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City of Fitchburg CITY OF FITCHBURG 2020 HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN– MUNICIPAL VULNERABILITY PREPAREDNESS PLAN Prepared by: westonandsampson.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. ES-1 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ iii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF APPENDICES ..................................................................................................................... vi 1.0 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1-1 1.1 What is a Hazard Mitigation Plan?......................................................................................1-1 1.2 What is a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Plan? .......................................................1-2 1.3 Hazard Mitigation and Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Planning in Fitchburg ..........1-3 1.4 Planning Process Summary ...............................................................................................1-4 1.4.1 Core Team ................................................................................................................1-4 1.4.2 Stakeholder Involvement: CRB Workshop and Beyond ............................................1-5 1.4.3 Listening Session ......................................................................................................1-6 1.4.4 Report Layout ...........................................................................................................1-7 1.5 Planning Timeline ...............................................................................................................1-8 2.0 HAZARD MITIGATION AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION GOALS ..................................................2-1 3.0 COMMUNITY PROFILE ............................................................................................................3-1 3.1 Community Background ....................................................................................................3-1 3.2 Societal Features ...............................................................................................................3-1 3.2.1 CRB Workshop Discussion of Societal Features .......................................................3-3 3.3 Economic Features ............................................................................................................3-5 3.4 Infrastructure Features .......................................................................................................3-5 3.4.1 CRB Workshop Discussion of Existing Infrastructure ................................................3-6 3.5 Environmental Features .....................................................................................................3-6 3.5.1 CRB Workshop Discussion of the Environment ........................................................3-7 3.6 Land Use and Recent Development .................................................................................3-7 3.7 Critical Facilities and Vulnerable Populations ................................................................... 3-11 4.0 HAZARD PROFILES, RISK ASSESSMENT & VULNERABILITIES .............................................4-1 4.1 Overview of Hazards and Impacts .....................................................................................4-1 4.1.1 Massachusetts State Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation ..............................4-1 4.1.2 Federally Declared Disasters in Massachusetts ........................................................4-3 4.1.3 Impacts of Climate Change ......................................................................................4-3 4.1.4 Top Hazards as Defined in the CRB Workshop ........................................................4-4 4.2 Flood-Related Hazards ......................................................................................................4-4 4.2.1 Areas Vulnerable to Flooding ....................................................................................4-5 4.2.2 Historic Flood Events .............................................................................................. 4-10 4.2.3 GIS Flooding Exposure Analysis ............................................................................. 4-13 4.2.4 Dams and Dam Failure ........................................................................................... 4-22 4.2.5 Flooding and Climate Change ................................................................................ 4-25 4.3 Wind Related Hazards ..................................................................................................... 4-25 4.3.1 Severe Storms and Thunderstorms ......................................................................... 4-26 i 4.3.2 Hurricanes and Tropical Storms .............................................................................. 4-26 4.3.3 Tornadoes ............................................................................................................... 4-30 4.3.4 Nor’easters ............................................................................................................. 4-32 4.3.5 Climate Change and Severe Storms ....................................................................... 4-33 4.4 Winter Storms ................................................................................................................. 4-33 4.4.1 Heavy Snow and Blizzards ...................................................................................... 4-34 4.4.2 Ice Storms ............................................................................................................... 4-35 4.5 Geological Hazards ......................................................................................................... 4-35 4.5.1 Earthquakes ............................................................................................................ 4-36 4.5.2 Landslides .............................................................................................................. 4-39 4.6 Fire Related Hazards ....................................................................................................... 4-41 4.7 Extreme Temperatures ..................................................................................................... 4-43 4.7.1 Extreme Cold .......................................................................................................... 4-43 4.7.2 Extreme Heat .......................................................................................................... 4-44 4.7.3 Climate Change Impacts: Extreme Temperatures................................................... 4-46 4.8 Drought ............................................................................................................................ 4-47 4.8.1 Drought and Climate Change ................................................................................. 4-53 5.0 EXISTING MITIGATION MEASURES ........................................................................................5-1 5.1 Existing Multi-Hazard Mitigation Measures ........................................................................5-2 5.2 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Flood Related Hazards ...................................................5-5 5.3 Existing Dam Mitigation Measures .....................................................................................5-8 5.4 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Wind-Related Hazards ....................................................5-9 5.5 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Winter-Related Hazards ..................................................5-9 5.6 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Drought-Related Hazards ...............................................5-9 5.7 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Fire-Related Hazards .................................................... 5-10 5.8 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Extreme Temperature Related Hazards ........................ 5-11 5.9 Existing City-Wide Mitigation for Geologic Hazards ......................................................... 5-11 5.10 Existing City-Wide Sustainability Measures .................................................................... 5-12 5.11 Mitigation Capacities and Local Capacity for Implementation ....................................... 5-12 6.0 STATUS OF MITIGATION MEASURES FROM THE 2015 DRAFT PLAN ...................................6-1 6.1 Implementation Progress of the Previous Plan ...................................................................6-1 7.0 HAZARD MITIGATION AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION STRATEGY ............................................7-1 7.1 Identification of Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Strategies ...............................7-1 7.2 Potential Funding Sources .................................................................................................7-6 7.3 Regional Partnerships ........................................................................................................7-9 8.0 PLAN ADOPTION AND MAINTENANCE ..................................................................................8-1 8.1 Plan Adoption ....................................................................................................................8-1
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