AMU Emergency Management Public Safety

EDM Wednesday Briefing: State of Emergency, Evacuations for Hurricane Irma, Wildfires

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By Kimberly Arsenault
Contributor, EDM Digest

Emergency and disaster management briefing for September 6, 2017: Florida declares a state of emergency as Hurricane Irma strengthens and its track moves closer to the state, Los Angeles battles the worst wildfire in the city’s history, Tropical Storm Jose forms in the Atlantic behind Irma, crews battle over 80 large wildfires across the western United States, an earthquake swarm continues to impact Soda Springs, Idaho following a 5.3 earthquake, an EF2 tornado caught residents of two Ohio counties unaware on Monday night, 60 death’s have now been attributed to Hurricane Harvey and its impacts.

    1. Florida’s Governor, Rick Scott, declared [link url=”http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/09/04/florida_declares_state_of_emergency_as_hurricane_irma_strengthens_to_category.html” title=”a state of emergency”] for Florida as he urges the state’s citizens to prepare for the extremely dangerous Hurricane Irma that is currently churning in the Atlantic Ocean as a major Category 5 storm. Hurricane Irma strengthened to a major Category 5 storm on Tuesday, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, a central pressure of 916 mb, and was moving towards the west. [link url=”http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/florida-officials-begin-ordering-evacuations-as-hurricane-irma-intensifies-to-a-category-5-storm/ar-AArl7eG” title=”A mandatory evacuation order has also been issued for the Florida Keys”] in preparation for a possible impact from Hurricane Irma. [relink url=”https://amuedge.com/how-to-protect-yourself-when-a-hurricane-strikes/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/evacuations-preparation/” url3=”https://amuedge.com/harvey-houston-evacuate/”]
    2. The Greater Los Angeles area in California has been [link url=”http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/03/fires-rage-through-west-california-governor-declares-state-emergency.html” title=”battling the worst wildfire in the city’s history”], as hundreds were forced to evacuate their homes in the cities of Burbank, Glendale, and Los Angeles. Governor Jerry Brown issued an emergency declaration for Los Angeles County on Sunday in an effort to speed state and federal emergency aid to the county. Dubbed La Tuna Fire, the blaze rapidly scorched 7,000 acres as temperatures in the area [link url=”http://www.latimes.com/socal/burbank-leader/news/tn-blr-me-la-tuna-fire-mostly-contained-20170905-story.html” title=”soared to nearly 115 degrees Fahrenheit over the Labor Day weekend”], although according to fire officials, the fire was almost 70 percent contained as of Tuesday night.

https://twitter.com/Anti1802/status/904819110508417027

    1. [link url=”https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-hurricane-jose-forecast-atlantic” title=”Tropical Storm Jose has formed in the Atlantic Ocean”], well east of Hurricane Irma, and is the tenth named storm of the 2017 hurricane season. Jose is forecast to become a hurricane later in the week as it tracks to the west-northwest at 14 mph, with [link url=”https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-hurricane-jose-forecast-atlantic” title=”a central pressure of 1004 mb”]. Current sustained winds are at a maximum 50 mph and officials are urging residents of the Lesser Antilles to monitor the storm’s progress even as they encounter the impacts of Hurricane Irma, although the [link url=”http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/05/tropical-storm-jose-forms-in-atlantic-ocean-east-hurricane-irma-no-immediate-threat-to-land.html” title=”storm currently poses no threat to land”]. Meanwhile, [link url=”http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2017/09/tropical_storm_katia_gulf_mexi.html” title=”Tropical Storm Katia formed in the Gulf of Mexico early Wednesday morning”] and is moving toward the southeast at about 2 mph. The storm is likely to turn and make landfall in Mexico over the weekend.

