The third and final Hazardous Mitigation Meeting for Worth County was held in Sheridan Monday to iron out details of the Hazardous Mitigation Plan that has to be submitted every five years to the state and to FEMA. Submission of this plan is required for jurisdictions to get federal disaster funding. Worth County has had 10 storm disaster declarations since 1990 with between $15 million and $35 million in crop damage claims filed. The county has had nine disaster declarations since 1965 for extreme weather, five since 1965 for winter storms, and four for tornado damage. Worth County has had six confirmed tornadoes since 2000, surprisingly low. The most severe was an EF2 event in 2001. The most severe is an EF 5. A few years ago, Worth County was on the southern edge of a massive derecho that passed through Iowa and caused over $1 billion in damages.
The last update to the plan was in March 2022. It was conducted via zoom, with the whole country just emerging from COVID-19. Each jurisdiction will review and adopt the revised plan, provide data, and develop action items. These can be carried over from the last cycle.
As part of the new plan, a public survey was conducted, with 153 responses. Disasters identified as concerns included thunderstorms, extreme winter weather, and drought. Disasters identified as having the most potential impact for the county included tornadoes, drought, extreme temperatures, and extreme winter weather. The county and the whole region experienced a massive ice storm in 2009 that knocked out power for a few days.
Solutions that a majority of respondents were in favor of were the creation of tornado-safe rooms, retrofitting existing shelters, stopping soil erosion, flood mitigation, electrical retrofitting, and retrofitting from wind damage. There used to be a tornado shelter at the Sheridan Housing many years ago, but it has been dug in. The county conducts regular testing of storm sirens; there was one conducted earlier this month.
Goals identified in the event of a disaster included preserving human life, safety, and health, continuing essential services, protecting property, and returning to normal.
Continuing action items include educating and notifying the public, reviewing and incorporating flood insurance maps, identifying structures, people, facilities, and infrastructure at risk, implementing emergency communications, obtaining backup power generators, and building infrastructure to mitigate flooding.
There are 64 dams in the county, including three that are critical, including the one just northeast of the Sheridan Housing.
Worth County is in a low-risk area for earthquakes. Occasionally, people will feel small tremors when an earthquake occurs hundreds of miles away, and animals will become agitated.
It is up to local water districts to implement conservation measures in the event of an extreme drought. Any jurisdiction can pass a burn ban provided that they notify the State Fire Marshal’s office. Jurisdictions do not require advance approval to do so. The county has occasionally passed burn bans in the past during extreme droughts or situations where there was a high risk of wildfires.
The risk of wildfires is rare in both the county and the state, but not non-zero. Around 25-30 years ago, there was a wildfire west of Sheridan that nearly got to the Housing; it took a massive effort by emergency responders to stop the fire.
Local jurisdictions have one week to turn in action items for the new Hazardous Mitigation Plan. After that, a public comment period will be held for the draft plan. Following the public comment period, a final draft plan will be adopted by all the jurisdictions, and it will be submitted to the state, and then FEMA.
No comments:
Post a Comment