Amid FEMA uncertainty, Western governors commit to more coordination on post-fire flooding
From left: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox sit for a panel discussion on post-fire flooding, an issue affecting many Western states. (Photo by Patrick Lohmann / Source NM)
Several governors of Western states on Tuesday endorsed formalizing a partnership to help each other deal with the aftermath of increasingly devastating wildfires, citing the long-term effects of post-fire flooding and also uncertainty about the Federal Emergency Management Agency's future.
Governors from New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado attended a panel discussion on the topic of post-fire flooding at the Western Governors' Association meeting in Santa Fe. The governors questioned experts — including state emergency response officials and a government landslide scientist — at a discussion called 'Flood After Fire – Enhancing Safety in Post-Fire Landscapes.'
The governors described the phenomenon as increasingly urgent due to wildfires burning hotter and larger across the West. High-severity wildfires can change soil composition, converting even modest rainstorms that fall on burn scars into potential floods or debris flows.
In New Mexico, for example, post-fire flooding has impeded the recovery from the 2022 Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, both for the City of Las Vegas as it tries to rebuild its water treatment facility and for smaller communities in and around the 534-square-mile burn scar. Other Western governors, including Spencer Cox of Utah, said they're increasingly concerned about flooding after fires. That was the case when Cox came across the aftermath of a fire that burned this week.
Las Vegas to get $98 million to replace water treatment facilities after 2022 wildfire damage
'The first thing I thought when I drove into that community had nothing to do with the fire or the homes burned,' he said. 'What I realized was, for the next five or six years, things are going to be pretty awful for those people because of the mudslides and the runoff, the sediment that comes down.'
The conversation occurred as at least six wildfires burn across New Mexico, and as burn scar areas in northern and southern New Mexico experience severe flooding or are warned to be on high-alert for it.
While no FEMA official sat on the panel, the agency's past performance with post-fire flooding and its future loomed over the meeting. Participants mentioned the agency's name more than 10 times, and speakers noted the challenges they'd face if the agency is dismantled, as called for briefly by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
While New Mexico's United States Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján say the agency should still exist, they recently called on FEMA to change the way it deals with post-fire flooding. The agency has 'repeatedly struggled to respond effectively' to second-order effects from wildfires, including 'cascading disasters such as landslides, flooding and water system failures that compound damage and slow recovery,' the senators wrote.
NM's U.S. senators to Noem: Reform FEMA. Don't scrap it entirely.
Collin Haffey, a Washington post-fire recovery leader who worked for New Mexico Forestry Division during the 2022 wildfires here, spoke on the panel and said there's a 'tremendous amount of uncertainty' about the federal government's role in wildfire recovery going forward.
'If I'm trying to build my portion of the railroad track to meet them, I don't know how far to go,' he said. 'And I think that that lack of communication down to the local level is putting lives and recovery at risk.'
So he called on the WGA to create a formal agreement between Western states, one that could help states help each other deal with the aftermath of devastating wildfires amid uncertainty about what type of aid could come from the federal government.
'We have these peer-to-peer networks because I have their cell phone numbers,' Haffey said. 'But that's not necessarily the best.'
In response, Cox, who on Tuesday was named the new WGA chair, said he would spearhead an effort to create a regional partnership.
'Even if we weren't, you know, seeing FEMA reform and changes happening there, we should have been doing this anyway,' he said. 'And so let's do it anyway.'
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