20 Jun 2019

Getting to Know the Omaha District: Chuck McWilliams

With more 700,000 square miles within its area of responsibility, the Omaha District’s 1,200+ employees bring very unique skillsets and experiences to the District’s broad mission set. Positions within the District range from a variety of disciplines, from engineers to real estate experts, to contract specialists, meteorologists, photographers—just to name a few. District employee ages range from low 20s into the mid-to-late 70s. Some of our teammates have experienced some of the best and worse the Midwest has to offer, while others were only toddlers when 9-11 happened. Some have only been with the District for a few weeks, while others have dedicated more than 40 years of their life to the District. All have a story and through this forum, we will begin highlighting some of them so the reader better understand the broad range of diversity we have within the Omaha District.

10 May 2019

Corps of Engineers leveraging drone technology to capture imagery after flooding in Midwest

In mid-to-late March, flood water covered much of eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, and northern Missouri. Due to the extreme amount of water in the area, members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District had trouble getting to the more than 500 miles of compromised levees to surveille for damage so they turned to a new option to the Omaha District....drones. Drones, or unmanned aerial systems, offer the District the opportunity to fly over affected levees and other flooded areas without putting District employees in danger.

1 May 2019

Omaha District System Restoration Team in full swing bringing levee system back up

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District responded to the devastating unregulated runoff event of 2019 by activating the Omaha Systems Restoration Team, whose mission is to provide regional, time-sensitive repair of levees, dams and other flood control structures that were damaged throughout the Missouri River Basin.

19 Mar 2019

Corps using alternative, expedited permitting procedures to authorize flood-related repairs

Due to the current flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District Regulatory Branch will be using alternative and expedited permitting procedures to authorize flood-related repairs within regulated waters of the U.S. These procedures will allow the Corps to expedite permitting requests for Nationwide Permits, Regional General Permits, and Standard Permits for flood recovery activities.

26 Feb 2019

When doing what you love is part of your job: The life of a visual information specialist

What types of career options come to your mind when you think of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? Engineering, of course, or construction perhaps. Even project management and economics careers would be obvious. The reality is that USACE offers scores of careers in vastly different focus areas ranging from finance and accounting, to safety and occupational health, and even to graphic design or “visual information” as it’s referred to in the military. The latter career (and the focus of this piece) is a common position in military outfits; visual information specialists are typically the military personnel armed with a camera or video camera—in addition to their normal battlefield weapons.