According to Crawford County officials, the county is at a high risk of utility failure, land subsidence, disease outbreak, tornado, flood and winter storm.
Officials assessed the risk to the county from various sources in the second of three meetings to create a Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. If approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the county would be eligible for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which provides 75 percent of the funds needed to reduce losses or remove structures in the event of future disasters.
The state has $89 million in federal money available for the grant program.
Wednesday’s priority was in deciding which risks are greatest to the county without using a cookie-cutter approach.
“It’s very important to the plan that FEMA can make sure we didn’t just use a template for this,” said Ida Kirmse of AMEC, a Topeka company helping with the plan. “Land subsidence is not a big issue everywhere, but in Crawford County, it is. That community involvement shows up when you look at the disaster risks.”
While the aforementioned natural disasters were high risks, there were plenty of moderate risks in the county, too.
Wildfires, wind storms, droughts, expansive soils, extreme temperatures, hailstorms, hazardous materials, and crop/livestock infestation all came in as moderate risks to the county.
Officials were allowed to raise their own issues, too. One of the biggest issues was communication of emergency plans to the public on where to go and how to get there. Officials made special note of the high number of elderly and foreign students in the area.
“The communication to the elderly was a good point,” said Ron Albertini, Crawford County surveyor. “And with the foreigners that live here that maybe don’t understand what to do when they hear a storm siren or know where to go, it’s important to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
The group was also informed about a Community Wildfire Hazard Assessment Report filed by the Kansas Forest Service. That report lists two sources of moderate risk in relation to wildfires.
The first is “a large stockpile of dead tree fuels near” Beulah. The other source of moderate risk is near Arcadia for grass-type fuels near structures.
At the end of the meeting, officials were asked to come up with their four main goals, or broad objectives.
Officials generally agreed on the following four goals:
• Minimizing the vulnerability of the people, property, environment and economy of Crawford County and its communities to the impacts of natural and manmade hazards.
• improving the level of responder, government, business and citizen preparedness for disaster.
• developing programs to assure that local governments and businesses can continue to operate during times of disaster.
• developing strategies to assure that those affected by disaster are able to recover from disasters.
These goals will be turned into actionable projects over the course of the next month before the meeting on August 27.
Kirmse said the 60 or so turnout for the Crawford County emergency planning should be the envy of every county and municipality.
“This is the best turnout we’ve had from any jurisdiction,” Kirmse told the crowd. “We brag on you to the state and federal governments.”
“The information sharing here is wonderful,” Kirmse said later. “Everyone is willing to help. This will be one of the strongest emergency plans because of the participation from everyone, and everyone is going in the same direction.”
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132.
PITTSBURG —
