In the sentence, "officials temporarily shut off the water flow at the dam," what is the function of the word "officials"?

Mr. JAMES Boone has lived at three twenty-eight Newton TERRACE since APRIL nineteen hundred and sixty-three. He is a devoted outdoorsman even though he weighs only one hundred and thirty POUNDS and stands a little over 5 FEET. He walks five MILES every day and treats his own illness, instead of sending for a DOCTOR. Recently he persuaded HONORABLE Smith to accompany him to the VIRGINIA hospital where the STREETS are quiet and the BUILDINGS are beautiful to the eye. Late in the EVENING he is likely to call his friends CHARLES Williams, GEORGE Glass, ELIZABETH Bowen, and OTHERS over for apples and popcorn before they go for a long hike in the cool of the EVENING 365 days of the year, JAMES is out there walking the HIGHWAYS and byways. He says if he had a DOLLAR for every MILE he's walked, he'd be a rich man.