New El Paso County disaster plan identifies biggest hazards

El Paso County’s two biggest hazards are floods and wildfires, according to a new countywide disaster plan approved Tuesday.

The risk for both flooding and wildfires ranked “high” in the nearly 550-page Pikes Peak Regional Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, compiled over the last year by emergency managers with the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management and approved unanimously by El Paso County commissioners.

The plan updates and consolidates the 2015 El Paso County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan and the 2016 City of Colorado Springs Hazard Mitigation Plan to include El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Calhan, Fountain, Green Mountain Falls, Manitou Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake and Ramah.

“This is the first time we’ve built a regional plan,” Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management and Mitigation Manager Mike Schaub said Tuesday. “It provides a common operational picture of both hazards and mitigation strategies, allows for optimization of mitigation efforts in the Pikes Peak region, and improves chances of securing grant opportunities at the federal level.”

The plan identifies natural and man-made catastrophes affecting communities such as wildfires, flood, drought and hail. It assesses risk and pinpoints actions that can help regional emergency management staff reduce or eliminate injury, loss of life and property damage or loss due to natural disasters. It also provides a framework for the county and more than 80 stakeholders across the region to develop cost-effective projects that could prevent future damage.

Emergency planners used information from previous mitigation plans covering the county and Colorado Springs, review of state and local hazard planning documents, and information on the frequency, magnitude and costs associated with the hazards that have impacted or could impact the region to identify nearly 20 hazards that presented the greatest concern for the region this year.

Planners also sought out community feedback on draft versions of the plan, Schaub said, learning about the public’s perceptions and opinions on community hazards, and identifying preferred methods and techniques to reduce risks and losses associated with each hazard.

“Even with the pandemic we got … solid commentary from the public,” Schaub said. “We did make adjustments based on that.”

Fifteen additional hazards, from aircraft incidents to winter storms, were identified as moderate dangers to the county, with avalanche and sinkholes found to be the two lowest risks.

Regionwide, wildfire was the largest hazard, ranked as “high” risk in five of the eight municipalities, plus El Paso County, included in the plan. Floods and mud or debris flow were ranked as a moderate risk to the region overall, but ranked high in several individual communities across the county.

The Pikes Peak region has a long history of wildfires but has experienced an increase in the number of large and erratic fires over the last several decades.

“The increasing number, magnitude and impact of fires are the result of several factors, including expansion of the wildland-urban interface, prolonged droughts resulting in extremely dry and volatile fuels, a decline in forest health and an abundance of fuel due to fire suppression,” the plan states.

Between 2010 and 2019 three regional fires burned more than 10 acres each, data show, with more than 73,000 total acres burned in that time.

El Paso County’s three largest wildfires on record occurred in the six-year period between 2012 and 2018, data show. In June 2012, the Waldo Canyon fire burned 18,247 acres, destroyed more than 340 homes and killed two people. The Black Forest fire in June 2013 burned 14,280 acres, consumed 511 homes and damaged 28 others, and killed two people. In 2018, the MM 117 fire burned 42,795 acres in El Paso and Pueblo counties and destroyed 23 homes.

Areas downhill of burn scars like the Waldo Canyon burn scar, and areas along major and minor rivers and streams, pose flood hazards, according to the multi-hazard plan.

In April 1999 El Paso County, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs and surrounding areas saw $44 million in combined damage because of flooding in the Monument Creek and Fountain Creek watersheds, data show. The flood damaged agricultural lands, irrigation systems, trails, roads, sewer treatment plants and other public and private property.

Major flooding across Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Black Forest, Cascade, Green Mountain Falls, Fountain, Security and Chipita Park in the summers of 2012 and 2013 caused more than $41 million in damage combined, data show.

Additionally, data from the Colorado Water Conservation Board show 34 repetitive loss properties — those with two or more losses with at least $1,000 payments from the National Flood Insurance Program within a 10-year period since 1978 — within the Pikes Peak Region. Of those, 19 are in Colorado Springs, 13 are in Manitou Springs and one is in Cascade. Sixty-eight percent are single-family residential homes, 6% are multifamily residences, 9% are businesses and 18% are classified as “other.”

Some countywide wildfire mitigation strategies identified in the plan include encouraging communities to adopt fire adaptive community standards; identify areas for water cisterns or hydrants; conduct mitigation efforts on publicly-owned properties based on fire adaptive community standards; and enhancing communications about delay or closure of county facilities and roadways.

To mitigate flood risk countywide, the plan identifies strategies such as reducing roadway hazards, developing a strategic flood warning plan; and maintaining catch basins and debris fences in critical areas, to name a few.

Schaub said the plan's approval by the county was the final step before it is reviewed by the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s regional office headquartered in Denver.

The plan’s approval is expected by early January, he said.

“I don’t expect any real showstoppers that would cause them to kick it back to us,” Schaub said.

Once approved, all eight municipalities must meet with El Paso County each year for the next five years to review the plan and its mitigation actions. Then, leaders can decide whether they’d like to continue with mitigation efforts for identified hazards, pursue different mitigation strategies or “kill” current mitigation actions, Schaub said.

For more information on the plan, visit hazardmit.wixsite.com/website.

To view the county-approved Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, visit agendasuite.org/iip/elpaso/file/getfile/19754.