Courtesy Photo | Dan McBride receives the Civilian Service Achievement Medal from Eaton Emergency Field...... read more read more
For 20 years Dan McBride has been an instrumental member of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, representing the organization on multiple emergency response deployments.
His most recent response in July supporting recovery efforts for the Southern California wildfires, was similar to his first deployment after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005. Time and technology have changed, but the mission of helping people has remained the same.
“I was a GIS [Geographic Information Systems] specialist supporting the debris mission in California,” McBride said. “I was assigned to the Eaton EFO [Emergency Field Office] with the RFO [Recovery Field Office] in Pasadena. I sat next to the RFO GIS specialist and formed more of a team instead of operating independently.”
According to McBride, the mission was near completion when he arrived.
“It was down to the difficult locations and projects pushed to the end. The mission does evolve, and so does the GIS support. Early on it’s a ‘go, go, go’ situation—basically making sure there are no roadblocks for the construction crews and action taking place.”
To keep things running smoothly, McBride focused on data integrity.
“When I got there, it was more looking backwards—ensuring everything synced up and adding up all the records, so the data makes sense,” he said. “If and when they don’t, we find out why. You go through the 10,000-plus records and update where needed. But you also have to be really careful because you don’t want to falsely count things just to make it add up.”
He noted the scale of the response compared to other disasters.
“This was larger than the disaster in Maui in terms of the number of parcels and properties affected, and it was done in half a year compared to several years out there,” McBride said. “The nature of that huge amount of work being done in a short amount of time because of the automation we had and the rapid pace—it’s a great success story for USACE to scale up and respond to a disaster like this. I don’t think people grasp how big it was.”
Performing a job like this comes with unique challenges—mainly having the tools to process all that data accurately and without delays, which means working away from the front lines.
“For me, the field was basically for context, and all my work was done at my desk in an office,” McBride said. “I need to be connected to the network. All the databases and systems that we need are not on-site, so you need a strong network and internet connection. That’s why I was physically sitting next to the other GIS person. Our jobs make us bandwidth hogs and they had us directly connected to the network switch so we could plug in over a hard line.”
Despite the challenges, McBride said deployments remain a welcome opportunity.
“I like the experience. I like getting to unplug from life in general,” he said. “Here I always have 20 plates spinning and make progress here and there. There, you just unplug for 30 days and focus on one thing. You’re also always helping somebody. You’re making a difference because you’re there because of a need. You’re part of a solution, and that’s satisfying—seeing real progress and knowing you’re a part of that.”
While USACE deployments are currently in a calm status, that can change at any time. For those considering a deployment, McBride offered some advice.
“My deployment advice in general is the same advice I was given the first time I deployed,” he said. “I asked the GIS Cadre Team Lead what advice he had for me. I expected something technical, but instead he said, ‘Just be flexible. You really don’t know what’s going to be needed and just expect to do whatever’s required.’ Come with that attitude, stay flexible, and you’ll do great.”
| Date Taken: | 09.18.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 09.18.2025 13:13 |
| Story ID: | 548580 |
| Location: | ALTADENA, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 18 |
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