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Saturday, June 19, 2010
026 - What were Wyoming`s worst disasters and tragedies?
The recent disaster mobilization in Lander got me thinking about other disasters that have occurred in Wyoming’s 120-year history.
So, what was the worst tragedy that has occurred?
But before going into that, officials have referred to the recent multi-million dollar response to the 100-year flood event in Fremont County as “the largest statewide disaster response” in its history.
Probably the largest overall disaster response was the 1988 Yellowstone National Park fires. It was almost totally a federal response, although firemen from all over Wyoming participated.
There were federal agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) involved in our latest event but local and state officials coordinated it.
Here is what my friends are telling me what they thought were the worst Wyoming disasters and tragedies. I have divided them into disasters related to nature and Acts of God and then a list of tragedies, which are usually man-caused.
Disasters include:
• Several thought the massive flood that struck Cheyenne in 1985 was the worst disaster. It killed 12 people and did millions of dollars of damage. That flood changed the landscape in Wyoming’s capital city as parks and greenways were built along the flooded routes.
• Forestry historian Karl Brauneis tells a great story about the famous Blackwater Fire west of Cody in 1937 that killed 15 firefighters. That tragedy changed how modern forest fires would be fought. That story can be heard on the Internet.
To me, the recent mobilization in Lander by all these agencies (52 in all) was a dry run for what will be our next big disaster – the gigantic fire that will consume much of the tinder-dry Shoshone National Forest.
• The 1979 tornado in Cheyenne was mentioned by former Associated Press writer Rob Black. The 2004 tornado in Wright was also mentioned by State Rep. Tom Lubnau.
• Although loss of human life was not as high, the loss of hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep and wildlife in the great blizzard of 1949 was also mentioned. A similar blizzard causing livestock loss in 1984 decimated Buffalo’s economy for years, according to Jim Hicks. Weather can be severe in the Cowboy State, that is for sure.
• Also, there was the "Gros Ventre slide/flood" that wiped out the town of Kelly on May 18, 1927. Eight people drowned in that disaster.
Tragedies would include:
• In 1955, a commercial airplane crash in the Snowy Range killed 66 people, which was the worst airline disaster in the country up to that time. Another crash involving a charter flight that struck Mount Moran in Grand Teton National Park in 1950 killing 21 missionaries comes to mind.
• In 1903, a coal mine blast killed 169 miners in Hanna, according to Historian Phil Roberts of Laramie. Then a few days later, another blast killed a mine inspector trying to figure out what was causing the explosions. He also pointed to the similar mine disaster in 1923 in Kemmerer that killed 99 miners. Most caused by exploding coal methane gas.
• There have been a number of horrible collisions in the fog and snow on Interstate-80. One a few years ago on the summit between Laramie and Cheyenne killed a half dozen people, I think, and involved more than 30 vehicles.
• The state suffered a huge emotional loss in 2001 when eight members of University of Wyoming track and cross-country teams were killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver south of Laramie.
• There have been terrible downtown fires in Cheyenne, Newcastle and Lander in the past 50 years, too.
These are just a few of the disasters and tragedies that have occurred in Wyoming. I am sure that we have omitted some important ones, but this list can serve as a cautionary tale about how fragile life can be here in the high country.
One thing that we learned from the recent event in Lander, though, is that no disaster will go unseen in the future.
The Facebook page called “Fremont County Flood 2010” was incredible. Seemed like more than 1,000 photos and videos were posted of the event.
Latest totals of that disaster mobilization show that 50,000 hours of volunteer labor were documented in dealing with a 100-year flood event.
With cell phones, special sirens, weather radio stations, satellite images, helicopters, up-to-date NOAA web sites and constant reminders in local media, well, there will be no excuse for not knowing what is going on.
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Friday, June 18, 2010
025.5 - Biggest disaster response in Wyoming history
If this wasn’t Fremont County’s finest hour, it certainly ranked as one of the most impressive responses to impending doom in our history.
Thursday morning, the massive war known as the Fremont County Flood of 2010 (Lander version) ended, not with a torrent, but with sort of a trickle.
“DE-MO will be the word of the day,” Incident Commander Craig Haslam told representatives of 52 local, county, state and national entities who fought against record high floodwaters for almost two weeks. DE-MO stands for “demobilization,” which meant breaking down camps, packing up trailers, turning in radios, checking in before checking out and heading home.
With high waters still rising in the Big and Little Wind Rivers, many members of the crew moved over to Riverton to protect folks there.
