Hurricane Adds To Federal Parks' Funding Woes
By Deborah Fitts
December 2003

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Park Service is still reeling from damage inflicted on its parks Sept. 18 in the Mid-Atlantic region, when Hurricane Isabel felled trees, damaged earthworks and sent sections of riverside bluffs sliding into the waters below.

National Park Service (NPS) spokesman Gerry Gaumer said storm damage to 26 federal parks in six states totaled $150 million, including $9.6 million at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park alone. Officials said the storm had caused the greatest damage ever
to befall the National Park System.

"We're hopeful that something will end up being worked out and the money will come from someplace," said Gaumer. "It would behoove those with an interest in Civil War battlefields to write their congressmen and ask what's going to be done for the parks."

He said it was uncertain, however, whether Congress would support a supplemental appropriation. "In light of the war effort, there's not a lot of money coming," he said.

If an appropriation is not forthcoming, said Superintendent Russ Smith at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park, cleanup costs will have to come from NPS's own annual repair and maintenance funds. Since those funds are already inadequate to remedy a multi-billion-dollar list of backlogged work, "Those repairs would be deferred even further."

Smith said cleanup at his park was still under way in early November, with commercial crews removing fallen trees along park roadsides. The area worst hit, South and North Lee Drives, should be cleared up by early December, he said.

Still largely unaddressed are about 140 trees that were growing on earthworks and pulled up sections of the works when they toppled. "We haven't agreed on the best course of action," Smith said. "We might try to cut the trees off and let the root balls fall back in as much
as they could. The cultural resource people would like to wash the root balls off," letting the dirt return to the hole and checking for artifacts.

The federal battlefield parks at Richmond, Petersburg and Yorktown face the identical problem, Smith said, and National Park Service specialists will ultimately decide how to handle the upturned roots. "I don't have any money to do anything right now anyway."

Also uncertain is whether money will be available to replace trees and shrubs in areas that were landscaped. This includes trees that were lost along the Sunken Road and at Chatham, the park's headquarters, in Fredericksburg.

Smith pointed out that the parks are already in dire straits due to chronic underfunding. This year Fredericksburg park employees will receive a 4.1 percent pay hike, but the budget increase will probably not exceed 1 percent. Consequently, this year for the first time the park will close on Thanksgiving. Until now, closures have been only at Christmas and New Year's.

Although visitors will spot plenty of fallen trees and limbs, Smith said all roads and trails are open "People will see some damage but they'll have a great visit," he said. "Everything will be available to them."

At Richmond National Battlefield Park, Superintendent Cynthia MacLeod said federal emergency crews worked for nearly four weeks to clear roads and trails. Cleanup costs are tagged at $3.8 million. The park has a dozen units.

The park staff was "nibbling" at the problem of root balls pulled from earthworks, trimming the roots and attempting to "plop things back in." MacLeod said each tree is addressed on a case-by-case basis, with care not to obliterate the subtle shapes of the works that represent former gun emplacements, platforms and the like.

Drewry's Bluff, where a Confederate fort overlooks the James River, has been re-opened, but concern remains over the status of the 90-foot bluff, the face of which gave way in Isabel's torrential rains. Eventually, if the bluff is not shored up, erosion will reach the front of the fort, and it too will fall into the river, MacLeod said. A repair assessment several years ago pegged the stabilization cost at $7 million.

The park's roads and trails are cleared for visitors, MacLeod said, but the storm's wreckage will still be visible.

At Petersburg National Battlefield, Superintendent Bob Kirby said the cost of storm cleanup and repairs could reach as high as $3.8 million. If efforts to secure funding from Congress fail, he said, "It will make a big difference. We're already suffering from severe budget problems. We had our plate full before the storm; we would be literally knocked to our knees."

Damage to earthworks was severe, except where the park had completed the first year of a three-year project to remove trees growing on the works. Elsewhere, huge root balls that Kirby estimated weighed as much as 19 tons present a daunting challenge - but funding must come
first.

Still unresolved is how to treat the 75-foot bluff at City Point, where trees along the top fell, carrying sections of the bluff face.

Stabilization measures being considered are stone-filled gabion baskets or sheet-pile bulkheads, where iron sheets are hammered vertically into the earth.

Kirby said that thanks to advance planning, Petersburg got the cleanup under way as soon as the emergency teams arrived. "This was handled like a fire." When the teams arrived, "we had already assessed the damage, created a priority list, and identified staff to lead the charge. We didn't waste any time." The crews stayed 21 days and "we got a huge amount done. But there's much that remains."

The end of outside emergency response assistance at Colonial National Historical Park was celebrated about a month after the hurricane when park service crews and contractors were feted at Colonial Williamsburg staging area before returning to their home bases.The park service reports that more than 800 people representing at least 80 agencies and organizations performed emergency recovery work at Colonial, Petersburg, Richmond and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Parks.