Over 100 Marines deployed for Kelly Dike Rehabilitation project

KELLY – the Marines have landed in Kelly, North Carolina.

They are there doing training and at the same time fixing a critical problem that could become catastrophic if left unattended. The Kelly Dike Rehabilitation Project is now underway.

According to https://www.stansairboatservice.com/dams-levees-and-dikes/ “Dams, levees, and dikes all play a critical role in flood prevention. While each of these structures offers similar functions, they are not the same and these terms should not be used interchangeably. Dams are man-made or beaver-made structures that run through or across bodies of water. Their main purpose is to create a barrier that holds back water, raising its level and resulting in a reservoir that can be used as a water supply or to generate electricity. The purpose of a levee is to keep river banks from spilling over or to control the flow of ocean waves. Levees are typically earthen embankments that are designed to control, divert, or contain the flow of water to reduce flood risk. Unlike dams, these man-made structures typically have water only on one side in order to protect the dry land on the other side. Unfortunately, as seen during Hurricane Katrina, levees can breach and flooding can occur when excess rainfall or melting snow causes water levels to rise. Similar to levees, dikes are embankments with water on one side used to control flooding. These structures protect land that would otherwise be underwater the majority of the time.”

The communities along the Cape Fear River basin, including Kelly, faced repeated flooding between 1885 and 1945. Recognizing the need for protection, investigations began around 1909 into building a “Cape Fear Levee” alongside the proposed Lyon Swamp Canal. In 1945, a major flood caused the dike to fail in 11 locations, and the USACE repaired the breaches. In 2018, Hurricane Florence brought record flooding to the Cape Fear River, exceeding the 1945 flood levels, and the White Oak Dike experienced severe damage.

According to Emily Featherston and Alex Guarino from WECT, “Kelly, an unincorporated community nestled along Highway 53 between the Cape Fear River and the Bladen County-Pender County line, is in a flood zone but has supposedly been protected by a dike system for more than 100 years. On Sept. 19, (2019) five days after Florence made landfall, the White Oak Dike breached in half a dozen places and the swelling Cape Fear River poured into the small, rural community.”

“After many years of persistent coordination, community efforts, and requests for military assistance, the Bladen County Board of Commissioners is pleased (to begin) Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) is a Department of Defense (DoD) military training opportunity, exclusive to the United States and its territories, that delivers joint training opportunities to increase deployment readiness,” The Bladen County Board of Commissioners announced. “Simultaneously, IRT provides key services with lasting benefits for our American Communities. The Kelly Dike, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Matthew, and breeched during Hurricane Florence, will benefit from the Innovative Readiness Training project. The Kelly community, located in southeastern Bladen County along the Cape Fear River, experienced catastrophic damage to homes, churches and properties. Restoration of the dike will give the strong faith-based Kelly community a sense of hope and security for their homes, families, farms, churches, friends, life, emergency services, and incomes back.”

A rehabilitation project is now underway to repair the Kelly dike system and Marines are in temporary housing in Elizabethtown.

“We have US communities including the territories apply on our website for service in their community,” according to Master Sgt. Rachelle Morris who is in Elizabethtown as a media coordinator for the project. “Here (in Kelly) it is construction, but it can also be cyber, it can be medical. You name it, we’ll do it. We’ll come into that community and will do it at no cost to that community, which a lot of these communities are under served communities and it really helps out. For us, the trade off is, we get readiness deployment training. So, when you are in a reserve or (National) Guard unit like they are, you may go in once a month.”

In a normal training for these military units, they may cut down one tree in their regiment. This is a chance for these military units to do over 1500 trees. They also get to repair a levee which, according to Morris is also very similar to a berm which is what you are building when you set up a base.

“This is a great exchange for U.S. communities and the military,” she said. “And that’s what makes it so awesome.”

The program is based on asking for help and applying for aid that is available in many areas.

“If this community wants more than just construction, like maybe a medical mission if there are medical needs, we don’t ask for insurance, we don’t ask for IDs, we don’t care if you are a citizen, we just want to help U.S. communities,” Morris said. “Also, our troops are getting medical training that they can use downrange. It’s a great program and I wish more people knew about it.”