In Lander Thursday morning, Meteorologist Chuck Baker calmly explained that predicted rains were not as bad as they could have been. Temperatures were not as high, and not as much snow melted. We caught a huge break when the forks of the Popo Agie Rivers stayed below flood stage.
But even with high water in the two Wind Rivers, most folks felt that there may be a few more battles, the war was essentially over.
And what a war it was.
Officials said it was the biggest disaster effort of its type in Wyoming’s history. Right at 400 National Guard personnel participated bringing two helicopters and 100 vehicles.
More than 500,000 sand bags were filled and 35,000 volunteer hours were totaled for the event, including yeoman work by a great many groups including even nine Wyoming Catholic College students and their supervisor Steve Sawtell.
There were 32 square miles affected and 2,100 homes and structures threatened or damaged in the two-week event, which started June 4 in this writer’s back yard.
Millions of dollars were spent with the two most conspicuous artifacts left over being the Great Walls on Fremont Street and at City Park. These were huge Army Corps of Engineers sand walls that can withstand anything Mother Nature can throw at them.
Best of all, the vast emergency mobilization system worked.
Joe Moore, Cheyenne, head of Wyoming’s Office of Homeland Security: “This is a model for such an event. It will be the standard on how to deal with disasters.” Former Rivertonite Kim Lee, accompanied Moore.
Special thanks to Gov. Dave Freudenthal: “I can’t give you everything you want, but we’ll get you everything you need.”
The event had so many heroes. On my list are Sheriff Skip Hornecker, Lander Mayor Mick Wolfe and city staff folks Mickey Simmons, Dan Shatto, Don Reynolds and Nick Hudson. The Fire Department under Chief Bob Perkins was terrific along with local police. Not sure how many hours those guys logged, but they had our town covered.
Tribal Business Council Chairmen Ivan Posey (Shoshone) and Harvey Spoonhunter (Arapaho) worked hard as did their fellow council members plus Bureau of Indian Affairs staff Bob Jones, Eric Rhodenbaugh and Ray Nation. The rez got hit hard but people were in the right place at the right time.
“We are all brothers in the face of this enemy,” one of those leaders said, which was certainly true.
County Commissioners Pat Hickerson, Dennis Heckart, Keija Whiteman, Dennis Christensen and Doug Thompson worked as did their county crews.
Forester Paul Morency, a veteran incident command guy nicknamed Hoss (Mike Hosteller) and public information officer Chris Venhuizen played key roles.
Logistics were handled by Mike Bournazian with Dave Geible as chief safety officer while Lauri Wempen was head of the medical unit.
Filling in at the end of the incident as head of the National Guard was former Landerite Martin Kidner of Cheyenne. He corrected a few maps and people asked, “How do you know that?” Kidner was once WYDOT’s chief engineer in Lander. “I just know,” he would tell them, with a laugh. Delbert McOmie from WYDOT was on the job, too.
Kathi Metzler headed up Fremont County Emergency Management while NOLS’ John Gookin headed up the swift water rescue team. There are hundreds more people to mention, but in the end it was a terrific team effort.
But we also can’t end this without suggesting people give a hand to those folks who lost their homes in the flooding or suffered damage. The vast majority of the 2,100 buildings affected suffered little or no damage but in some cases, people lost almost everything. Folks in Hudson, Riverton and on the reservation suffered the most serious losses.
No one was killed. Nobody was even seriously injured.
On behalf of 35,000 County residents, thanks so much to folks from around Wyoming for coming to our rescue.
Yes, that fact that a major tragedy was averted could make this go down in history as Fremont County’s finest hour.
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Saturday, June 12, 2010
025 (state version) - Mountain streams turn into monsters
Much of Wyoming was under water or in a flood watch over the past two weeks. High water had victimized folks in Fremont, Albany, Johnson, Platte, Natrona, Carbon and Sweetwater Counties.
Here in Lander we were in the middle of the largest public disaster effort in the state’s history.
Millions of dollars were spent. Almost 400 National Guard soldiers were here. Over 500,000 sand bags were filled. By Wednesday, over 35,000 hours of volunteer effort had been documented.
Fire departments were supposed to gather in Lander this past weekend for their annual convention but it was cancelled due to the flooding. Some 11 counties sent emergency crews to help out, anyway. At one point, more than 32 square miles of normally dry Fremont County land was under water.
At last count, there were 43 different agencies involved in our local effort.
One of the main reasons we moved to Wyoming 40 years ago was the Popo Agie River that runs through Lander.
This mountain stream is one of those rivers that you see pictured on calendars. That image would whet the appetite for a young Midwesterner who yearned to get to the mountains.
