What is the greatest danger we face here in San Juan County?
Disasters are by nature chaotic and unpredicatable, so it is impossible to quantify the risk to a point where we can say for certain what the greatest danger is. Here’s what we can say: 1. San Juan County has experienced numerous winter storms over the decades that have crippled the islands for weeks at a time. While not cataclysmic, the wind and snow and ice that can come with a winter storm can leave the islands in dire straits. 2. During the dry months, almost all of San Juan County is located in an environment ripe for wildfire. We’ve been lucky in recent years, but the climate, terrain, vegetation, and housing patterns on the islands all point to the potential for wildfire. 3. Though extremely rare by the standards of a human lifetime, we live in a seismically active area, and are prone to both large earthquakes, and the resulting tsunamis.
