- Every year, hundreds of Americans are injured or killed during severe weather events.

Severe storms caused billions of dollars in property damage, and often leave families scrambling to find food, water, and other basic necessities.

Coming up next on IGI, we prepare you for severe weather season, and later in the program, we'll talk about the devastating wildfires that have plagued Kansas in recent years.

Coming up next on IGI.

(bright instrumental jingle) - [Announcer] KNEA, empowering educators so that educators can empower Kansas students.

- [Male Announcer] This program is brought to you with support from the Lewis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust and from the friends of KTWU.

(bright instrumental music) - For most Kansans, severe weather is a way of life, but for the last year, we've been focused on COVID-19 and staying safe during a deadly pandemic.

It's possible that some of us have become complacent and risk being caught off guard by severe weather events.

Welcome to IGI.

I'm Val VanDerSluis.

On today's program, we're going to talk to local experts about how to prepare for severe weather outbreaks, and later in our program, we'll discuss another threat that is plaguing parts of Kansas, wildfires.

Joining us now to discuss severe weather awareness and preparedness is Chad Omitt, Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service Forecast Office here in Topeka, Scott Garcia, Deputy Director of the Shawnee County Department of Emergency Management, and to discuss Kansas wildfires, we have Eric Ward, Assistant Fire Management Officer with the Kansas Forest Service.

Thank you all so much for joining me on IGI.

- Good to be here.

- Thank you guys very much.

And we're going to go ahead and kick this off.

You know, we're going to start talking about severe weather awareness, and you know, of course you all know we're in the second year of the pandemic.

Last year, it was relatively a quiet severe weather year in Northeast Kansas.

We had lots of distractions.

Do we need to remind ourselves to be weather aware?

I know that we're now in severe weather season.

Chad, are you able to kind of discuss with us a little bit about severe weather and what it means to be aware?

- Yeah, Val, it's a good point, that there was so much going on last year, and it was one of the quietest years we've ever had in the state of Kansas for tornadoes, anyway.

In fact, we only had 17 documented tornadoes across the state.

We typically average almost 90, and so it was a very quiet year.

Everything that we look at tends to suggest it's going to be at least an average, if not an above average, severe weather season, and so I think it is a good time to remind people of things that they've heard about, but might've just sort of put on the back burner because of everything else that's been going on.

- And, you know, being aware, what resources do we have to be aware?

I know that we have the weather radios, we have broadcast radio and TV, weather apps.

Scott, are you able to discuss a little bit about what it means to be weather aware and what resources we have available?

- You pretty much named a few of those.

We really try to push out social media.

Emergency management, we have social media pages that we push out whenever we get information from NWS.

We also have the outdoor warning sirens.

We try not to have people rely on those because they are outdoor warning sirens.

Those are geared for outdoor areas, so if you're in the house and you can't hear it, you should probably try to get other means of notification such as weather radios, smartphones, turn on your TV, turn on your radio, and stuff like that.

- Thank you, and it sounds like it would be great if families would be able to put together a plan of action in the event of severe weather.

I know that probably plans of action are different based upon flooding or tornadoes or wind or whatever it may be, and Chad, are you able to talk a little bit about the differences related to what kind of plans of actions we need to put together to be prepared?

- Sure.

You know, one of the things we talk about a lot this time of year is preparedness and putting a plan together, and specifically we talk a lot about tornadoes because tornadoes do have the potential to bring a mass casualty event to parts of the state, and so we talk a lot about the importance of getting below ground or getting as low as you can and putting as many walls between you and the outside as possible, getting underneath something sturdy, covering up with something heavy, those general principles as a part of your plan.

Now, the question that you want to ask yourself and answer right away is where do we go?

What do we do in the event that there is a, say, a tornado warning, and that's what we have to ask ourselves at our workplaces, schools, businesses, home, and those are the things that we talk about we want people to think about now before a watch or a warning is issued, so they know where they need to go and they know what they need to do to take shelter, to protect themselves, and their families.

