As the population of Fort Collins increases and our perimeter expands ever outward, the potential for loss of life and damage to property from natural and man-made disasters increases. It has been said that we live in "dangerous times." That may well be true, but the most likely cause of danger to our community is not necessarily from what might be the common perception. Our greatest threat generally comes in the form of naturally occurring events.

Most of the natural events for which we provide preparedness planning information here stem from severe weather and its consequences including flash floods, river and stream flooding, damaging hail and lightning, blizzards, and tornadoes. The other side of the coin is severe weather in its most benign form, which actually seems to the casual observer to be an absolute lack of weather. That, of course, is known as a drought. Severe, prolonged heat and lack of precipitation can be as devastating as the most violent weather. The dust bowl of the 1930's is the best and worst example of that.

To a lesser degree, but still a significant consideration is the ubiquitous earthquake, a natural event which certainly could be capable of causing considerable damage to our increasingly urbanized environs. Add to the possibility of a significant earthquake the fact that a large segment of our resident population is nestled in the shadows of the Horsetooth Reservoir floodplain, and you can see that a preparedness plan for catastrophic dam failure is also necessary to consider.

There are some events which cross over into both the natural and the man-made disaster categories. Fires often result from lightning strikes, and in extremely remote areas have no connection whatever to man. However, when man encroaches upon the "wildland," naturally occurring fires can wreak havoc on those who occupy this wildland interface area. Southern California in particular is plagued by frequent brush fires in the populated wildlands of Los Angeles and Ventura County. These devastating events cause millions of dollars in damage to homes and property annually, as well as untold damage to the wildland environment.

The fact that man is responsible for many, many fires each year is well established. This is part and parcel of living in a community, and the threat increases right along with the population. Thankfully, the vast majority of fires caused by man are non-criminal. But criminal or not, they are equally destructive and costly.

We face purely man-made dangers in the form of the various hazardous materials which travel in and around our community every day on our streets and highways. The threat from hazardous materials, however, is not something that the average person can do much to prepare for. For this reason we are not including a discussion of hazardous materials within our website at the present time.

We are concerned here with those things for which we can prepare as individuals, families, and as a community. While we cannot stop these natural events from happening, we can certainly work together and try to do everything possible to prepare for them, and hopefully mitigate the resulting damage and loss of life.