Like a Military Operation Deputy director Nolan Raphelt, left, discusses necessary actions with the Louisiana Recovery Field Office director, Mike Smith.  LA-RFO Photo by Tom Clarkson Back to Features

"Big" does not describe Katrina destruction and challenges
By Tom Clarkson, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office

NEW ORLEANS, LA … At over six feet two inches and slipping past the 250 pound mark, the soft-speaking Nolan Raphelt is a big guy.  He moves in measured, unhurried steps, but when he speaks, all around him stop and listen. 

Dual-hated as the deputy director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Field Recovery Office and as the area engineer for debris operations, he has an equally big job leading the Corps portion of the Federal Emergency Management Agency response in south Louisiana. 

In fact, the adjective “big” isn’t adequate to describe how much storm caused debris his team has removed to landfills.   

Almost 6,700 storm destroyed homes have been demolished and hauled to landfills, statewide. Over 260,000 tires have been recycled.  More than 8,000 salt water killed trees have been removed from public right-of-ways and overall total of 58,000 storm ravaged trees cut up and hauled off.  More than 5 million pieces of hazardous waste have been processed. 

All told, over 28,500,000 cubic yards of debris, resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the ensuing flood damage - enough to fill over ten Empire State Buildings – have been removed.  The debris field was five times that of Hurricane Andrew in Florida and included 50 million pounds of putrid, rotting meat. 

“Big”, indeed, has been the scope of this endeavor.  

“Someone rather accurately described this as “an unprecedented disaster met with unparalleled response,” Raphelt said.   

That’s a correct assessment.  The Corps responded with a record team of 1,700 in Louisiana alone and set disaster response marks for pace and volume in every mission area, including traditional FEMA missions such as Operation Blue Roof with 81,000 repaired roofs, ice, water, power and housing support, and the replacement of over 300 critical public facilities and schools.” 

“For all our disaster rules, regulations and laws, we – by that I mean entities ranging from local municipalities to the federal government – it has been a challenge to respond to the magnitude of devastation faced here.  We’ve all learned from this,” Raphelt emphasized. 

“While lots of people have given their hearts and souls, night and day, working long, long hours for two years, we must continue to use the Katrina-Rita response to prepare for future storms.” 

These comments come from a man of tremendous experience and substantive, relative education to the arduous task in which he is in charge. 

With a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M, a master’s degree in engineering from Mississippi State and a PhD from Colorado State, he has the academic credentials.   

Deployed to the Louisiana Field Recovery Office in New Orleans from his regular post as a research hydraulics engineer with the Corps’ Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss., he has 34 continuous years working with the Corps.  Put a check on relevant experience! 

“One need only look at all the exceptionally outstanding things that have been accomplished in this hurricane recovery to realize that nothing but good has ever been intended by those who’ve labored here.  That says a lot about them, the various entities who have addressed this task and humanity as a whole,” Raphelt said. 

“Sure there have been mistakes as we attempted to do something that has never been done before.  But the national awards the Corps team has received for our missions like safety, contracting, and public communications show we got it right and set the pace for future disaster recovery operations.”  

With the tiniest of smiles, he glances up and says, “After all this was a big task!”