But our friendly little stream had turned into quite the angry foe. We always thought we were lucky to live along this river. Its bank was about 500 feet from us two weeks ago. Today, it is about 400 feet away.
We also have Big Dickinson Creek running through our back yard. Yes, that is the creek that in 1963 caused the worst flood in Lander’s history.
Our personal flooding woes started June 4 when water breached some riverbanks at a rural residence upriver. The storm of water that gushed through our property swamped the creek bed and caused water in basements downstream from us.
Firemen and officials were diligent in trying to figure out where the water was coming from and getting it stopped. State Sen. Cale Case, who is also president of the Lander Ditch Association, did yeoman work in getting a dike built.
After that incident, the town seemed safe until June 8 when a surge knocked out Mortimore Lane Bridge, washed out about two acres of my land, sucked a cabin off our property and pretty much scoured the riverbed.
Beautiful private homes along the river belonging to Carl and Anne Huhnke (president of Central Bank and Trust) and Chuck and Cathy Guschewsky (CEO of Fremont Motors) were severely threatened and, at times, looked like they were going to washed away.
At Lander’s City Park, the river almost 100 yards wide in some places.
Watching huge machines dump gigantic boulders onto the bank of a levee only to see the river suck the rocks away is awesome. Reminds me of a movie scene where you are feeding an insatiable monster. Like Little Shop of Horrors where the monster says “Feed me! Feed me!”
And as we waited for the high water, it also felt like being a town under siege. We knew the enemy was out there but did not know when it would attack or how big their force would be. Unease all around. Folks were tense and sleep-deprived for days on end.
Folks in Hudson, Riverton and all over the Wind River Indian Reservation were flooded about the same time, too, as water from the three forks of the Popo Agie and the Little Wind and the Big Wind surged.
Joe Austin of the National Outdoor Leadership School got sucked into a culvert while volunteering. He disappeared before everyone’s eyes. He was shot out the other end and emerged from the river very wet, very shaken but very much alive. It occurred on his 52nd birthday.
As of the time of this writing, there have no injuries or deaths. Lander Mayor Mick Wolfe had a bandaged right hand, a sandbagging injury. “I wasn’t watching and a gal speared me with a spade. I am not as quick as I used to be,” he commented dryly.
About the only good news came from the Wyoming Department of Health whose officials are thinking many of the West Nile mosquito nests were washed away – maybe all the way to Nebraska.
As I write this, we appear to be relatively safe.
This old river has always had a confusing name.
Most folks pronounce it Poposha.
Some old-timers call it Popo Aggie.
One historian says it is Popo Argee.
Lately, I have been calling it Popo Angry.
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Friday, June 11, 2010
025 (local version) - Raging stream becomes insatiable monster
One of the main reasons we moved to Wyoming 40 years ago was the Popo Agie River.
This picturesque mountain stream is one of those rivers that you see pictured on calendars. That image would whet the appetite for a young Midwesterner who yearned to get to the mountains.
But our friendly little stream has turned into quite the angry foe over the past two weeks.
Our family always thought we were lucky to live along this river. Its bank was about 600 feet from us two weeks ago. Today, it is about 450 feet from us.
We also have Big Dickinson Creek running through our back yard. Yes, that is the creek that flooded in 1963 causing most of that flood’s damage in Lander.
Our personal flooding woes started Friday night, June 4 when water breached some riverbanks at a rural residence upriver from us. The storm of water that gushed through our property totally swamped the creek bed and ended up causing some damage and water in basements downstream from us.
Local firemen and officials were diligent in trying to figure out where the water was coming from and getting it stopped. State Sen. Cale Case, who is also president of the Lander Ditch Association, did yeoman work in getting a dike built to stop the flow.
After that incident, the town seemed safe until Monday night/Tuesday morning June 7-8 when a surge knocked out Mortimore Lane Bridge, washed out about two acres of my land, sucked a log cabin off the property downstream and pretty much scoured the riverbed.
Beautiful private homes along the river belonging to Carl and Anne Huhnke and Chuck and Cathy Guschewsky were severely threatened and, at times, looked like they were going to washed away.
Then the weather cooled down and all we heard about was how much wet snow was falling up in the mountains, which would add even more water to the flow.
City, County, Wydot crews plus local contractors like Alexander Excavation, Artery Construction and others worked amazing numbers of hours trying to save homes and shore up dikes and levees that were being washed away by the raging river.
At City Park, the river took on a totally new character. It appears to now be almost 100 yards wide in some places. Amazing.
