Chelan County Meeting To Focus on Natural Disasters, Wildfires
Chelan County is inviting the public to join meetings virtually on Wednesday that'll focus on reducing the impact of natural hazards and wildfires.
It'll be the first of 6-8 meetings of steering committees over the next year to guide the development of plans dealing with natural hazards and wildfires.
Chelan County Natural Resource Specialist Lisa Dowling says they're hoping to get federal approval of a plan for natural hazards.
"Our goal is to have a FEMA approved hazard mitigation plan that will help us understand all natural hazards that may come down the pike here in Chelan County and identify specific activities that we might do to mitigate those hazards, or deal with them after the fact," said Dowling.
In addition, there’ll be a heavy emphasis on wildfires.
“We’ll have a community wildfire protection plan that’s really digging into the details around how we plan for wildfires management before a fire, during a fire and after a fire,” Dowling said.
Ultimately, a Wildfire Protection Plan will be incorporated into a Hazard Mitigation Plan that'll be submitted for FEMA approval.
Two separate meetings on natural hazards and wildfires will take place Wednesday afternoon that'll be available virtually through Zoom.
The Hazard Mitigation Plan Steering Committee will meet from 12:30 to 2 p.m. while the Community Wildfire Protection Plan Steering Committee will meet from 2:30 to 4 p.m.
Find links here to join the meetings virtually. Anyone planning to attend in person is asked to RSVP with Lisa Dowling by phone (509) 667-6682 or email Lisa.Dowling@co.chelan.wa.us.
The Chelan County Planning Partnership includes Chelan County and the cities of Cashmere, Chelan, Entiat, Leavenworth and Wenatchee, Fire Districts 1, 3, 5, 6, and 8, Lake Wenatchee Fire & Rescue, Cascadia Conservation District, Chelan County Flood Control Zone District, and Lake Chelan Reclamation District.
The Partnership is reconvening to update the 2019 Chelan County Multi-Jurisdiction Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The plan is to have the Hazard Mitigation Plan approved by FEMA by December of this year.
Dowling said in addition to several events geared toward public engagement, there'll be more web based information, questionaires and a multi-media campaign as the planning process moves forward.