For nearly three decades Paul Ohlenbusch set fires. He said he stopped keeping count once he hit No. 60. As the Extension Grassland management specialist for Kansas State University, the Sun City resident said he studied the movements of grassfires throughout his career. Now he and Dan Dodson, a retired volunteer fireman and emergency services district commissioner for Harris County, apply their knowledge toward keeping the Sun City community safe from flames. By training others in fire safety, the two have helped their local region qualify to be a Firewise Community for the past six years. The national program encourages both communities and homeowners to reduce the risk of fires by targeting and controlling hazards in the area. “A lot of what we push is strictly maintenance—keep your gutters clean, keep space between the house and the shrubs, don’t plant the trees that burn right next to the house,” Ohlenbusch said. “It’s based on a lot of experience and research; there’s nothing arbitrary about what we do.” Ohlenbusch and Dodson’s efforts are what Williamson County officials want to encourage as they compile a preparedness survey to help tackle various natural disasters in a new plan.

Gauging preparedness

The county began seeking input on whether residents are prepared for disasters through an online survey, which was available in June and July. The questionnaire gauged the level of knowledge residents have on their area and will identify locations vulnerable to disasters, said Jarred Thomas, Williamson County emergency management coordinator. The questions focused on the preparedness of individual households, such as where residents live, what hazardous events they have experienced and which sources of information they use during a disaster, said Mike Turek, the county’s deputy director of emergency management. “It asks questions like, ‘What are your problems?’ … and ‘What can you do to prevent [another disaster] from happening again?’” he said. [polldaddy poll=9024343]The questionnaire will be incorporated in the county’s next hazard mitigation plan, which identifies and prioritizes specific hazards in Williamson County. The current five-year plan covers 2011 to 2015, Thomas said. The current plan includes data from more than 50 jurisdictions throughout the state and data from Cedar Park, Florence and Hutto. The plan currently being completed will only include those same jurisdictions in Williamson County. Other cities, including Georgetown, have similar plans specifically for their city, Thomas said. The county’s plan pulls information from the National Weather Service and the Texas Forest Service and evaluates current fire conditions, possible wildfire fuels and population densities, Thomas said. Since the plan identifies specific hazards in the community, the information could benefit the county when officials try to obtain funding to remove or mitigate those hazards. Because of Williamson County’s central location in Texas, the two main hazards that face the county are wildfires and flooding, Thomas said. The plan identifies potential problem areas, gauges the readiness level of the community and encourages residents to remove hazards before it is too late.

Floods

Turek said the area has been affected by large-scale hurricanes such as Ike, Rita and Katrina, but residents also face the possibility of heavy rainfall, such as the recent Memorial Day Floods. “It is few and far between, thank God; but when it happens, it happens on a pretty big scale,” he said. According to the 2011 plan, most flooding in the county occurs during the spring in April, May and June and in the fall in October, November and December. According to the plan, major and flash flooding events could cause multiple deaths, shut down facilities for 30 days or more and cause more than 50 percent of affected properties to be destroyed or have major damage. During the most recent floods in May, Williamson County had $6.7 million in damages to roads and bridges, parks, public utilities and dams. Flooding damaged more than 200 homes and 15 businesses. Williamson County’s growth has also affected the severity of the floodwaters—the U.S. Census Bureau estimated 489,250 people lived in the county in 2014. With an increase in the number of buildings there is not as much ground to absorb rainwater, meaning higher chances for it to become runoff, Turek said. “When it rains, we just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t go on both sides of the interstate,” he said. “Because we know either side is going to fill up with water.”

Wildfires

According to the city of Georgetown’s hazard mitigation plan, an estimated 71 percent of the city’s population resides in the areas of the city where both vegetation and the manmade structures could provide fuel for wildfires. Within the city, a total of 198 fire events were reported from 2005-12, or about 28 events each year. The plan states that “as the city moves into wildland, the potential area of occurrence of wildfire increases. With 198 events in a seven-year period, an event within the city of Georgetown is highly likely.” Fire risk is measured using the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, a measure of the current weather conditions and potential fuels for wildfire. The index determines wildfire potential using a daily water balance, precipitation and soil moisture, and drought conditions and ranges from 0 to 800—the lesser numbers indicate little to no moisture depletion, and the higher numbers represent the driest conditions. In Williamson County, the average KBDI score was listed at 428, which falls in the second to last category of severity. In Georgetown, the average was listed at 582. According to the county’s plan, fires under these conditions will readily burn in all directions, and larger fuels may burn or smolder for several days, creating possible smoke and control problems. Removing identified hazards can often have multiple benefits when it comes to natural disasters, Dodson said. “We’re cleaning out the flood ways, removing the fire danger, and making the habitat better for deer and birds,” he said. Georgetown Assistant Fire Chief Clay Shell said in the past six years Sun City has been very successful at mitigating hazards in the area. “From a prevention standpoint, what they’ve done has significantly decreased the potential for a devastating fire in that area as far as trying to slow it down if there were a fire to start,” he said. The city of Georgetown is also compiling a Community Wildfire Protection Plan to identify areas of risk and gather information that will be vital in the case of a fire. Officials hope to have it completed by the fall, Shell said. The county hopes to have its new hazard mitigation plan completed and ready to submit to the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency in January, Thomas said. He said he hopes to increase community education and awareness about natural disasters and encourage local areas to implement programs such as Firewise. The county hopes to add more projects to cut down on the amount of fuel for wildfires and floods, but Thomas said he also hopes residents will play their part. “This is an opportunity to assist before the disaster strikes,” Thomas said. “This can help us make Williamson County more resilient to the effects of disasters.”