I now know more about heavy construction than ever. Watching huge machines dump gigantic boulders onto the bank of the levee only to see the river suck the rocks away is awesome. Sort of reminds me of a movie scene where you are feeding an insatiable monster. Like the movie Little Shop of Horrors where the monster says “Feed me! Feed me!”
And as we waited for the high water to come, it also felt like being a town under siege. We knew the enemy was out there but did not know when it would attack or how big their force would be. Sometimes we didn’t even know where it would be striking. Unease all around. Folks were tense and sleep-deprived for days on end.
Folks in Hudson, Riverton and all over the Wind River Indian Reservation were flooded, too, as water from the three forks of the Popo Agie and the Little Wind and the Big Wind surged.
Most old-timers who were here for the 1963 flood thought this one was worse. In my 40 years here, this was the worst.
NOLS’s Joe Austin got sucked into a culvert while volunteering up at Popo Agie Estates and disappeared before everyone’s eyes. He was shot out the other end and emerged from the river very wet, very shaken but very much alive. It occurred on his 52nd birthday.
As of the time of this writing, there have no injuries or deaths. Lander Mayor Mick Wolfe had a bandaged right hand, a sandbagging injury. “I wasn’t watching and a gal speared me with a spade. I am not as quick as I used to be,” he commented dryly.
Numbers associated with the flood are amazing. Some officials said it was the biggest disaster event of this type in Wyoming in 10 years. Gov. Dave Freudenthal, U. S. Sen. John Barrasso and U. S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis toured the area Saturday and were impressed, both by the scope of the damage and commitment by volunteers in helping out.
By Saturday an estimated $1.5 million dollars in volunteer labor had already been expended. By Sunday, more than 300,000 sandbags had been filled.
On Sunday it was announced that a total of 400 National Guardsmen were on the job in Fremont County. Over 20 Army Corps of Engineers folks were here working all ends of the flood.
As I write this, the end of the flood danger has not yet occurred. But we appear to be relatively safe.
This old river has always had a confusing name.
Most folks pronounce it Poposha.
Some old-timers call it Popo Aggie.
One historian says it is Popo Argee.
Lately, I have been calling it Popo Angry.
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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
024 - Wyoming political season looks like a glorious feast!
If this Wyoming political season was a meal, it just went from a Value Meal at McDonald’s to a seven-course gourmet delight at the Casper Petroleum Club.
A short time ago things were so boring, it was common knowledge that many Democrats were going to register as Republicans so they could participate in a contested primary.
Not so today.
With five candidates for governor on the Democrat side and seven on the Republican side plus five candidates for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, voters are going to have a wonderful time in the next two months trying to pick their winners.
As just about the only journalist in Wyoming who has run a statewide political race, it is easy for me to anticipate the next little while as enthralling.
To follow up on my meal analogy, let me offer up to you what I think are the tastiest morsels on this menu:
• Perhaps the most delicious political development of all is the entry into the race by former State Supt. of Public Instruction Trent Blankenship. He is running against the man who replaced him (Jim McBride) plus you have revenge-seeking Cindy Hill and former Cheyenne Supt. Ted Adams in that race.
Some folks may feel sorry for Trent for the grief he will end up taking during this campaign for resigning and moving to Alaska three years into his earlier term. I even called him Trent Abandon-Ship in my column.
But he is a strong campaigner who loves kids and he wants to set the record straight. This could be interesting.
Plus Democratic State Sen. Mike Massie of Laramie could end up winning the general after these other folks fight for their Republican lives in the primary.
• The second most delicious political event is the entry into the Democratic gubernatorial primary by Leslie Peterson of Wilson.
The cool and savvy Leslie is as sharp as they come. Many folks think she is as capable as the four leading Republican candidates. She may also be one of the few candidates to come out of Jackson Hole without carrying the outsider image, which can turn off voters from elsewhere around the state.
Jackson Hole? I love Teton County, but sorry, many of us also consider Leslie a Fremont Countian.
She grew up in the Dubois area and is the daughter of the long admired Les Shoemaker, one of the nicest gentlemen this state has ever seen. He was a founder of the Wyoming Dude Ranchers Association, and operated one of the best ranches of this type in the country, the CM Ranch.
For the longest time, political observers (this one, included) assumed that who ever cleared the Republican primary would almost automatically win the governorship. Not so anymore.
Her campaign announcement listed her as a “Freudenthal Democrat.” Very smart. If she wins her primary, those general election debates and forums could be doozies.
And we thank Pete Gosar for jumping into the Democratic race, too. He is a good, solid Wyomingite who loves his state.
• A third delicious political course (dessert?) is the upcoming campaign by David Wendt of Jackson. He is planning a general election campaign against incumbent Cynthia Lummis for Wyoming’s lone U. S. Representative seat.