    1. Wildfire’s continue to burn in the West, including the Sprague wildfire that has already destroyed a historic chalet in Glacier National Park, and was threatening another 103-year-old historic chalet-style hotel. Wildfires burning across the western United States and Canada have also resulted in air quality alerts in Oregon, and as far away as Colorado as [link url=”https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5510/” title=”dry conditions coupled with high winds and hot temperatures”] helped fuel the flames. There are more than 80 active large wildfires currently burning in the United States, including 28 in Montana, 19 in Oregon, and 17 in California, which collectively have [link url=”https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/nfn.htm” title=”scorched over 1.41 million acres so far this year”]. [relink url=”https://amuedge.com/business-continuity-planning-fire-police/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/business-continuity-hazard/” url3=”https://amuedge.com/business-continuity-small-businesss/”]
    2. On Saturday at about 6:00 p.m., [link url=”http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/05/earthquake-swarm-continues-to-rattle-southeastern-idaho.html” title=”a 5.3 magnitude earthquake struck near Soda Springs, Idaho”], with shaking felt as far away as Salt Lake City, Utah. Since the earthquake occurred, the U.S. Geological Survey has recorded more than 102 aftershocks, all registering a magnitude 4.5 or less near Soda Springs. Officials indicate that [link url=”https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/earthquake-swarm-continues-rattle-idaho-n798946″ title=”earthquake swarms are common near Idaho’s fault lines”] which are scattered throughout the central and southeastern portions of the state.

    1. On Tuesday afternoon in Arizona, [link url=”http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/09/05/f-16-fighting-falcon-crashes-in-arizona.html” title=”a military airplane crashed during a training mission”]. The F-16 Fighting Falcon was the lead training aircraft for the 162nd Wing of the Air National Guard in Arizona, and crashed outside of Safford, about 20 miles northwest of the city. [link url=”https://www.rt.com/usa/402129-arizona-air-national-guard-crash-fighting-falcon/” title=”Authorities indicate that the pilot”], whose identity’s not yet been not disclosed, [link url=”http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/arizona-air-national-guard-16-crashes-safford-49640285″ title=”was killed in the crash”].

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/905217583900655619

    1. Two counties in Ohio were unprepared for [link url=”https://weather.com/news/news/crestline-ohio-tornado” title=”the EF2 tornado that whipped through the area and damaged homes and buildings late Monday night”]. The National Weather Service never issued a tornado warning for Richland or Crawford counties in Ohio, including the town of Crestline, however the area was under a severe thunderstorm warning when the fast moving storm produced the EF2 tornado. There were no serious injuries reported due to the tornado, however [link url=”http://fox8.com/2017/09/05/ef2-tornado-confirmed-in-crawford-richland-counties-family-says-they-were-blown-out-of-house/” title=”one family was blown out of the house and into the yard”] when the tornado struck their home. [relink url=”https://amuedge.com/tornadoes-prevention-budgets/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/tornadoes-emergency-planning/” url3=”https://amuedge.com/researchers-make-progress-predicting-tornado-outbreaks/”]
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  1. Officials in Texas have now placed [link url=”http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/death-toll-harvey-rises-60-49617198″  title=”the death toll from Hurricane Harvey at 60 people”], most of whom died when flash floodwaters rose rapidly and caught people off guard, or from those who drove through or on flooded roadways and were swept away by swift moving water. Thirty of those deaths occurred in Harris County, where Houston is located, and according to county emergency management officials, the [link url=”http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/death-toll-harvey-rises-60-49617198″ title=”remaining individuals died as a result of indirect complications”] from the storm. [relink url=”https://amuedge.com/harvey-interagency-collaboration/” url2=”https://amuedge.com/harvey-devastates-houston/” url3=”https://amuedge.com/houston-evokes-painful-memories-katrina/”]

Kimberly Arsenault serves as an intern at the Cleveland/Bradley County Emergency Management Agency where she works on plan revisions and special projects. Previously, Kimberly spent 15 years in commercial and business aviation. Her positions included station manager at the former Midwest Express Airlines, as well as corporate flight attendant, inflight manager, and charter flight coordinator. Kimberly currently holds a master's degree in emergency and disaster management from American Public University.

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