Racing against time, an unprecedented year: the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) response to the hurricanes of 2004

Abstract

The hurricane season of 2004 brought significant damage to the southeast United States through wind, wave, and flooding effects. Executing the recovery missions resulted in enormous workloads and many logistical challenges as hurricane after hurricane continued to impact the southeast. The US Army Corps of Engineers were tasked with several key missions to assist victims of the hurricanes in recovery efforts and in preparing for the next hurricane season. One element of this mission, requiring an emergency response to hurricane impacts on Federal Shore Protection Projects totalling nearly 82 miles of coastal shoreline, resulted in the placement of nearly 18 million cubic yards of sand to mitigate for the hurricane impacts and restore the projects to their authorized design levels. Although these projects experienced large erosion losses due to the prolonged storms, they performed as intended and designed. This paper presents the impacts of the 2004 hurricane season on the Federal projects, their performance during the storms, and the resulting emergency restoration efforts. This paper also provides comparisons of hurricane impacts on protected shorelines versus non-protected shorelines; such comparisons highlight the successes of beach nourishment.