When disaster strikes across the country, teams with the Hanford Site’s Volpentest HAMMER Federal Training Center can be found on the front lines of U.S. Department of Energy efforts.
Office of Environmental Management
January 7, 2025
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RICHLAND, Wash. — When disaster strikes across the country, teams with the Hanford Site’s Volpentest HAMMER Federal Training Center can be found on the front lines of U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) efforts to restore critical energy services such as electricity and fuel supplies.
Tony Jimenez, standing at the front of room, is a member of the Hanford Site’s Volpentest HAMMER Federal Training Center Emergency Support Function #12 team. He shares an update on restoration efforts after Hurricane Helene, at the National Response Coordination Center in Washington, D.C.
Last year proved especially challenging as members of HAMMER’s Emergency Support Function (ESF) #12 team provided critical support to response efforts for six hurricanes and two tropical storms; severe flooding in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana; and a wildfire in New Mexico.
“Since 2003, HAMMER has directly supported DOE’s ESF #12 team to meet its responsibilities for energy restoration assistance during emergencies,” said Paul Vandervert, director at HAMMER, which stands for Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response. “Providing response expertise and hands-on custom training to the ESF #12 team is one of the cornerstones of our national programs.”
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Emergency Support Function #12 Coordinator Bill Eaton, left, talks with Elaine Ulrich, senior advisor for the DOE Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, during his deployment to North Carolina to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Hurricane Milton.
Emergency support functions are part of the National Response Framework, which guides the nation’s response to all types of disasters and emergencies. An ESF’s purpose is to unify the community and coordinate capabilities, services, technical assistance and engineering expertise during disasters and incidents requiring federal responses.
Such incidents include Hurricane Helene, which packed winds topping 130 mph as it made landfall in Florida in September before moving north and bringing heavy rainfall to Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. Nearly 6 million people lost power during the storm.
Hurricane Milton followed a few weeks later, also making landfall in central Florida, with winds over 110 mph. In the aftermath of both storms, the ESF #12 team supported response and restoration activities for 28 consecutive days.
“It sounds crazy, but we send our ESF #12 team members into those areas before a storm hits and get them set up in a safe location,” said Tony Jimenez, an ESF #12 deployment coordinator at HAMMER. “They ride out the storm and then serve as our eyes and ears on the ground, giving us reports and assessing what’s happening to help us determine where our resources will be needed most.”
HAMMER staff work long hours to coordinate deployments and support the team in the field with safety oversight, logistics and finance tracking to help restore energy supplies and services so communities can move forward after an energy emergency.
-Contributor: Shane Edinger
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