Seneca County Ohio Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan
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Seneca County Ohio Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Seneca County Emergency Management Agency Daniel Stahl, Director 126 Hopewell Avenue Tiffin, Ohio 44883 419-447-0266 www.seneca-county.com 2014 Seneca County Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan Table of Contents I. Introduction…………………………………………..……………………………………. 1 II. The Planning Process……………………………………………..……………………….. 2 III. Public Involvement………………………………………………..………………………. 16 IV. Plan Maintenance………………………………………………..……………………….... 19 V. County Profile………………………………………………………………..……………. 22 VI. Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA)………………………..……………... 28 VII. Loss Estimates………………………………………………………………………… 59 VIII. Mitigation Strategies………………………………………………..…………………. 78 IX. Summary…………………………………………………………………………………... 114 X. Appendices a. Crosswalk…………………………………………………………………………. 115 b. Hazard Mitigation Planning Core Committee………..…………………………… 120 c. Notices…………………………………………………………………….………. 121 d. Meeting Minutes……………………………………………………….………….. 135 i. June 27, 2012 ii. August 29, 2012 iii. September 26, 2012 iv. October 24, 2012 v. December 12, 2012 vi. March 13, 2013 e. Maps………………………………………………………………………….…… 152 i. Seneca County ii. Flood Plains by Jurisdiction iii. Deep Structures iv. Low-head Dams f. Lists……………………………………………………………………………….. 173 i. Property Values ii. Public Facilities iii. Roads iv. Bridges v. Culverts g. Adoption Resolutions……………………………………………………………... i. Seneca County ii. City of Fostoria iii. City of Tiffin iv. Village of Attica v. Village of Bettsville vi. Village of Bloomville vii. Village of Green Springs viii. Village of New Riegel ix. Village of Republic h. FEMA Letter of Approval………………………………………………………… INTRODUCTION Seneca County, Ohio supports disaster mitigation efforts through creation of a multi- jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan that will engage wise land use planning, disaster resistant building construction and environmentally friendly economic development across Seneca County. It is the intent of Seneca County to enlist projects that will help minimize property loss and casualties due to the effects of natural disasters. Through use of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Seneca County has convened a community-wide task force to examine the hazards, vulnerabilities, and mitigation measures relevant in 2012 and has developed a revised Hazard Mitigation Plan to guide their upcoming efforts. Through work with all cities and villages in the county, Seneca County EMA has used the mitigation planning process to better determine how to reduce or eliminate the loss of life and property damage resulting from natural disasters. Seneca County, as a whole, will become more resilient through the implementation of projects that foster sustainable solutions to potential loss. Local governments will be able to integrate actions recommended in the plan into their building and development regulations for daily enforcement in designated hazard areas. Most importantly, mitigation projects were prioritized in each village and city so that as funding dollars become available and are secured through application for these pre-determined priorities, projects will be completed on a timetable that has been accepted by all entities through their resolutions of adoption. These projects will become realistic answers to losses in a pro-active course of action that develops resiliency and sustainability in the county Note: This plan is a completely new plan, replacing the document originally created in 2003 and updated in 2007. Due to changes in mitigation plan requirements between 2003 when the original plan was written and 2013 when the update draft was created, the changes in requirements were extensive. The update process began in May 2012, and between that time and the submission of this plan in January 2014, mitigation plan standards have changed significantly. It was determined in April 2013 that the current plan was considerably noncompliant with current plan standards, and therefore documents written at that time were abandoned, and a completely new plan was written so that the document would contain the information necessary to meet new standards. 1 THE PLANNING PROCESS Introduction of the Planning Process Seneca County followed the FEMA plan revision process identified in the Local Mitigation Plan Review Guide with the intent to meet the regulation outlines in 44 CFR 201.6. The Regulation Checklist, Plan Assessment, and Multi-jurisdiction Summary Sheet were used in the process to guide and document compliance with this requirement. The Local Mitigation Plan Review Tool is attached as Attachment A. Initial Efforts to Plan the Process Planning for the Seneca County Hazard Mitigation Plan Update began in September 2011 with EMA Director Stahl and Contractor Waggoner-Hovest developing the grant application for federal funds to support the update process. They worked to develop the Core Committee target list, which included county, municipal, and township officials, private business, higher education and education, utilities and infrastructure, development officials and planners, construction officials, and general public representatives. The large community group whom had participated in updating the Seneca County Emergency Operations Plan in 2011 served as the master list of officials, and contained just fewer than 200 names of key community leaders from all areas of the county. Upon approval of the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program application in March 2012, Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest attended a mitigation planning meeting in Columbus with State Mitigation Planner Dean Ervin on March 31, 2012. They completed all necessary forms and documents for the program. They reviewed the requirements for the update process and plan completion with Mr. Ervin. Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest began process planning the community-wide effort to be conducted under the supervision of Seneca County EMA Director Dan Stahl and facilitated by Sandy Waggoner-Hovest of Resource Solutions Associates, LLC. Waggoner-Hovest, an independent contractor, would guide completion through the process established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and required by the State of Ohio Emergency Management Agency Mitigation Branch. The process began as Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest established the overall Core Committee meeting schedule and project outline. This work took place in April and May 2012 at the Seneca County EMA office. Goals of these initial coordination efforts included establishment of a Core Committee that reflected the community interests in a comprehensive manner, establishment of a schedule of input and review meetings that would be convenient and well attended by the stakeholders, and creation of alternate methods to involve key community leaders in case they were not able to attend meetings on a regular basis. They planned to achieve input from the general public throughout the process to ensure that all community perspectives would be included in the process. Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest recognized that several barriers existed to achieving these goals, and planned alternatives to reduce their impact. They identified barriers that included lack of sufficient staff at many agencies that would hamper meeting attendance; variations in times of 2 availability due to work status as paid or volunteer officials; work related priorities driven by supervisors and administrators that would supersede mitigation planning priorities; and simply insufficient staff to add a project of this size to current duties. Communication with the public was seen as a challenge by Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest. With widespread availability of Internet, the circulation of local print media has decreased significantly and local newspapers are no longer an effective way to reach the public in Seneca County. Satellite radio has breached the market of local radio and news stations, decreasing the effectiveness of local broadcast news media. The downturn in the economy took many residents to out-of-town jobs and this diminished their ability to connect with local resources in general through participation in local organizations and activities during free time. Many individuals’ only contact with local issues is rooted in Internet access to information. Stahl and Waggoner-Hovest devised several alternative actions to address these barriers by using technology. While face-to-face Core Committee meetings would be held, the use of electronic mail and telephone calls to supplement the face-to-face meetings would be very effective. The implementation of electronic communication could allow for widespread distribution of draft documents, concerns, and suggestions. Participants could react to an issue by replying to everyone in electronic mail, keeping the whole committee in the loop of development without consuming extraordinary hours of work time. Timing and location of meetings was considered. To enhance attendance at face-to-face meeting, those meetings would need to be held both during the work day and repeated in the evenings to allow for varied work schedules and availability of not only the Core Committee but also the general public. As a result, every meeting was held in the early afternoon and then repeated that same evening at 7:00 p.m. (late enough for commuters to have returned home) to capture the largest attendance. The meetings would be held at the county EMA so as to be centrally located, have widespread availability to the space, and to have the meeting room features that included media use, work group space and supplies,