HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 6, 2022
Published: Fri, 05/06/22
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HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 6, 2022
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In this week's tip, we offer advice on a natural disaster risk you may not think will touch your community. We'd like you to think again.
The risk is wildfires, and before you skip this article thinking wildfires aren't a risk in your area, consider these facts:
*In April, after a week of efforts to contain a wildfire in Tennessee, 11,000 homes had to be evacuated, and 219 structures were damaged.
*Residents of 150 homes were evacuated in Texas in April when a wildfire swept through 3,000 acres at the Camp Bullis military base. Experts predict more wildfires in Texas in the coming months.
*In March, a wildfire damaged dozens of houses in New Jersey, and about 100 people had to be evacuated. Also in March, wildfires in the Florida Panhandle triggered the evacuation of residents of roughly 1,100 homes.
*Oklahoma residents were advised to evacuate due to wildfires in March.
*Fires in New Mexico are now projected to threaten 15,000 residences in the next few days.
That's just a snapshot of roughly two months in the United States. So, while your first instinct may be that wildfires aren't a risk to your community if you're not in the Pacific Northwest, Jennifer Gray Thompson, CEO of the nonprofit After the Fire USA, who helps communities devastated by wildfires, is here to tell you that's simply not the case.
"When you look at wildfire alerts, where are the red-flag warnings across the United States, currently there are alerts in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas," she said in early April. "In the Texas wildfire I'm aware of, the wildfire has taken out maybe 75 homes, so it's not really rising to the level of a national disaster.
"But it's a national hint," states Thompson. "I think Americans should begin to look more toward the Midwest when it comes to the risk of wildfires.
"Also, the Federal Emergency Management Agency flew me out to Bay County, Fla., after Hurricane Michael in 2018, when the state lost millions of trees," she adds. "The trees there were thin and tall and fell right over.
"But those trees weren't removed," she recalls. "That created an excess wildfire risk. It was like someone had put down kindling. If you never light a match, the kindling is fine. But anything that will cause a spark, combined with high winds, can cause wildfires. So we should also be looking at areas that have been affected by wind and rain events when we're discussing the risk of wildfires."
Read our new article, https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4510.cfm, to find out what Thompson advises you to do now to protect your community.
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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