No doubt an underdog, Wendt will not be a pushover. He was one of Wyoming’s leaders in starting a serious dialogue with Chinese coal operators, for example. No stranger to fund-raising, he confidently says he will spend $400,000 to $500, 000 on his campaign.
His gentlemanly bearing may betray him to voters who do not realize that he was a head wrangler on a ranch in his younger days.
I would anticipate him not making the campaign mistakes made two years ago by Mark Gordon’s staff, which cost the Buffalo rancher that election race against Lummis.
As for the overall political scene, Wyoming has a really dumb election calendar. Having the primary Aug. 17 often means that voters just do not pay attention to the primary campaigns occurring all summer long.
But this one might be different.
The candidates are everywhere. My advice is to read the newspapers, listen to the radio, watch the TV, scan the Internet sites, read campaign ads and materials, even join Facebook and Twitter.
By mid-August, both the candidates and the public will be suffering campaign fatigue, but this year it will be worth it.
And the stakes are very, very high.
Finally thanks so much to the candidates for jumping into these races.
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Tuesday, June 1, 2010
023 - Oil spill shows how timing can affect energy business
"British Petroleum said today that if this spill gets worse, they may soon have to start drilling for water." —Jay Leno
Wyoming’s vast natural gas reserves could see increased drilling here due to the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A very short time ago, Wyoming leaders were jarred to hear about predicted lower natural gas prices due to the huge reserves discovered off the nation’s coasts.
As the nation’s number-two producer of natural gas, some of the bloom was knocked off our boom as it was anticipated that gigantic quantities of natural gas would soon enter the marketplace from these new drilling platforms.
To say timing is everything when it comes to the energy business is a huge understatement. Folks in Wyoming have endured continuing energy boom-bust cycles since the 1920s because of timing.
When prices are good for energy, Wyoming’s economy is the hottest in the country. But when those prices go down, times get really tough here in the Cowboy State.
Locally here in Wyoming, the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster could prove advantageous. But not every scenario is so rosy.
On a national level, President Barack Obama is being encouraged to wean the country off oil and carbon products once and for all because of it.
Pulitzer winner Tom Friedman of the New York Times sees the oil spill as an incentive for the president to push Congress to pass a carbon tax.
Such a tax would be a disaster for companies working in Wyoming and would have a huge, long-term negative effect on our state’s economy.
Such a tax has its roots in the core belief that the climate is being changed by mankind’s reliance on carbon-based energy. Thus, big taxes would be charged on the use of coal, oil and natural gas. Wyoming is the nation’s leading state in carbon energy production.
Friedman complains that President Obama’s handlers are not pushing such a tax now because of what they call “legislative fatigue” on behalf of members of Congress The Senators and Representatives were beaten up so much during the recent health insurance debate, they do not have the stomach for another big fight.
I admit to normally being a fan of Friedman’s, especially his books The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded.
But he loses credibility with me when he whines about our “dependence on foreign oil,” which is hilarious in its assumptions.
The USA imports the vast majority of its oil from its two best friends on the planet, Canada and Mexico. In third place is Saudi Arabia and bunch of it comes from Iraq (where we’ve spent a trillion dollars making it our newest best friend.) Friedman also sees the oil spill as President Obama’s 9/11, not a Katrina-type moment. While taking heat from Friedman and others, the president has often seemed ineffectual during this fiasco.
First he claims that BP (British Petroleum, formerly known as BP Amoco) is on top of the disaster. Then he says he is paying attention. Finally he commits political hari-kari when, 37 days after the oil blowout occurred, he stands in front of the world and says “I am responsible. I am all over this.” He says it is the federal government, not BP, which is going to solve this problem.
In the advertising business, the term “stickiness” is often used. It refers to how a product attempts to “stick” to a certain situation in a positive way. You have a cold? You reach for a Kleenex. You like chicken? You go to KFC.
It can work the other way, too. And now, President Obama is virtually covered in the horrible goo that is emanating off the coast of Louisiana. Very sticky, indeed.
Although the president seems impotent in solving this spill, the one thing he can do is stop future offshore drilling. That has already occurred.
Very expensive systems will now be employed to protect the environment. Plus time-consuming regulations are being put into place.
And what does that mean to Wyoming? It means that our huge natural gas fields will get new leases on life.
Prices will go up. More jobs will be created. And severance taxes will be collected.
We are not celebrating the gulf disaster as a good event. But it will force the country and the oil companies to get busy here and that is good economic news for the Cowboy State.
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