- And I know you've mentioned we need to make that plan, not just at home, but when you're out shopping, when you're out at school, whatever that may be, you know, and speaking of plans, what kind of weather watches do we need to be aware of when we're making plans, and should we cancel plans because of a weather watch?

Scott, are you able to talk a little bit about that?

- Yeah, living in Kansas, you should always kind of have weather in the back of your mind because it can change at the drop of a hat.

Whenever you're going to an outdoor venue, you should be able to know if weather was to move in, where to go, where to take place.

A lot of events and places should already have plans in place, and if so, maybe have marked areas where you need to go in the event that there is bad weather.

So, you should always have in the back of your mind where you're going.

If you go to shopping malls and stuff like that, they would have things posted of where to go.

You definitely don't want to stand near windows and glass and stuff like that, and Chad kind of hit it where you want to go to the central part of whatever structure you're at to try to get yourself away from the outdoor surroundings.

- And I know we do talk a lot about tornadoes here in Kansas.

That's kind of what we're known for.

I know I talk with people around the country and my colleagues, and they say, "So, have you ever been in a tornado?"

or "What's it like to be in a tornado?"

And I know they're kind of those glamor storms that get a lot of press, but there are a lot of other severe-weather-related issues that happen here in Kansas.

What are some of the other issues that we need to be aware of?

I know there's hail, straight-line winds.

Chad, are you able to speak on that a little bit?

- Sure, you know, you raise a really good point.

Over the last 10 years, Val, we've lost more people in Kansas from flooding than we have from tornadoes or lightning combined.

And so flash flooding, specifically the risk of driving into a flooded road, especially at night, that's where most of the fatalities happen where someone drives into an area where they're not familiar with the area and they drive into a flood.

There's a current, the car becomes buoyant, and they're the swept away.

And so we oftentimes want to reiterate how important it is to use caution, especially at night, if there are a flood warnings out, flash flood warnings, and it's raining heavily.

If you're in an area that you're not familiar with and you come to a flooded road, certainly turn around, and the slogan is "Turn around, don't drown," because we, like I said, we've lost more people from flooding over the last 10 years in the state of Kansas than we have from any other thunderstorm-related hazard.

- If you do find yourself in a flood, you know, I know sometimes at night, you know, you do hear the "Turn around, don't drown," and I, myself, I know I've been driving home from work in some pretty bad weather, and all of a sudden you find yourself pretty deep in some water in your car say, "Whoa," and you know, I've backed up and everything.

What happens if you do find yourself in a situation and you see yourself being swept away?

- Every situation is different.

It's a little bit like when the question is posed about what should I do if there's a tornado and I'm in my car.

Every situation is a little bit different.

If you are in that type of a situation where the water has gotten deep, you're lifted, and you become buoyant, and you're being swept away, the suggestion is to try to get out of the car if you can.

The car actually can become a sort of a death trap, so to speak, if you stay in it in a situation like that, so it's best to try to remove yourself from the car and get out if you can, but that's an absolute terrible situation to be in, and so we want to do everything we can to help people change their behavior a little bit through awareness and through the preparedness that we're talking about so that they don't get into those type of situations.

- And Scott, I know we just got to talk about floods.

We'll kind of go back to tornadoes and straight-line winds.

I know I've been involved in microburst activity.

That was a very scary event, and we almost thought it was a tornado, but it was a 70-mile-per-hour gust of wind that went through the house and created a heck load of damage.

What kind of steps can we take at home to survive issues like this or survive tornadoes.

If you're in a tornado, what steps can you take to not only survive, but what do you do afterwards?

- Definitely what you want to do is stay inside.

Don't go outside.

On our social media pages, we got a lot of citizens that like to go out with their camera phones and try to record the activities that are going on, and sometimes they're looking straight up at it, and we try to tell people go inside, because when you got high winds and the chance of tornadoes, I would be really worried about flying debris and stuff getting blown around and hitting you.

So, you want to get inside to protect yourself from that debris, and you definitely want to try to get towards the most central part of the house, and if you do not have a basement, know where to go, that's why pre-planning is very important.

We touched on it a little bit earlier.

You should always have a plan for everything.

