Subscribe
Kansas and Fort Riley weathered a severe winter storm Feb. 12 to 16. And although there were damages in the form of some burst pipes, more extensive problems were averted. Fort Riley’s leaders credit the people who work on the installation with making a difference.
Jeff Williamson, Directorate of Public Works director, credits the leaders within the branches of his directorate and his contract partners with mitigating the consequences of Winter Storm Uri when it comes to the utilities and facility protection.
“Our people. Our contract posture. Our DPW leadership,” Williamson said when asked about the reason Fort Riley escaped more serious damage.
This sentiment is echoed throughout the garrison as directorates each stepped up and met the conditions head on.
“Proactive messaging, proactive preventative maintenance with the placement of space heaters in high-risk areas, walking and closing windows and exterior doors in all barracks,” Said Steve Milton, Chief of Army Housing at Fort Riley. “Transparency in communications between residents, partners and leadership. These are a few of the success measures that I think allowed us to have a pretty good success getting ahead of the storm.”
Even with all of the proactive measures, there was still some damage. However, when that damage occurred, the people of Fort Riley were ready.
“Unaccompanied Housing is the barracks and we also have the Bachelor Officers Quarters on Main Post,” said Pamela Morlewski, Unaccompanied Housing branch chief. “We inspected all 66 barracks and 32 apartments in the BOQ for storm damage. The fire suppression system burst and flooded the basement of the BOQ’s where the individual storage rooms are located. To get the occupants’ items off the floors of the storage room, we brought in wooden pallets to prevent further damage. Due to the inspections, not one Soldier had to be relocated.”
Morlewski credits Hector Figueroa and Eryk Hayden from her team for getting the pallets in place and taking care of the personal items of the Soldiers.
There were also some vacant homes within the Fort Riley Residential Communities Initiative Housing Branch footprint to inspect and keep any damage from the extreme freeze to a minimum.
“RCI inspectors caught four vacant homes with water coming out of walls, that saved the army partner money,” said Lynne Hammond, RCI branch chief.
By catching any burst pipes early, the team was able to keep water damage to a minimum and allow the contractor, Corvias, time to repair pipes.
Overall, the mission was never compromised at Fort Riley even with two-hour work delays, 18 residents displaced for a short period of time, a power outage and some frozen pipes.
Larry Graham, the Fort Riley Utilities Privatization Manager explained that sending people home to work because of power and heat outages actually prevented Fort Riley from having to undergo further temporary outages.
“It was an executed black start event caused by Southwest Power Pool,” Graham said. “Basically, they were trying to share the peak load across the grid system to minimize damage to the actual grid. If they would have left everybody on, we would have had whole swaths of the Midwest without power much like Texas.”
When it comes to the operational facilities on Fort Riley, Graham said that using natural gas as a primary heat source was another means of mitigating the power draw by the installation. Additionally, the call to send people home to telework was another saving factor.
“We think that helped us out on the second day of planned blackouts,” Graham said. “The first day was a holiday so everyone was already home and the second day many were sent home to telework. I think that was the reason why, though they haven’t come right out and said it, that we didn’t have a second day of blackouts.”
One thing is certain, the workforce is flexible within the garrison. If personnel work at home or in the office, they have practice keeping the mission going wherever they set up their laptops.
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2021 15:49 |
| Story ID: | 390712 |
| Location: | KS, US |
| Web Views: | 89 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Winter storm damage lessened by people, by Collen McGee, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
LEAVE A COMMENT