The town of Dolores is at risk for wildfires from nearby forests and flooding from the Dolores River.
To prepare, the town board is working to create an emergency plan ordinance to better handle a disaster.
The Roatcap fire in 2012 came close to Dolores, and recent flood watches on the Dolores River illustrate the need to be proactive, said Paul Hollar, emergency planner for Montezuma County.
"The fact that Dolores sits in a canyon next to a river keeps me up at night," Hollar said. "With a proper plan in place, you can get 87 percent of your costs back after a disaster, but it needs to be in place prior to the event."
Trevor Denney, southwest emergency manager for the Colorado Department of Public Safety, gave a presentation on the key details of emergency plans.
He was involved in managing the nearby West Fork Fire, and also the catastrophic flooding in Lyons in 2013.
"In a disaster, it does not take long to go through local resources and mutual aid capacity, then it's time to reach out for outside help until the situation stabilizes," Denney said.
Small towns especially need to have a plan in place, because their budgets cannot handle the inevitable extra costs of mitigating the aftermath of a disaster.
Getting reimbursed from state and federal disaster funds depends on the foresight of established emergency policies.
"It's the details in an emergency plan that matter a lot," Denney said.
For example, the plan needs to allow the town government to suspend certain ordinances in order to react quicker.
Suspending bid requirements and budget approvals frees up money to be spent quickly on essential disaster services.
Suspending advanced notice of town meetings and change of location will avoid complications in the midst of a crisis.
"During the evacuation from a wildfire, Southfork couldn't have a meeting out of town, and it created more work," Denney said. "Certain policies can handcuff you in a disaster."
Other aspects may be that road blocks be established, or that curfews be initiated, and that usual town services will be delayed.
"Residents of Lyons were evacuated and could not go back for eight months," Denney said.
The plan should include establishing a location for an emergency operations center that has backup power.
It should designate a public information officer whose responsibility is to get critical information out to the residents and local media.
"Some communities create a specific Facebook page on the incident to get out information," Hollar said.
Also important is to prioritize what structures are important to the community so an incident commander from outside the area is aware.
Another tip was to arrange contracts in advance for disaster services, such as portable pottie rentals, or heavy equipment.
"It sets a fixed price and guarantees service when needed," Denney said.
Breakdown in water supply, like what happened in Mancos, is the most common community disaster nationwide, he said.
"That was a real learning experience for Mancos," Hollar said. "The biggest challenge was informing the citizens about the current situation. Frequent community meetings were effective."
Adjusting and updating service plans outlining the duties of special districts sounds arcane, but can be critical, Denney said.
"In Lyons, the fire district did search and rescue and saved lives. But when it came time for reimbursement from FEMA, search and rescue was not in their service plan so they were denied," he said.
At any rate, reimbursement is will not be 100 percent.
Lyons initially recovered 75 percent of their mitigation costs, Denney said, but paying for the 25 percent which would have bankrupted them. The state and DOLA stepped in and covered all but 7 percent of the costs.
"It's going to hurt, and it won't be back to normal, it will be a new normal," Hollar said.
The Dolores town board agreed to draft an emergency plan in the form of an ordinance.
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com