If you live in a mobile home, where to go, if you don't have a basement, where to go, and like Chad said earlier, find a doorway, try to get under a table, go into a bathroom, 'cause bathrooms are generally in the central part of the house.

Lay in the tub.

Put some of the couch cushions or something on top of you to try to protect yourself from falling structures and stuff like that.

- Sounds good.

And I know that we have a little slide here, this 2019 U.S.

Hazard Statistics that talk, I know that, Chad, you talked a little bit about how many folks, unfortunately, passed due to tornadoes and winds and hail and lightning and floods and all that.

What's kind of shocking with that is flooding was the top number of fatalities.

It was the top severe weather event that caused the most fatalities.

Even winds are just about as high as tornadoes.

Are you able to share a little bit of information on that?

- Sure, you know, one of the things we learned from the terrible season that we had back in 2011 when we lost 553 people across the country, we had violent tornadoes hit large cities, and we had a lot of people that suffered serious injuries or fatalities.

And we learned a lot about one of the things that is the greatest danger in these situations.

It can be tornadoes, 80, 100-mile-an-hour straight-line winds.

It's the debris, it's the danger of the debris falling and blowing that you want to protect yourself from.

And so, like Scott said, we emphasize getting as low as you can, and putting as many walls between you and the outside as possible.

If you have a basement, that's great.

A safe room, that's fantastic.

If you don't, get to the lowest floor, an interior room and cover up with something heavy.

And we talk about helmets, the importance of helmets, Val, because a lot of the fatalities back in 2011 were blunt-force trauma to the head, and so this is something that we've been talking about for the last 10 years or so, the importance of as a part of your tornado kit, safety kit, is putting a helmet in there.

A bike helmet can do as much good as anything.

And so we talk a lot about to protect yourself from the blowing and the falling debris, and that's what we want people to remember.

- And thank you so much, Chad, and Scott, before we wrap up this segment, did you have anything to add related to, I know you already talked about keep your cell phone, put it away, don't take pictures.

Any other advice you have for any kind of severe weather preparedness?

- Just make sure you have a weather radio.

We can't stress that enough.

A lot of people try to depend on the outdoor warning sirens and sometimes you're not able to hear them because of high winds, bad weather.

So, if you have a weather radio, you're basically having your own little weather alert in your house, and you just want to make sure that you're able to be notified, because unfortunately, storms don't happen Monday through Friday eight to five.

They like to happen overnight or late.

You might be sleeping, so you just want to make sure that you're able to be able to be woken up in the event of bad weather, so make sure you have a weather radio.

- Very good.

And thank you so much, Chad and Scott, for discussing severe weather preparedness with us on IGI.

And coming up next, we are going to bring in Eric Ward.

We're going to talk about wildfires, an issue that has made headlines locally and nationally over the past few years.

We'll see you back here in just a moment (bright music) (thunder rumbles) - [Narrator] You're running late and your path is blocked by water crossing the road.

It doesn't look that deep, so you decide to drive through it.

Bad decision, and it may be your last.

(suspenseful music) - When most of us think of wildfires, we think of the forest fires that often plague the mountainous western states, but in recent years, there've been a rash of prairie fires in the Great Plains that have burned thousands of acres of grassland, killed livestock, and even resulted in human casualties.

Joining us now is Eric Ward, Fire Planning Specialist with the Kansas Forest Service, and again, Scott Garcia from Shawnee County Emergency Management.

Thank you both for joining us on IGI.

And we're going to go ahead and start with you, Eric.

We're going to talk a little bit about wildfires.

Can you give us an idea of what exactly is a wildfire?

- Basically, a wildfire is defined as any unwanted fire burning in vegetation.

So, people in Kansas sometimes say, "Oh, we don't have wildfires.

We just have grass fires."

But by definition, that grass fire is a wildfire.

A fire burning through cropland, grass, timber, or any other kind of vegetation would be considered a wildfire.

- And what typically is the cause of a wildfire?

I know that we have seen so many reports of campfires.

I know that some people are even having these gender reveals that are creating huge issues with fires and grass fires and whatnot.

