Emergency Preparedness

A new report called “Ready or Not” measures every state's emergency preparedness and finds that fewer than half of all states are well prepared. In the Mountain West, Nevada and Wyoming rated “low.” New Mexico, Idaho and Utah rated in the “middle” tier. Colorado rated “high” for public health emergency preparedness.

The training exercise is scheduled for a day in late October and will include officials from the city and county as well as ones from surrounding counties to better plan and prepare for a hazardous materials situation caused by a derailment. There have been several in Wyoming in recent years, including earlier this year in a Sheridan rail yard, of a coal train near Arvada, and in a rail yard in Cheyenne.

The heat wave baking the West continues to increase wildfire dangers as we head into fall. On Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center increased its National Preparedness Level to 4, out of a possible 5.

The airport is home to the Wyoming Regional Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighting facility, the only facility of its kind in Wyoming. Emergency personnel from around the state and region conduct annual fire training events in Casper with a large scale disaster event occurring every three years per Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations.

In Boise's Warm Springs Mesa neighborhood, a new alert system is the latest step in efforts to improve the community's response and communication in the event of a wildfire or other emergency, as the memory of the Table Rock fire is still fresh for most residents.

Utah and Colorado are above the national average in preparing for disasters, according to a new state-by-state analysis released Wednesday.