Cities and Counties Get Ready for High Water

Early flood preparations across the state started in January and continued Thursday at the Ramada Inn in Casper.

150 plus, from first responders and National Guard, to city and county government officials heard the most current runoff predictions knowing full well that what's happening now can change quickly, as it did last year.

"As we worked with those issues last spring bringing the sandbags in to the tune of a million and allot of resources brought to bear in Fremont county folks focused primarily on that area and maybe missed the point that there were at least five other counties that, what we would called, basically dodged the bullet."

Larry Majerus, Interim Homeland Security Director, says they want to get people focused earlier and get supplies positioned well ahead of time. Majerus says he's already visited most counties to inventory and check supplies. He says they have 500,000 sand bags in Cheyenne currently ready for pre positioning. For this meeting, Majerus says, the chance to network is the most important outcome.

"Because there are some counties who will not face high water this spring and yet they have resources in supply, either in the form of tangible resources, like sandbags that have been prepositioned there, or heavy equipment or people."

Majerus feels confident that if one county finds itself  underwater this Spring the networking that takes place today will pay off in neighborly cooperation.