalleled lesson in project management with him to the classroom. LA-RFO Photo by Tom Clarkson. Back to Features

Jefferson Parish
Arthur Martin returns to school with Doctor of Debris experience
By Tom Clarkson, Public Affairs, Louisiana Recovery Field Office  30 July 2007

Editor's Note: Arthur Martin has returned to school for 30 days, but will return!

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JEFFERSON PARISH, LA…His dark, intense eyes say it all.  He takes his work very seriously; it is very serious work.  The number one stateside mission for the Army Corps of Engineers. 

Back home, thirty-nine-year-old, Arthur Martin III has been chief of the operations branch at the Engineering and Support Center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., for two of his 20 years in Corps service. 

This summer, as a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers volunteer with the Corps’ Louisiana Field Recovery team, he headed up a diverse, highly effective mix of U.S. Army active duty and Reserve personnel, government service professionals, rehired-retired Corps veteran volunteers and contractors. 

Until his brief return to school for August, Martin was the resident engineer for the Jefferson Parish Debris Office.  It’s not a job for the faint of heart! 

For almost two years, the Army Corps of Engineers has been supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response recovery efforts in 40 Louisiana parishes, including Jefferson.  FEMA tasked the Corps to install 81,000 “blue roofs”, replace 310 public structures and school buildings, remove 28 million cubic yards of debris, demolish 12,000 structures, and several other missions.

Just across the river from New Orleans, progressive Jefferson Parish is home to 400,000 with population centers ranging from Metairie (150,000) to tiny Barataria (1,300). 

A key Corps mission since August 2005 has been to remove debris from Louisiana public rights of way so response and recovery operations, and now citizen recovery, could gain momentum. 

In Jefferson Parish, that Corps has picked up 3.8 million cubic yards of storm debris, enough to fill the Louisiana Superdome or two Empire State buildings.  That quantity equals one huge 40-yard truck of debris for every 10 parish citizens. 

But the scope of Katrina left some parish citizens without the will to return or overwhelmed physically or fiscally at the process of cleaning up their properties.  This year, Jefferson Parish asked and received approval from FEMA to authorize the Corps to move from curbside debris pick up straight onto private property. 

FEMA estimated that almost 25,000 property owners in Jefferson Parish would require Corps assistance to clean up their debris-laden properties and remove hazardous limbs and entire trees killed or mortally damaged by the storm. The Louisiana Corps total was 68,000. 

Ending his second voluntary tour helping the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the devastating floods that ensued, Martin led a team primarily focused on debris and trees.

Challenges abound when hundreds of crews and heavy equipment are mixed with life on rural roads and in the suburbs, especially with the onset of the school year and buses.

Martin is proud that a team has already moved 143,010 cubic yards of demolition debris resulting from the necessary destruction and removal of homes destroyed by the catastrophe.   One home simply becomes 200 or so cubic yards of debris in the numbed post-Katrina landscape. 

Into just a few weeks of the fledgling private property mission, Martin beams, “We have already picked up 195,437 cubic yards of private property debris from more than 23,000 properties and homes.”

In some cases, anxious residents who have been waiting almost two years for assistance don’t appreciate the record pace of the unprecedented debris response.  Phones are constantly ringing.

Equipped with a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of South Alabama, he smiles when adding that, “I had to be fair with both ends of the state so I got my MBA from the University of North Alabama.”  He is now working on a master’s of science in project management. 

He acknowledges, however, that one can’t beat experiential education where one does the real – not text book – work. 

“This work has brought me to new horizons and is most gratifying.  I’d be less than candid if I didn’t admit that this effort has honed my management skills and team-building abilities.” 

Art attributes his team’s success to the team.

“Without the staff we have here and our extended teammates, this degree of accomplishment would not have been possible.  We get great results because we have great people doing what they do best: execute the mission.” 

But now, “the big push” is about to begin.  Jefferson Parish will be end point for the Corps’ historic two-year Hurricane Katrina response in Mississippi and Louisiana.  All eyes will be focused on his mission with a “not to exceed” mission date of October 30. 

Instead of a leisurely drawdown, the Jefferson Parish workforce will beef up dramatically to nearly 400 and hundreds of contract crews as they strive to finish 15,000 eligible properties by September 30, the result of the assessment of 140,000 properties. 

Rising to the challenge he says, “We can now show what we’re really made of and finish this off in grand style.” 

He admits to missing home and family, but says, “This work is a ‘gotta’ do’ sort of thing.  The storm devastation was so huge, the loss of property so massive, the number of lives these events negatively impacted so enormous, that it would seem almost sinful to not try to help out.” 

 “Arthur well represents the outstanding cadre of professionals who comprise this effort,” said Nolan Raphelt, one of Martin’s seniors as deputy director of the Louisiana Recovery Field Office. 

“His conscientious desire to ensure his team accomplishes all they undertake speaks volumes of his character.”  He pauses, grins and then says, in simple terms – “Arthur’s a real good man!”