The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Little Rock District held Levee Sector Lead training for 23 employees from around the district at the Jacksonport State Park Visitor Center in Jacksonport, Arkansas on March 27, 2024.
LSL training came about after the historic 2019 Arkansas River flood event. During the event, the Levee Safety Program Manager had to spend large amounts of their time answering basic questions from the Levee Monitoring Team, pulling them away from critical job duties.
The Little Rock District Emergency Management Office and the Levee Safety Office developed LSL training to overcome the challenges in 2019. The team developed and implemented a new training program that provides additional levee inspection training to designated levee monitoring team members. Once the designated team members have completed the training, they become levee sector leads.
“The Levee Sector Leads are now set up to handle some of the basic levee issues. If the issues go above their training, they can then contact the Levee Safety Program Manager,” said Jim Marple, Little Rock District emergency management chief.
The training lasts two days and involves both theoretical and practical application through classroom briefings and on ground levee inspections. Briefings consist of LSL reporting requirements, discussing the various sections of a levee, a review of the Emergency Operations Center interface and water safety around levees. Day two consists of walking inspections on active levees near Jacksonport.
Once the training is complete the LSL becomes the trained buffer between the LMT and the LSPM.