drought – The B Square

Burn bans by Indiana county: https://www.in.gov/dhs/burnban/

Monroe County Drought Severity and Coverage Index

Drought conditions in Indiana: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

For the next week, Monroe County, Indiana is under a burn ban, declared by board of county commissioners president Penny Githens.

The news was released by Justin Baker, who is deputy director of Monroe County’s emergency management agency.

The ban went into effect at 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13 and will go through Monday, Nov. 20.

Leading to the ban are the dry conditions that the southwestern part of the state has seen over the last several weeks.

Monroe is one of 16 counties in the state that have a current burn ban in effect. Monroe County’s neighbors to the southwest—Lawrence and Greene counties—have also imposed burn bans. Continue reading “Burn ban due to dry conditions: Monroe one of 16 Hoosier counties” →

Lake Monroe water levels from 1983 to present.

Ariel view of the tornado siren at the City of Bloomington’s service area on Miller Drive, east of Henderson Street. (Monroe County GIS Pictometry tool)

Ariel view of the tornado siren at the City of Bloomington’s service area on Miller Drive, east of Henderson Street. Red circle is magnified view of siren. (Monroe County GIS Pictometry tool)

Yellow = abnormally dry; orange = moderate drought (US Drought Monitor)

Tornado siren at City of Bloomington services area on Miller Drive east of Henderson Street. (Dave Askins/Beacon)

A dozen counties in southern Indiana have declared burn bans in the last few days—Crawford and Jefferson counties were the first to declare one, on Sept. 19.

But Monroe County is not among them.

The county’s director of emergency management, Allison Moore, told the board of commissioners on Wednesday, at their regular weekly meeting, that the Monroe County Fire Chief’s Association is monitoring the situation and will recommend a ban if they think one is needed.

Burn bans weren’t on the meeting agenda—Moore talked about them during public comment time. It was a point of information for commissioners.

But a different emergency management issue required a vote of the commissioners. They approved unanimously the purchase of new software from Federal Sirens for $4,021.50—for monitoring of the county’s 40 tornado warning sirens.

Continue reading “No burn ban for Monroe County, but new tornado siren software” →