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| 2/12/2008 12:41:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Park County commissioners declare state of emergency
Unanimous vote ratifies resolution; equipment pouring in
Park County commissioners on Tuesday ratified a resolution declaring a disaster and state of emergency in Park County due to snow and wind conditions that had trapped an estimated 100 people in their houses, left numerous roads in the county impassable and stretched Park County resources to their limit.
As of Tuesday at noon, roughly half of the trapped people were in the Hartsel area and half were in the Jefferson-Como area.
Commissioner John Tighe had signed the resolution Monday to get the wheels turning on getting aid from other counties and the state and getting an operations center established. But the resolution wasn't official until the commissioners' vote Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, Park County had received the following pieces of equipment, with people to operate
them, from the following sources: one grader from Pueblo County, two loaders from Baca County, two dozers from Jefferson County, one dozer from Arapahoe County, and two snowblowers and a loader from the Colorado Department of Transportation, according to a press release from Mike Roll, the fire chief for the Fairplay-based North-West Fire Protection District who is assisting with handling media relations for the county during the disaster.
Roll said the equipment from other counties was being provided under mutual aid agreements, most of which provide for free aid, except for fuel costs, for the first 24 hours. After that, typically a county pays for the aid, but the arrangements are case-by-case, he said.
At this point, it's looking like Park County will need the assistance well beyond 24 hours, according to Roll. "I'm guessing we'll need this equpment through the end of this week," he said. It started arriving Tuesday morning.
In addition, search and rescue personnel and equipment continued to arrive in Park County Tuesday. As of about noon Tuesday, search and rescue help had arrived from Clear Creek, Jefferson, and Arapahoe counties. Those personnel were going to stranded people via snowmobiles or snowcats, taking supplies ranging from medicine to baby formula. They have been ready to get people out of their homes and to shelters if need be - for instance, if they have run out of propane - but that hadn't happened yet as of noon Tuesday, according to Roll. He anticipated that some people might eventually have to get evacuated because propane deliveries could not be made to their houses. He noted that high winds were expected again Tuesday night and another front was expected to arrive in South Park Wednesday with four to eight inches of snow.
The county's equpment and personnel continued to concentrate on primary roads as of noon tuesday, and the outside equipment and personnel focused mainly on secondary and tertiary roads and private roads, according to Roll. The problem is that winds have continued to cause drifts that close roads after they're cleared. For instance, there's County Road 5. "It's open every day, and it's closed every night," he said.
Linda Balough, who is also helping the county with public relations, said that the operations center in the commissioners' meeting room had, at any one time, "a good 20 people in there" assisting with phones, figuring out logistics for stranded people, and handling other matters.
"This looks like a NASA command center," she said Tuesday.
Weather did not appear to be letting up a lot.
At about 6 a.m. Tuesday morning, Charles Soper, superintendent of Fairplay-based Re-2 School District, said the Fairplay schools would have a two-hour delay Tuesday. "The roads are iced over. The wind is really bad," Soper said.
U.S. 285 at Kenosha Pass was closed between about 5 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. Monday and between roughly 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
Early Tuesday morning the road was open by icy, snowpacked and had drifting snow, according to the cotrip.org Web site of the Colorado Department of Transportation.
On Monday, an e-mail from Roll stated, "Due to current road closures Park County has opened a shelter for stranded travelers at the Fairplay Recreation Center."
Anyone needing help has been instructed to call 719-836-4160 and not 911, according to the county's press release.
Since last Wednesday, said Balough Monday, the Park County Road and Bridge Department alone has hauled out 318 cars and trucks that were stuck.
Part of the emergency resolution outlines the severe winter weather in January, including "heavy snowfall and wind in excess of 110 miles per hour," that has "significantly impacted Park County's resources."
The winds have closed roads and trapped citizens and "local resources cannot keep up with demand," states the resolution.
A communication from the Park County Sheriff's Office mid-afternoon Monday stated the following:
"Park County has asked for assistance from other counties in getting several of our county roads open. We are currently working to open the following Park County Roads: County Rd. 15, County Rd. 5, County Rd. 24, County Rd. 34, County Rd. 23."
Tighe explained that the Park County Road and Bridge Department has mainly only been able to keep up with plowing primary roads, because the wind keeps coming back and causing drifts on those roads, and that has meant repetitive plowing of the same roads.
One big problem is private roads. "There are 1,000 miles of private roads in Park County, many of which have been blocked for several days," says the county's press release.
Balough said that some homeowners associations that have contracted to have their private roads plowed have run out of money this winter. In some circumstances, the contractor doesn't have the equipment necessary to handle the high drifts.
Indeed, even the county is having a tough time handling drifts that are 20 feet to 25 feet high, Balough said.
That's why the resolution was passed - to get more equipment and better equipment as well as additional manpower.
"The Road and Bridge guys are just worn out. Some of them have worked 20-hour days," Balough said Monday.
The Red Cross, the Salvation Army and local volunteers had helped set up shelters with warm meals for responders and victims by Tuesday morning.
In addition, volunteers with search and rescue operations had been staged around the county to respond to emergencies.
The Flume received two calls Monday from stranded residents of the Santa Maria subdivision off of Elkhorn Road southeast of Como. One woman, who requested anonymity, said that she and her husband had been stranded for four days this week and four days last week, and they were only able to get out on Thursday because of some snow plowing that was performed by the county to rescue a cow.
Balough said that the area was plowed out, but then drifts caused people to be snowed in again. She did not know anything about plowing to rescue a single cow.
The Road and Bridge Department has responded to calls with a promise to get to Santa Maria when they could, said the woman, but no specific timeline was promised. She believes her road, Vista Grande Drive, might have been put on lower priority after "snow route" signs were removed from the road last summer.
Tighe said he didn't know about the signs, but their removal should not have affected the priority status of that road.
Another resident of the subdivision, Ken MacIver, complained that he had been stranded too. Citing the same cow story, he said that a cow seemed to have higher priority than residents.
Tighe said the county was indeed worried about trapped people who might be running low on propane, medicine or food.
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