Major flooding is rare in La Plata County, a region marked by a dry, drought-prone climate. But when tropical rainstorms swept across Southwest Colorado in mid-October, emergency officials say the county’s preparation and training paid off.
Officials credit the effective response to a mix of preparedness, new technology and lessons learned from both annual drills and a busy summer fire season.
In the days leading up to the storm, the weather forecast provided two to three days of advance warning. Sand and sandbags were pre-positioned in flood-prone communities, and Road and Bridge crews delivered additional loads for residents to use.
“That preparedness, seeing it coming and taking preventive actions up front – that worked really well,” said La Plata County Emergency Management Director Rob Farino. Those efforts helped protect key infrastructure, including at least one of Bayfield’s three bridges, he said.
By the time it became clear the flooding would create significant impacts, the Emergency Operations Center and the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District were already in daily contact with the National Weather Service and operating on high alert.
Much of the response worked smoothly because county departments and partner agencies trained for exactly this, Farino said. A yearly evacuation drill, along with multiple real-world activations during fire season, meant staff already knew their roles and processes.
“The repetition builds competence and confidence, but we’d rather not have to do that,” he said.
Interdepartmental coordination, like assigning incident numbers to track purchases and time cards, was well practiced, he said.
“When we have a real event, it’s like a well-oiled machine,” he said.
Once the rain arrived, the EOC activated and shifted immediately into information-gathering mode. A county drone flew over affected areas throughout the weekend, providing a live video feed into the Emergency Response Center – a new capability Farino called invaluable.
“It was really cool to have a video of exactly what was going on – where the flooding was, where it was breaking through and the homes that were threatened,” he said. “We even saw the excavator in the channel trying to repair levees while it was happening.”
That real-time view, combined with Zoom access for staff who couldn’t be physically present, allowed responders to map evacuation zones, send Code Red alerts and track reports in real time. Road and Bridge staff, for example, were able to remain on scene monitoring threatened bridges while simultaneously briefing the EOC, he said.
“In that first hour, we’re all hungry for information,” he said. “But everyone knows their workstation, they know what to do. Finance starts cutting a new incident number, public health knows where they fit in, Road and Bridge checks infrastructure. The system is in place, and the training pays off.”
He said the county’s Emergency Operations Plan – a living document updated after real events and annual drills – provided the framework, while staff experience supplied the muscle memory.
In the aftermath of the floods, as the evacuated Vallecito residents returned to their homes, they were full of praise for the efforts of the fire district, the Sheriff’s Office and the many county departments involved in the response effort.
One critique however, was the communication to residents.
David Kontje, who lives in one of the evacuated neighborhoods, said he would have liked to have received more detailed and frequent updates about what was going on.
Many of his neighbors had to source information updates from social media, word-of-mouth and the local paper, Kontje said. Having more comprehensive information come out from a single source – in this case, La Plata County since it was handling the majority of the response, would have been beneficial.
While Farino said he’s heard similar feedback, he finds some of the critique to be a tad superfluous.
He noted that residents vary widely in where – or whether – they receive local information. “Some people say, ‘I don’t do Facebook.’ Others don’t subscribe to the Herald. We don’t have a local TV news station,” he said. “So how can we best reach you?”
Farino said the county relies primarily on social media, its website and Code Red alerts. “That’s one way we have people’s attention,” he said. But Code Red is an opt-in system, and residents who don’t sign up or who avoid online platforms can be hard to reach. “If you’re not signed up for Code Red, and you refuse to get on social media and you don’t subscribe to the Herald – how would you like us to communicate with you?” he said.
Still, he said the county takes the complaints seriously and encouraged all county residents to sign up for Code Red.
It’s where all of the information is sent from in emergencies, and will remain the county’s primary form of rapid communication.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
