Boulder Disaster area declaration

[Great-Kazoo]

Call me an old fashioned curmudgeonly Federalist, but I don't believe the Federal Government has any business doing disaster relief anywhere.

Sounds good to me. Now come grab me and lets start airlifting folks, out of the mtns.

[Big Wall]

There is basically a check list where each item needs to be checked off before a county can apply for aid. I'm assuming that each county that has not been declared a disaster zone has not met the requirements.

[cmailliard]

IS-208 - State Emergency Management Course - Disaster Declarations A quick primer on Disaster Declarations.

Colorado Office of Emergency Management - Good source of info

Boulder is the only County with a Major Disaster Declaration - I would expect to see more Counties added to this list, the State as 30 days to apply.

Boulder, El Paso, and Larimer have Emergency Declarations - This is what free's up the funds for federal resources. This is part of the Stafford Act. The State has already added many more counties to this list.

[cmailliard]

And what do ya know Adams, Weld, and Larimer were added to the DR-4145-CO Major Disaster Declaration.

Also 12 more Counties were added to the Emergency Declaration.

http://www.coemergency.com/2013/09/m....html?spref=tw

[jerrymrc]

And what do ya know Adams, Weld, and Larimer were added to the DR-4145-CO Major Disaster Declaration.

Also 12 more Counties were added to the Emergency Declaration.

http://www.coemergency.com/2013/09/m....html?spref=tw

DENVER – The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management announced today that 12 additional counties have been added to the September 12, 2013, presidential emergency disaster declaration for the Colorado flooding in Boulder, El Paso and Larimer counties.

The additional counties include Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Fremont, Jefferson, Morgan, Logan, Pueblo, Washington and Weld counties. Emergency assistance is designed to supplement state and local efforts to provide life-saving and life-sustaining measures to areas affected by the severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides.

[Skully]

DENVER – The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management announced today that 12 additional counties have been added to the September 12, 2013, presidential emergency disaster declaration for the Colorado flooding in Boulder, El Paso and Larimer counties.

The additional counties include Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Clear Creek, Denver, Fremont, Jefferson, Morgan, Logan, Pueblo, Washington and Weld counties. Emergency assistance is designed to supplement state and local efforts to provide life-saving and life-sustaining measures to areas affected by the severe storms, flooding, landslides and mudslides.

I saw this earlier and pondered why Broomfield was even listed. I am not aware of ANY damage in this county at all? We were surrounded but............ well a little confused.

Did I miss something?

To go back to the damage and tolls on life it has taken. I feel for all those effected, my family we are counting our blessings.

My wife works overnights in the southern end of Boulder at a nursing home and she has been working 12-14 hour shifts to cover for other staff that have been directly effected in Boulder and not able to work. It has been one hell of a last 4 days starting with 2 hours on the phone with her Thursday night while I was viewing maps and listings of closures trying to get her to work around all the road closures on Hwy 36 and Boulder Rd.

This is such a surreal event and seeing all the damage that has happened just sinks my heart.

[LippCJ7]

Ok I'm home now and this went a whole different direction then I hoped it would and that is probably my fault.

I'm a Wildland Firefighter and thoroughly trained on ICS, as most who work within ICS are, we live by it, but being declared a Federal Disaster area has little to do with money initially, and more to do with what units can operate within a Federal Disaster area, such as air support, the caveat being federal assets under state control (ANG), so take for instance..

Ft. Carson issues 6 helo's, and Buckley(ANG) 6 also, due to Boulders declaration the Ft Carson helo's would be used in Boulder but not the other areas without paperwork allowing them to, but the Buckley units can operate throughout the entire effected area, we see this all the time and it can make things a little dicey when your talking about a big wall of flames that is about to cross a line on a map, and we are across that line. Paperwork can take a little bit to take care of and everytime I have heard of a situation, someone closed their eyes to the map and took care of business, some things are simply more important....

