Reply to Mr. Larry Vernon’s “Letter to the Editor”

Mr. Vernon suggested getting the facts. The facts are: There was no electrical power to the pumps at the pump station during that flood in the 1980’s – and it makes no difference what kind of monitors are in place, if there is a power failure the pumps do not work. How could the pumps work with no electrical power? Miles Johnson, lake manager at the Russellville project office with the Corps of Engineers stated that there was a power outage with high water during that flood of the 1980’s. The bridges had nothing to do with there being no electrical power to the pumps and they were idle – simply put I have offered the facts. However, I do agree with you that the creek and bridges need to be kept clean.

Your contingency plan failed. If the people with the U. S. Corps of Engineers had had their homes flooded as many in Russellville did, and had to repair them at their own expense I am sure they would have realized the contingency plan was a failure. Their contingency plan is to bring in large generators in a worst-case scenario – this means after we have had a flood. I don’t want to wait until Entergy can determine how long it will take to repair the electrical outage and then negotiate with other U. S. Corps groups to determine if a generator is needed, then wait until one is moved in from Little Rock, maybe Memphis, or maybe even Oklahoma City, and all the while Russellville is flooding.

At the May Planning Commission meeting there were people present that used boats to help others out of their businesses and homes during that flood of the 1980’s. Ask them if the contingency plan worked.

One incident during that flood involved a young man that had a V.W. mud buggy. He was driving on bolder and having a fun time splashing water high in the air and breaking windows in businesses. A local business owner (whom we all knew) got his pistol from under his counter and stopped the kid, pointed his pistol at him and said, “If you come through here again and break another window I will use this on you.” We all have a built in defense system to protect the things we have worked so hard for and we don’t need floods to start that kind of problem.

Imagine with me what it would be like with a rain of 2 inches per hour at 2:00 A. M. The power fails and someone has to get permission, and then locate and get a generator from where ever they are stored, one that possibly has not been started in months or years, and with old and stale fuel from storage – and then we have to find a specialist that can come in to connect everything and get the generators working properly – with the way our government operates this might take days.

Mr. Johnson indicated that Entergy brought in a second line – obviously someone recognized there is a problem. While I recognize that the second line is helpful I can’t help but believe that with a major storm or accident causing a major power failure two lines would be no better than one line.

This is not a far-fetched ideal – power failures and floods are happening somewhere around this nation on a regular basis.

I am simply asking the U. S. Corps of Engineers to install three more pumps and have in place an electrical back up system (generator) that will kick in as soon as a power failure would occur – without having to get someone out in a storm that doesn’t want to leave his home or family at such a time as that and go through the process of getting power re-established. I had a friend with a couple of chicken houses during the major ice storm and power failure in 1999. Because of that power outage he lost about seven thousand chickens. My friend installed a computer controlled fully automatic diesel powered generator to supply power (and heat) to his chicken houses to prevent this from happening again. My friend tests that back-up system weekly. Surely the U. S. Corps of Engineers can recognize that the health and safety of 28,000 residents of Russellville are as important as those seven thousand chickens.

One more thing: Our city should clean out Prairie Creek to insure proper water movement during a flood. The cost could be minimal by getting the local National Guard units to assist in this as part of their training. While doing this we could develop a plan to turn Prairie Creek into an asset and not a liability – maybe a river walk along side it from downtown to Bona Dea Trail. That would create one more attraction to our fine city and be profitable and beautiful to us all.