The troops have been so accommodating and according to Morris, the people of North Carolina are very grateful and kind.

“We met the man who runs the Kelly gas station named Charles, and then a community partner is also a ‘Charles’ and Mr. Smith is a Marine. And that is the main area that we working on his property and he actually spoke about Hurricane Florence and how the water had breached his land and he couldn’t get to his family’s grave sites. He just wanted to patch the levee and getting back their grave sites.”

There are tons of heartbreaking stories that have been told since the hurricanes hit and Bladen County Commissioner and Chairman Charles Ray Peterson decided to take some action.

“He said he’s been working at this for seven years and he couldn’t get funding from anybody,” Morris said. “He finally found us and he doesn’t even remember how he stumbled upon it. It’s been like an instant partnership and it’s just been beautiful and he’s been so great to us. He found this location for us to work out of – to be housed, to be fed and then the local community has been great as well.”

The Marines have their bunks set up in the old prison cells at the Bladen County Emergency Services Training Facility near White Lake according to Morris.

“We have the whole cafeteria to ourselves and we brought in food service troops and they make the meals,” Morris said. “Everybody, technically on an IRT mission is a trainee. That’s what they are here to do. I mean… I’m public affairs and a journalist and I’m training too.”

One of the Marines who helped run the training operation, Kollin Craig, was from Monroe City, Missouri.

“I come from a town of only about 2,000 and the people here remind me of home,” Craig said. “The people here are very similar to the kind of people I grew up with. Small-town folks who are just trying to make a living. But there are gnats here and I’m not a fan. I’m the Officer in Charge or the OIC for a mission that is with Innovative Readiness Training. It’s a program that pairs civilian communities throughout the community and military units to conduct training to accomplish a greater good, essentially. So, we brought about 100 Marines down here to Elizabethtown and we are reconstructing the Kelly dike over in Kelly. We are removing the vegetation and going to reconstitute it. We bring that soil back up to the dike and try to preserve that dike so that we don’t have another Hurricane Florence event.”

As to the timeline, that will be difficult to determine because of the extensive nature of the work needed.

“It’s going to be an extensive timeline,” Craig said. “I don’t anyone could put one final date on it because it’s going to be constant maintenance. A project like this is never done but removing the vegetation is time consuming. We found that it takes a lot longer than expected. My Marines will be here through August 7 and then a lot of it will fall back upon the community partner, Mr. Peterson who has been a phenomenal asset to be sure to continue submitting those community applications and continue getting military services here – so truthfully it is opened ended. It’s a community project that can never be really finished.”

The question that is on everyone’s mind is how strong will the levees be after reconstruction.

“The levees are going to be done to an engineering standard,” he said. “We worked with Katlin Engineering out of Wilmington and they designed the levee to withhold a certain amount of water. They are going to be better than they were. The biggest thing is that they had trees and vegetation grown up. They had eroded in places. By getting them back to a standard that’s at least acceptable we should be better off than we were.”

The process has been long. Peterson sent in the community application over two years ago and then the military responded over a year ago.

“We did a lot of surveys and visits out here,” Craig said. “It’s been about a year process and the Marines arrived July 7 and will be leaving Aug. 7. Just a quick, short month, but we have 100 Marines working and in the short time we’ve been here we’ve accomplished a tremendous amount of work. We’ve operated about 500 heavy equipment hours which is a significant amount of training for Marines. We’ve felled 1500 trees and we haven’t even gone a half a mile. We are really working our tails off and we’ve enjoyed the local populace that has been so supportive. We love it here. It’s good training and good people.”

Bladen County is receptive, grateful and at this time of year, holding our collective breath that another hurricane doesn’t visit us in 2025.

“Hopefully the people will see what we’re doing and it will bring repeat business,” Craig said. “It is what the military can provide and hopefully the taxpayers can see what they are paying taxes for can feel happy about it.”

The Marines have now deployed to another job – but hopefully another group will be able to come and continue the job soon.