Can you tell us what the typical cause of?

- In Kansas, most wildfires are human-caused.

If you get into the mountain West, a lot of them are caused by lightning, but in Kansas, typically when we have lightning, we have rain with it.

We don't tend to get the dry lightning storms that, say, Colorado or Montana might, so most are caused by human activity.

A sizeable portion of them are result of somebody burning something, whether it's a prescribed burn for land management purposes or burning trash or whatever.

Sometimes people burn on a day that was wonderful weather, but they haven't looked ahead to see that the following day was going to be dry and windy and gusty.

And there's always something left smoldering that has a nasty habit of blowing out and getting away from them.

Other things, you mentioned campfires.

That's not usually a major problem here, but it happens.

Dragging chains if somebody's towing a trailer and dragging the chain on the pavement or the flint rock road, or we've seen them caused by people welding in dry grass on a dry windy day, but most of them in Kansas are caused by human activity, which also means that most could be prevented.

- Yeah, I know you talked a little bit about checking to see if people can burn.

Maybe some people don't realize they need to call and get permission from a fire department or whomever it may be to determine whether or not it's a good day to be able to burn.

First off, who do they call?

And then what constitutes a good day to burn?

- You just contact the fire department, the fire district in your area, and you just tell them what you want to do, and you have to actually fill out a permit and get it approved so that you can burn.

Some of the questions on there, I think is basically they want to know timeframe of when you're wanting to do it and stuff like that, so if you have any questions on whether or not you can burn or not, just contact your local fire district or fire department in your area.

- And I know that we have had wildfires in at least the last few years in a row here in Kansas.

Eric, related to the wildfires we've had, is this an unusual event?

Is this more than what we've typically seen in the past?

- Kansas has always had a wildfire problem, although it has not always been well-recognized.

Even going back 10 to 20 years ago, the statistics show that Kansas was one of the most active states in the Western U.S. for the number of wildfires and the number of acres burned, but historically, it didn't get a lot of attention.

It was a local issue and usually didn't cause a lot of property damage.

In recent years, we've seen an increase in the ones that have done property damage going back to 2016 with the Anderson Creek fire, and that's been a trend through the Great Plains, that the number and the severity of fires seem to be getting worse.

Actually, the number not so much, but the severity has been getting worse, and so in recent years, they've seen a lot more attention, because of some of the tremendously damaging fires that have burned hundreds of thousands of acres.

But aside from those, it's not always the huge, mega fires that are causing the problems.

The smaller ones like what happened within the last week or two, and they were a couple of them in Shawnee County in the last couple of weeks, that due to tremendous efforts of the firefighters involved did not burn structures, but had every potential to destroy homes, and property, and other values.

We've seen some homes lost in the state this year.

It happens every year.

One of the big differences is Kansas doesn't have necessarily a news camera on every street corner in the way that some of the urban areas like California do, so you have a little fire of a few acres in California, it's going to be on the evening news.

In Kansas, it's probably not going to be unless it really becomes a damaging event, even though we probably have more than they do.

- Well, I know speaking of the news, I believe it was last week that we all were starting to get the fire alerts on our phones, our watches, and about that 2200-acre wildfire that hit over in western Shawnee County, and I believe it was Willard and Maple Hill.

It sounded like there was no structure damage.

There were no injuries.

So, what caused that?

- We had a guy that was out at the command post, our communications guy, and they're in constant talk with National Weather Service, getting spot forecasts.

We're looking at wind gusts, what direction it's blowing, and we also work with our mapping and GIS department to look at what structures may and may not be in the path, and we try to focus on those and make sure that obviously none of the structures are lost in the fire.

So, we're in constant communication with the mapping department and National Weather trying to figure out, you know, where and what directions it's going to go and stuff like that, so they're always looking ahead for looking at the worst possible scenario.

- The response and the preparedness to wildfires has improved dramatically in the last four to six years in Kansas, from the smallest fire department to the highest levels of state government and everything in between.

I think prior to Anderson Creek and the following year, the Starbuck fire a lot of people have said, "Oh, we'll never see anything like that in Kansas."

