Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, (R-Georgia) delivered these remarks Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Times of crisis make or break reputations. My home state of Georgia experienced such a crisis in the past two weeks, with rainfall and floods believed to set the benchmark for a 500-year period.

Last week, President Obama declared parts of Georgia a disaster area, opening up federal aid, and the House of Representatives paid tribute to both the victims of the flood and the courageous emergency workers who put their own lives on the line to protect lives and property.

The worst destruction occurred in the upper Chattahoochee River basin. Because the rising water flowing down the river could have easily snowballed and ravaged areas south of West Point Dam, we’re fortunate that areas of west Georgia didn’t experience devastation on the scale seen in North Georgia.

While areas southwest of Atlanta did see some inevitable flooding during the heaviest rainfalls on record, counties south of West Point Lake benefited from the excellent management of the lake by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps performs important water management tasks that most Americans take for granted. The Corps takes abuse when it has to issue tough decisions but its many good works go unnoticed.

I want to correct that oversight today. The Corps management of the basin and specifically West Point Lake during the floods unquestionably saved lives and property. The Corps acted with foresight and skill, and my constituents in west Georgia benefited from these actions immensely.

When heavy rains began to fall in North Georgia and metro Atlanta, the Corps prepared early for the deluge of water heading downstream by strategically releasing water from the lake to create more storage capacity.

A leading expert on West Point Lake, Joe Maltese of LaGrange, called the Corps’ early maneuvering “brilliant.”

“Throughout the week of the floods, the Corps used the water storage capacity it had been given to its fullest, and held nature’s fury back to protect as much and as many as they could downstream below West Point dam,” Maltese said. “The Corps walked a tightrope trying to assure the dam held back all it could against the mighty surge - and they succeeded.”

Even though this year’s flood set the 500-year benchmark, the Corps managed to keep the dam below record levels set in 2003 while at the same time regulating releases to prevent massive flooding below the dam.

Residents of Troup County, the county where West Point Lake is, have stood united in their praise of the Corps of Engineers. The LaGrange-Troup Chamber of Commerce West Point Lake Committee gave the Corps a sincere thank you. And the city of West Point, which did suffer some flooding, is grateful that the Corps of Engineers prevented the worst from happening: “The Corps did an excellent job controlling the river,” said West Point Police Chief David Kerr.

To that, I would like to add my gratitude and congratulations to the fine men and women of the Corps of Engineers for their efforts during a trying time for Georgia. When crisis hit, these public servants stood ready and able. When reputations could be made or broken, they made theirs. We’ll never know how many lives were saved by their actions. And for that, we’re grateful.