EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT – GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
Engineers to the Rescue!
CLINT CAMP, W&A’s Director of Nashville Operations, is a roll-up-your-sleeves kinda guy, and his favorite way to give back to the community is to use his professional skills in a volunteer capacity. In 2013, Clint was on the ground floor of an effort to establish TNSAVE, Tennessee Structural Assessment and Visual Evaluation Coalition. TNSAVE is a group of professional organizations whose objective is to help the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) develop and maintain a post-disaster, building inspection program. Like California and Missouri, which have similar programs, the threat of earthquakes in Tennessee is very real. California is home to the San Andreas Fault, and Missouri and Tennessee share the less well-known, but active, New Madrid Fault Line.
Three of the most powerful earthquakes ever on the North American continent occurred on the New Madrid Fault Line.
(Image taken from TNSAVE Overview Video.)
Not a believer? Just Google Reelfoot Lake State Park, and you’ll find that the 15,000 acre lake, located in the northwest corner of Tennessee,
was created by a series of violent earthquakes in 1811-1812 that caused the Mississippi River to…believe it or not…flow backwards for a short period of time.
Historical data shows that the New Madrid Fault produces cluster quakes and that a repeat of large magnitude quakes such as those that
occurred over 200 years ago is likely in our lifetime. (Image of quake damage taken from TNSAVE Overview Video.)
Since its organizational meeting in 2013, Clint has been instrumental in turning TNSAVE into a reality as a founding member and board member/secretary.
SAVE members are engineers, architects, building inspectors, and other construction and design professionals with an interest in volunteering. TNSAVE
identifies, recruits, trains, and then mobilizes volunteers following disasters to evaluate the structural integrity of key facilities and assess vertical structures
for safe occupancy and continued use.
Field Strike Team analyzing an existing building during a joint training exercise.
Clint addressing the 2018 Tennessee Engineers’ Conference with a call-to-respond for design professionals to support TNSAVE and volunteer to help,
if needed, for Hurricane Florence.
In addition to Clint’s leadership role with TNSAVE, he volunteers two days a year teaching the training courses required for TNSAVE volunteers. Clint is also active with the Nashville Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders-USA (http://ewb-nashville.org/about-us/) and Rebuilding Together Nashville (https://www.rtnashville.org/.
For more information about TNSAVE, visit http://www.tnsave.org/.
November 2018