Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 2
Number 2 consider and take appropriate action on an order concerning outdoor burning in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
mr. Lee?
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
Travis County fire marshal.
our drought index as of this morning was 638, with some areas of Travis County being as high as 679.
I wanted to give you kind of a -- some information about what that means.
on the drought index, kbdi 0 means that the soil is totally saturated, all of the moisture it possibly can have.
800 means there is absolutely no moisture.
so we are more than 3/4ths up the way of that scale to no moisture.
yesterday's small amount of rain was welcome will be gone by this afternoon.
we need about three to four weeks of that -- of that kind of rain.
actually the weather man said that was not measurable.
the bad news about that is in the 10 day forecast there is no rain forecast.
so the current burn ban would expire tomorrow and the new ban if enacted by the court today would run through June the 1st.
my recommendation is to the county to extend the burn ban by enacting a few burn ban.
>> questions in.
>> so move.
>> actually, we've had fires all over Texas and all of central Texas, right?
>> that's correct.
the fires continue to burn.
I was traveling this past weekend, I was noticing the number of fires during the side of the road are beginning to increase again.
this is the time when normally the grass is green.
if you noticed the videos that Texas fire service is showing, apparently green pastures are burning very actively.
that's because there is no moisture in that grass.
>> this order prohibits outdoor burning.
there are circumstances in which burning is allowed, they are set forth in the order.
>> they are.
>> for those who want to see basically written descriptions of what's allowed, if they will contact the marshal's office or members of the Commissioners court, we would be able to get that document to them immediately.
>> that's correct, judge.
>> it's pretty significant of the things that have really been happening with the drought and of course with the drought we've -- we've incurred a lot of fires and according to the backup and things like that, we have what, over 6,272 fires.
so like 905 structures have been destroyed.
and on top of that, we've had over a million acres that have been -- have been damaged by fire.
my concern is has there been any relief factor from the federal government to declare any of this area of Texas as a disaster?
has there been any signs of support from the federal government to help Texas in this particular drought situation?
>> I know some requests have been talked about.
I don't know that those have gone all the way up to the federal government level.
but I know of no federal disaster declarations.
>> has come down at this point?
because it's a lot of folks that are hurting out there because of this drought.
and of course not only the fires, but then there are others effects that hurt a lot of folks.
those in agriculture, those in the ranching phase of things and of course just the significance of homes and structures being lost.
it's some devastating figures here.
and of course we just got to be super careful out there and ensure that we don't add on to what's -- what we're looking at here today.
>> right.
>> keep echoing sentiment.
all across the county.
pardon me?
>> the dollar figure for the drought really hasn't been assessed yet because the effect long-term effect on the livestock market, brice of hay, lack of grass
>> [multiple voices]
>> feed, everything else
>> [multiple voices]
>> get rid of those cows for almost nothing.
>> it's significant.
>> right.
the scenario is just very bad, very dangerous, we would like to remind the public to be very careful.
although people still will sometimes cook in a pit that is designed and allowed to be cooked, cooked foods or prepared food even during a burn ban, the disposal of ashes and those type of things has to be done at a very safe manner.
so -- so cooking with any solid fuel, mowing, dragging chains, do not discard a cigarette outdoors, those type of things.
the public just needs to remember that we are in a very dangerous time.
>> thank you.
>> the motion is to enact a new burn ban which would spire June 1st, 2011, any more discussion of the motion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
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