The most certain threat to La Plata County and the City of Durango is Non-WUI Wildfire, but the magnitude is limited. The highest risk to La Plata County and the City of Durango is WUI Wildfire which also has the most catastrophic magnitude. The next highest risk to both is a severe flood. These risks are also have a high likelihood of being exacerbated by technical hazards such as extended power failure, significant communications/infrastructure break-down, major failure of pipeline or energy production facility, or train derailment or railroad closure.
The La Plata County Hazard Mitigation Plan (LPCHMO) identifies Federal and Emergency Declaration History in La Plata County through 2009. It is interesting to note that out of the eleven …show more content…
These conditions, especially when combined with high winds an years of drought, increase the potential for wildfire to occur. There are three major factors that sustain wildfires and predict a given area’s potential to burn. These factors are fuel, topography, and weather. In all jurisdictions WUI wildfires have a ten to 100 percent chance of occurrence next year or it has a recurrence interval of 10 years or less thus categorizing future occurrence as likely. The entire county has experienced at least nine damaging or threatening WUI wildfires since 1996. With 13 WUI wildfires over a 17-year period, La Plata County has experienced on event every one to two years on average, and has a better than 75 percent chance of a WUI wildfire occurring in any given year. In all jurisdictions when WUI wildfires occur the results are devastating. Depending on the size of the wildfire and its location, the loss of life and amount of property damage can be catastrophic. Potential losses from wildfire include human live; structures and other improvements; natural and cultural resources, the quality and quantity of the water supply; range and crop lands, and economic losses (tourism, fire suppression expenditures, etc). Smoke and air pollution from wildfires can be a sever health hazard. Other secondary …show more content…
Year to year in Colorado, only lightning is more deadly. Flash flooding, sometimes severe, is usually the byproduct of very heavy rains in a short period of time over a small geographic area, all of which combine to cause small streams to turn violent. Flooding as a natural hazard is a long-recognized problem for La Plata County, a concentrated downpour over the extreme terrain has the potential to be highly destructive and life-threatening. Seasonal flooding, often more moderate, occurs in the county during the spring when the mountain snowpack starts its melting process and heavy rainfall sometimes combines with the runoff and causes some rivers and streams to swell out of their banks. There were 34 damaging flood events between 1896 and 2011. Past floods have disrupted highway and railroad traffic and communication services; drowned livestock; and damaged and destroyed agricultural lands, roads, bridges, buildings, the sewage disposal plant, and the State Fish Hatchery. Several persons have drowned, and many others were injured. The severity of a moderate flood is limited. Typical flooding events in La Plata County result in flooded roads, stream bank erosion, and minor damages to property. These damages are fairly limited in magnitude, as services are interrupted for brief periods, and