POINCIANA, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and its contractors commemorated the last day of Operation Blue Roof on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, by installing the last blue roof in central Florida as part of Hurricane Milton recovery efforts.

This marks the end of the Operation Blue Roof program, which provided temporary roof protection to Florida homes damaged by Milton. The program covered more than 8,296 roofs and collected 11,502 rights of entry (ROES) from several Florida counties.

“It’s amazing to see the work of our teammates in the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), our Jacksonville District, the South Atlantic Division and across the country who have joined with our partners to help get Florida back on its feet.” said Lt. Gen. William “Butch” H. Graham, Jr., 56th Chief of Engineers and USACE Commanding General.

Graham visited the devastated areas of Florida in October and praised the team for their work to help restore normalcy in Florida communities.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Oct. 9 on Siesta Key, about 70 miles south of Tampa, as a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 120 mph. The storm spawned a record 150 tornadoes in Florida and brought deadly storm surges, ferocious winds and rain. It weakened to a Category 1 storm early as it moved inland and exited near Cape Canaveral.

By October 10, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began coordinating with USACE missions. When the president declared a major disaster declaration for Florida with no cost share for 90 days, the USACE Temporary Roofing team began preparing for a potential mission; by October 14, the Jacksonville District received the assignment, initially for 25 counties.

The contractor installed the final roof on the home of Poinciana resident Mark Arena, a retired US Army Vietnam veteran.

Arena said his home was damaged by strong winds during Hurricane Milton. After the storm passed, he saw the shingles on the ground and called the insurance company.

He heard about the Blue Roof Program on TV from a local news station, watched online and registered. Within days, someone from USACE emailed and called him.

“I feel special as a military veteran and it was the US Army Corps of Engineers that helped me fix my roof,” Arena said.

The purpose of Operation Blue Roof is to provide homeowners in disaster areas with fiber-reinforced sheeting to cover their damaged roofs until arrangements can be made for permanent repairs.

According to Nicole Cominoli, Mission Manager, US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, after a hurricane, people don’t realize the extent of roof damage until weeks after a rainstorm.

“By installing temporary roofs, we are restoring a sense of normalcy to people during a chaotic and stressful time. Our main goal is to get people back into their homes as quickly as we can while providing a quality product,” Cominoli said.

This is a free service for homeowners. Operation Blue Roof protects property, reduces temporary housing costs and allows residents to remain in their homes while they recover from the storm. “We’re proud to say this Blue Roof response is the program’s fastest deployment to date, with teams mobilized and on the ground within hours to begin providing critical roofing assistance,” Cominoli said. Since the first install in Oct 16, we’ve averaged around 300 installs per day and we’ve continued to gain momentum.”

USACE brings unique capabilities to emergency response. It’s just one part of a much larger Army and Department of Defense team working to support our federal, state and local partners.

Operation Blue Roof is a priority mission assigned to the US Army Corps of Engineers by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“USACE is reducing the time it takes to begin installing blue roofs in several ways, including by forming temporary housing teams ready to deploy from their home districts and using pre-coordinated contracting vehicles,” said Matthew Mansfield, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hurricane Milton Operation Blue. Resident Engineer Roof Misson.

25 counties eligible for Operation Blue Roof:

Brevard, Citrus, Charlotte, DeSoto, Flagler, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Manatee, Martin, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter and Volusia Counties were eligible for the program.”

A total of 8,296 blue roofs were installed in response to Hurricane Milton. USACE validated 11,502 rights of entry (ROEs) collected from residents and, of those, evaluated 9,017. The first blue roofs were installed on October 16 in Sarasota County.

The ROE is a legal document that allows the USACE to evaluate roofs and gives permission to the USACE contractor to install temporary roofs.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is prepared and ready to respond to natural and man-made disasters and contingencies overseas. When disasters strike, USACE teams and other resources are mobilized from across the country to assist our local districts and offices to carry out our response missions.

The USACE has more than 50 specially trained response teams, supported by emergency contracts, to perform a wide range of public works and engineering-related support missions.

In any disaster, USACE’s top three priorities are:

Support immediate life-saving and life-safety emergency response priorities.

It supports life with temporary emergency critical power and other needs.

Initiate recovery efforts by assessing and restoring critical infrastructure.

(The public can get news, updates and information from the US Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District on the district’s website at Facebook at and Twitter at www.twitter.com/JaxStrong.)

Pictures of the first installation of the blue roof on October 19 are available at:

For Blue Roof information, visit the USACE Operation Blue Roof Hurricane website at