Hazard Risks in Summit County
Summit County has a number of hazard risks, including wildfire, avalanches and flooding, among others. Information and resources pertaining to each hazard risk are listed below.
Avalanche
Summit County ranks high in the number of human triggered and naturally occurring avalanche activity. Backcountry travel conditions can be found at the Colorado Avalanche Center.
Dam Failure
Dam failure in the United States is a very rare occurance. Dam Owners carefully monitor their facilities and have emergency action plans in place. Five dams in the county are located in close proximity to developed areas and four dams located in more remote areas.A brief description of the dams located in the county can be found in the Multi-Hazard Plans. Contact the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) for specific information about a particular dam of interest.The OEM cannot release any emergency actions plans or inundation studies of a failure of a dam received from the facility owner. Also see information listed below under Flood.
Flood
The terrain features and natural water ways in the county can accommodate normal snowpack and rain caused river flow.High snowpack totals in the spring cause monitoring to take place, and at peak normal runoff any rain event can cause flooding conditions to materialize. Read our flood information packet (pdf).
- READY.GOV Floods
- Colorado Water Conservation Board
- National Flood Insurance Program
- Flood Preparedness Guide (pdf)
- Guia de Preparacion para Inundaciones (pdf)
Hazardous Material
Hazmat routes are Interstate-70 and Highway-6 (Loveland Pass). The 12 fixed facilities report under SARA Title II because of the quantity of materials used or in storage at their facility.The Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) maintains a listing of these facilities and for more information or meeting locations contact the Office of Emergency Management (OEM). The OEM cannot release any emergency actions plans received from a fixed facility.The LEPC can be reached by email.
- The Designated Emergency Response Authority (DERA) for Summit County is the Summit Fire Authority and can be reached at (970) 668-4330
- Information about the Colorado State Patrol Hazardous Material Team can be found online
Homeland Security
The terrorism threat for Summit County is low and citizen reporting of suspicious circumstances should be made immediately to the Summit County Communications Center, (970) 668-8600. We participate in the homeland security planning through the Northwest All Hazards Emergency Management Region.
Weather
Severe weather can occur in the high elevation communities in Summit County. For local weather conditions visit the National Weather Service.
Wildfire
We have built our communities in a wildland urban interface (WUI) which means our homes and infrastructure coexist in areas surrounded by forest fuels. The Community Wildfire Protection Plan describes our risk and mitigation efforts in this area. Also see our brochure Living With The Threat of Wildfire. Summit County fire agencies have wildfire information on their websites: