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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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