ABINGTON, Pa. (RFD News) — Rural communities can face unique challenges when recovering from natural disasters, making preparation especially important.
Ian Costello with the Keswick Village Community Resilience Coalition joined us on Thursday’s Market Day Report on behalf of the AgriSafe Network during National Farm Safety and Health Week.
In his conversation with RFD News, Costello said rural areas may receive less outside support because they have less infrastructure. He encouraged communities to build local connections before a disaster occurs rather than waiting until help is needed.
Costello also stressed the role neighbors and other community members can play before traditional first responders arrive, especially when checking on people who may need additional help.
Costello will lead a free AgriSafe webinar, “More than FEMA: Building True Rural Disaster Resilience,” Thursday at 3 p.m. Central.
Wildfires have caused significant damage across parts of the country this year, highlighting one of the risks rural communities may face.
USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey said activity has slowed in recent weeks as cooler, wetter conditions bring some relief out West. Still, more than 8.5 million acres of vegetation have burned nationwide this year.
“With the cooler and more humid weather along with the rainfall, we have seen diminished wildfire activity in the last few weeks. Still, though, if you look at the U.S. as a whole, we have seen wildfires burning more than eight and a half million acres of vegetation so far this year, and that is substantially above the ten-year average for this time of year of 5.9 million acres. And if you look at just the Rockies, the Great Basin and Northwest, almost three-quarters of the U.S. wildfires this year in terms of acreage have burned across those three regions.”
Even as conditions improve, Rippey called it a “memorable year” for wildfires.
