As summer begins in earnest, the topic of emergency preparedness is on minds of many in administrative and public safety roles throughout the state and country.  While last year’s weather was relatively mild as fair as averages go, and somewhat calm as far as fire seasons go, those factors actually work together to put this year on everyone’s radar for potential danger.

Recently, the national and state weather services have issued forecasts for the area which predict hot, dry summer conditions over the course of much of the summer.  As a result of fewer burned acres and more precipitation last year, the on-ground supply of vegetation is higher than usual.  Combined with expected high temperatures and winds, the conditions are ripe for large, quickly spreading fires across the state and region.

The Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) met last week in Oneida County to discuss the outlook for the upcoming fire season, as well as other issues related to emergency preparedness.  Members of the city council, county commission, emergency response teams, Southeastern Idaho Public Health District, Idaho Power, the Radio Amateur Club of Oneida Neighbors, and others were in attendance.

Commissioner Brian Jeppsen opened the meeting by raising the potential for forming a local CERT program.  CERT stands for “Community Emergency Response Team,” and is a national readiness program whereby members receive training to care for themselves and their families before moving outward into the community to provide emergency response.  The more people that are enrolled and trained in the program, the greater the effectiveness of the efforts, as securing individual families reduces the overall needs for the response system.

“These teams step in from the moment a disaster happens, until the EMS shows up, then they pass information on to them when they get there,” Jeppsen stated.  

Office of Emergency Management Area Filed Officer Darren Letzring noted that many of the potential grants for Oneida county are for CERT-related activities.  

Letzring reported that snow had been dealt with effectively this winter, which was good.  Oct 10 was announced at the tentative date for a multi-state earthquake exercise, involving Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. 

He also reported on the potentially available assistance grants for wildfire mediation and response, covering initial fire response costs. In order to apply for the grant, assessors and others will need to help explain the value of the homes that are potentially at risk, how much the roads and other infrastructure are worth, and what the county and city’s preparatory steps toward fire mitigation are.  

Matt Stucki, regional customer relations manager for Idaho Power, spoke to the LEPC as part of its mission to talk to everyone in their service area about Public Safety Shut Off possibilities.  Idaho Power Service itself has around 630,000 customers, from Salmon to Oregon to Arbon Valley.  Arbon represents the southwestern edge of the company’s service area, and includes a number of Oneida County residents.  The residents were being informed that Idaho Power was rolling out a Public Safety Power Shutoff contingency plan in the case of anticipated weather events. That might aggravate wildfires.

Following last year’s wildfires in Hawaii, which were determined to have been at least partly caused by downed power lines resulting from high winds, many U.S. utility companies are employing an abundance of caution to prevent such incidents in the contiguous United States. 

“We’re just seeing more fires,” Stucki stated.  “From our perspective, we want to make sure we are keeping our communities safe, and we’re really trying to make sure our lines don’t start a fire.”  The core mitigation activities that Idaho Power plans to pursue include increased inspections, enhanced vegetation management, distribution hardening—a new fuse which doesn’t create an arc when it blows, things like lightning arresters, etc.—transmission hardening, segmentation of the transmission lines, SCADA controls, and situational awareness tools.

Wildfire risk modeling by Idaho Power includes looking at the location of power lines, fuel type and moisture content, historic weather conditions, location of structures.  The Arbon area was deemed to be a moderate risk.

When conditions warrant high alert, Employee and contractor notification will occur, Fire Prevention practices will be employed, some work may stop, and the system will be set to more sensitive state.

In the last resort, the line itself we be powered down in order to prevent to the potential for a largescale fire event.  This would only occur when high temperatures, Low humidity, high winds, dry vegetation were all at very high levels for an extended time.  When the event is scheduled, everyone affected by the event will be contacted through calls, emails, texts.  If you only have a landline on your account, you likely won’t be contacted.  

Notification will happen several times leading up to a planned event, from 1-2 days out to right before it occurs. Updates will then be provided during the event and after the event has occurred. One of the main outcomes is that people who are in the impacted area need to be aware, and potentially have an alternate energy supply.  For the last three years, there has not been one of these events.  But, since weather is unpredictable, Idaho Power just wants people to be ready.

It is important to point out that while Idaho Power made this specific presentation to the County, Rocky Mountain Power was stated to have similar procedures and programs in place, and the same cautions and information applies equally to RMP customers.

Customers are advised to update contact info with power company, learn how to manually operate powered devices such as doors, gates, etc., plan for unique events such as medical emergencies and livestock watering, and gather an outage kit.

For safety, customers are advised to not use candles, use LED lights.  During the outage, turn off machinery or equipment, though it is helpful to keep one light on in order to know when power is restored.  After the power is restored, turn things back on after 10 minutes to prevent and overload.  Make sure that generators meet code, and don’t use a “suicide cord” (a double male-ended power cord).  Make sure the generator is ventilated and grounded.

Kevin Smith, Meteorologist, spoke about the Fire Season outlook, which he called “pretty good so far.”  Smith reported that the reservoirs are all either full, near full, or overfull.  Drought conditions are mostly in Custer and Lemhi counties.  A ridge of high pressure is expected over the next days, which is likely to keep things dry.

For the summer, there is a mostly dry forecast with a chance of rain.  Smith thinks it looks like an “early monsoon push” over the next week.  Temps are likely to be above normal.  It may be a little wetter soon, but still below average for the fire season.  Season following drought years tend to be the biggest fire years.  “We are in a period when the big wildfire years happen.  A lot of fuel is built up after the last two years.  The general consensus is that this may be a big year for fire activity, “Smith said.  

The official outlook has southeastern Idaho, western Oregon, northern Utah, southern cal, and northern Washington right now on “Fire weather watch, ” which might change to “Red Flag Warning” soon.

Residents of the area can check Weather.gov/Pocatello for weather updates, and sign up for notification with the National Weather Service.  208-233-0834 is the number to call for weather related questions.