McCOMB, Miss. - Only hours after the passage of Hurricane Isaac, Mississippi Army National Guard engineers responded to a request from Pike County officials to assist in flood control and repairs of the Percy Quinn Lake levee, which was in danger of being breached by floodwaters from the storm.
"The goal is to build an emergency spillway to relieve pressure on this dam," said Army Col. Amos P. Parker, Mississippi National Guard liaison officer for Pike County. "We can open this up and have a controlled open flow of the water so that we don't create a flooding issue downstream from here."
Downstream from the 700-acre lake in McComb are homes and businesses. Flooding would also affect traffic on nearby Interstate 55, a vital evacuation artery for traffic as rising waters caused by the hurricane continue to flood Louisiana parishes across the state line.
The high amount of rainfall received locally from Isaac and in areas north of the lake caused seepage underneath the dam, said Army Maj. Ronnie Spiers, executive office of the Mississippi Army Guard's 890th Engineer Battalion, adding that the seepage weakened the banks of the dam causing them to begin to slough off.
A damaged overflow gate on the dam is further aggravating the situation, Spiers said.
"The emergency overflow is damaged and it's not operating correctly, so there's not enough water being released from the lake," he said.
The Soldiers of the battalion worked 24-hour shifts while coordinating with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, Mississippi Department of Transportation and other agencies in addressing the threat.
"We've got a lot of dirt to move," Spiers said. "We're trying to clear the trees out in approximately a 150-foot wide area that we're going to be taking down about 25-feet deep and then the excavation [of the spillway] is about 300 feet," Spiers said. "The project will take about a week to complete."
The Guard is providing Soldiers and digging equipment and MDOT is using their trucks to remove the trees and dirt from the site, said Albert White, district engineer for MDOT's District 7.
"It makes it easier and cheaper," he said.
Army Sgt. William Rickels, a Baton Rouge, La., native with the 251st Engineer Company of attached to the 890th Eng. Bn., said he was glad to be helping in the project because he has been in similar circumstances.
"Being from south Louisiana and a Guard member for 13 years, I'm well aware of the impact that missions like this have on the locals," he said. "They're not my neighbors, but I'm completely empathetic with the feelings and concerns they have right now."