My issue here is that while Boulder was the first affected county this was a giant situation very very quickly and i think it should have been called much faster in order to avoid such issues. Yes County OEM's do have to put together paperwork and dot i's and cross t's but this has to move faster. But you can add to this whole situation, mother nature not cooperating and allowing air operations until later in the event, I have ridden in Helo's many times and lets face it when gravity is the only thing that gives you any idea of direction, things are not good! No Idea how Pilots do it sometimes but every time I get a chance to shake one of our pilots hands I do!

Finally you have the financial side which for those on the ground is the final part of the job, and for first responders the least important, so yes there is a financial side but for the boots on the ground its far from the initial response, and the initial response is what saves lives, and that is what I was questioning.

Sorry for the confusion...

[Aloha_Shooter]

My issue here is that while Boulder was the first affected county this was a giant situation very very quickly and i think it should have been called much faster in order to avoid such issues.

You're right but we've all seen Hickenlooper is absolutely useless in an emergency. He went to the Black Forest fire for a photo op and couldn't do anything but stammer and ramble. I'm frankly surprised things are going as well as they are in the rescue and mitigation efforts given what a clueless putz he is.

[Great-Kazoo]

You're right but we've all seen Hickenlooper is absolutely useless in an emergency. He went to the Black Forest fire for a photo op and couldn't do anything but stammer and ramble. I'm frankly surprised things are going as well as they are in the rescue and mitigation efforts given what a clueless putz he is.

That's because hick is only a .gov rep. the real job is being handled by EM responders who have an actual chain of command [Incident commander] down to the guys and gals with flashlights directing evacuees and responders.

[Ah Pook]

Ok I'm home now and this went a whole different direction then I hoped it would and that is probably my fault.

I'm a Wildland Firefighter and thoroughly trained on ICS, as most who work within ICS are, we live by it, but being declared a Federal Disaster area has little to do with money initially, and more to do with what units can operate within a Federal Disaster area, such as air support, the caveat being federal assets under state control (ANG), so take for instance..

Ft. Carson issues 6 helo's, and Buckley(ANG) 6 also, due to Boulders declaration the Ft Carson helo's would be used in Boulder but not the other areas without paperwork allowing them to, but the Buckley units can operate throughout the entire effected area, we see this all the time and it can make things a little dicey when your talking about a big wall of flames that is about to cross a line on a map, and we are across that line. Paperwork can take a little bit to take care of and everytime I have heard of a situation, someone closed their eyes to the map and took care of business, some things are simply more important....

My issue here is that while Boulder was the first affected county this was a giant situation very very quickly and i think it should have been called much faster in order to avoid such issues. Yes County OEM's do have to put together paperwork and dot i's and cross t's but this has to move faster. But you can add to this whole situation, mother nature not cooperating and allowing air operations until later in the event, I have ridden in Helo's many times and lets face it when gravity is the only thing that gives you any idea of direction, things are not good! No Idea how Pilots do it sometimes but every time I get a chance to shake one of our pilots hands I do!

Finally you have the financial side which for those on the ground is the final part of the job, and for first responders the least important, so yes there is a financial side but for the boots on the ground its far from the initial response, and the initial response is what saves lives, and that is what I was questioning.

Sorry for the confusion...

I can totally respect your occupation.

Jamestown had a 100" wide mud slide take out a house (if not houses) and a life. Jamestown has been evacuated. Lyons only access was washed away and many homes wiped away. Boulder has seen several feet of flooding and eminence damage. Four Mile Canyon, the site of one of the largest fires in CO history, is being washed down stream.

More people have been rescued from roof tops, during this flood, then hurricane Katrina. Every access road from the mountains to the flats, in Larimer Co, Boulder Co and most of Gilpin Co are closed.

I am sitting here wondering if people I know and care about are still alive. So, your whiny OP sounds like nothing more than a sandy vag. bitch session. People's lives have been altered or extinguished and all you can think about is politics...?

Done before I get canked.