Even when Anderson Creek hit, people said, "Oh, I thought we'd never see that, but it's a once in a lifetime deal," and then the next year, we beat that record to pieces.

But because of that, unfortunately, sometimes tragedy is what happens to cause positive change.

I think fire departments are better prepared and better organized, working together more aggressively, dispatching more help quicker, state agencies are coordinating much better together and in much more frequent communication.

And just at every level, things are going smoother, and people are better prepared to respond to that sort of event.

Shawnee County hit that fire with overwhelming force, and that is part of what stopped it.

In years past people would have said, "Well, I'll get there and see if I need any help."

They dispatch lots and lots of help early on, and that's part of why the fire was able to be stopped before it became a tragic event.

- Thank you.

And Scott, I know with that wildfire, we talked about last week, and on my phone, I had that a severe weather alert that hit, and I was like, wow, what's happening here?

And I saw a fire danger.

And is that a new thing that has been added or is it just maybe I just didn't notice them before?

- I think it's a little bit of both.

I know that our communication guy that was out there, he didn't necessarily have the tools to set up the alerts himself, which we're working on, and part of our after action report and stuff that we need moving forward, but we also relied on National Weather to send out the emergency alerts, and then we also contacted KDEM, the state, and they're the ones that pushed out the wireless emergency alerts that hit up all the wireless people in that area.

So, like Eric said earlier, you know, it's quick actions on everyone's part is what helped stop this from being even worse.

Training by everyone and stuff like that is just, it's proven to be very good.

We can always improve on certain things, but this is where we learn from our actions, and, you know, we have our after actions after an event like this and we should figure out moving forward what can we get better at, 'cause we can always, you know, we always want to get better.

We always want to, you know, try to stay up to date on training and everything, and we just, you know, we always want to get better, and I thought it was handled very well with the amount of departments and jurisdictions that all reported.

You know, it was really good to see all that work.

- I agree.

I thought it was handled very well.

And Eric, I was going to check with you related to land management or lack of it.

How does that play into wildfires?

- It could be an a definite factor.

One of the challenges that we've seen in Kansas through the last 20 or 30 years is a tremendous increase in the spread of the Eastern red cedar, but some people say that is a native tree and it does belong in Kansas, but it has been allowed to spread well outside of its natural area along the rivers and stream banks into the prairie, and that makes it much more challenging to stop the fire.

A fire burning in grass where people can drive a truck up to it and put it out is much easier to stop and creates much less heat than a fire burning through a stand of cedar trees.

Sometimes, unfortunately, it's the land management practices that lead to the fire.

The lack of, as in the cedar spread, can certainly be an issue, but sometimes it's people burning without a good plan and without carefully checking the weather forecast ahead that becomes the source of the fire, too, so it's a balance that has to be had.

As an agency, certainly advocate the safe and appropriate use of prescribed fire.

Without it, there would be no prairie within a few years.

The prairie exists because fire is a natural part of the ecosystem, but it's also like any tool.

It's dangerous and has to be used very carefully and appropriately, so it's extremely important that people are well-planned and well-prepared, and have, especially the last couple of years, with fire behavior being more extreme than we're used to, maybe over-prepare if they're going to burn something.

Whatever you think you need to control it, maybe double that in terms of spray units or people to help or whatever.

And then, again, checking that forecast out to the second and third day to make sure that, okay, maybe today is perfect, but tomorrow is going to be hot, dry, and windy.

Maybe this isn't the best time to burn that.

- Great, And this was all wonderful information.

Thank you both so much for joining us today.

And that's all the time we have for this episode of IGI.

If you have any questions or comments for the future topics, send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

If you would like to view this program again, or any previous episodes of IGI, you can visit us online at watch.ktwu.org.

For IGI, I'm Val VanDerSluis.

Thank you for watching.

(bright instrumental music) - [Announcer] KNEA, empowering educators so that educators can empower Kansas students.

- [Male Announcer] This program is brought to you with support from the Lewis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust and from the friends of KTWU.