JAMESTOWN, N.D. - More than 80 Soldiers with the 817th Engineer Company (Sapper) have traveled here to continue flood-fighting operations. The unit was activated almost a month ago - on March 23 - and began working in Jamestown early this week after coming from Valley City, and before that, Fargo.
Staff Sgt. Paul M. Seher, a supply sergeant with the 817th, said about 60 of the unit's Soldiers were helping sandbag, about a dozen were placing and filling HESCO barriers and another dozen were maintaining traffic control points in the city.
Seher, a Jamestown native, said the response from volunteers had been outstanding and many local students had come out to help fight the flood alongside the Guard.
"If somebody needed help, the buses would fill up and they'd go to someone's house to build a sandbag dike," he said.
"The community is really pulling together for this sandbag effort," 1st Sgt. Curtis W. Kaseman added. "Teamwork at a time like this is crucial."
Kaseman, senior enlisted Soldier of the 817th, said right now the unit was focused on protecting private residences and businesses in the area.
"We have two HESCO missions and sandbagging missions in conjunction with volunteers," Kaseman said. "The Corps [of Engineers] is constructing the main levee in Jamestown with the help of private contractors."
"I feel pretty confident in the dike system here," he said.
The Guard had a brief timeframe to get temporary dikes and HESCO barriers built, as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had cut back on releases from local reservoirs.
According to a Corps news release, releases from the Pipestem reservoir were decreased from 800 cubic feet per second to 400 cubic feet per second in order to help construction crews build levees and volunteers place sandbags.
The releases were later increased in order to keep the reservoir from overflowing.
"We finished the low-lying areas," Kaseman said. "They [the Corps] held back the water and we got that mission completed, so the Corps opened up releases again."
Sgt. 1st Class Gary L. Varberg, platoon sergeant with the 817th, said they had to wait until the Corps decreased releases to start placing about 400 meters of the barrier.
"In some places - the really wet spots - we had to double up to create a bigger footprint," Varberg added.
He said water wasn't the only challenge the unit had to deal with. In Fargo, sand had been brought in by contractors, but here the unit was using five 20-ton trucks to transport sand from the nearest site: Medina.
"The big thing is getting the sand here ourselves," he said. "We're hauling it in from Medina, which makes it slow going."
After the levee and HESCO missions are complete, the 817th will change its focus from building the temporary dikes to patrolling them. The 817th also will combine with the 136th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion to form quick reaction forces that are ready to respond to any sign of trouble.
"We're getting tired but we're going to keep at it and morale is still high,"
Kaseman said. "My Soldiers are well-trained and disciplined and I have every faith in their ability to drive on. We're going to stay in this fight as long as we can."
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 04.18.2009 18:01 |
| Story ID: | 32552 |
| Location: | JAMESTOWN, US |
| Web Views: | 109 |
| Downloads: | 92 |
This work, 817th Supports Flood Fight in Jamestown, by Chris Erickson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
