The City of Cheney, WA Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Annex
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The City of Cheney, WA Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Annex Prepared for City of Cheney 609 Second Street Cheney, WA 99004 In cooperation with Spokane County Department of Emergency Management 1618 N. Rebecca Spokane, WA 99217 This annex is for eventual inclusion with the Spokane County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazards Plan August, 2010 Revised July 22, 2011 The CITY OF CHENEY NATURAL HAZARDS MITIGATION PLAN ANNEX TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1: PLANNING PROCESS ..................................................... Page 1 1.1 Multi-Jurisdictional Planning Effort .................................................... 1 1.2 Public Participation ........................................................................... 1 1.3 2009 Plan Development .................................................................... 2 1.4 Mission Statements .......................................................................... 4 1.5 What are the Plan Goals? ................................................................. 5 1.6 How will the Plan be Implemented, Monitored, and Evaluated ......... 8 1.7 What are the Mitigation Strategies Identified by the City of Cheney . 9 SECTION 2: COMMUNITY PROFILE ............................................................ 11 2.1 Geography and the Environment .................................................... 11 2.2 Population and Demographics ........................................................ 12 2.3 Land and Development ................................................................... 13 2.4 Employment and Industry ............................................................... 15 SECTION 3: HAZARD ASSESSMENT .......................................................... 17 3.1 Definition of Hazard Assessment .................................................... 17 3.2 Community Assets: Vulnerability Assessment ................................ 18 SECTION 4: HAZARDS ................................................................................. 19 4.1 Flooding .......................................................................................... 19 4.2 Landslide ........................................................................................ 26 4.3 Wildfire ............................................................................................ 29 4.4 Severe Storms ................................................................................ 35 4.5 Earthquake ..................................................................................... 39 4.6 Volcanic Eruption ............................................................................ 43 4.7 Hazardous Material ......................................................................... 45 4.8 Terrorism and Civil Disturbance ...................................................... 49 4.9 Pandemic ........................................................................................ 52 SECTION 6: RESOURCE DIRECTORY ........................................................ 53 Appendix A: Sign In Sheets ............................................................................ 54 Appendix B: Meeting Minutes ......................................................................... 58 Appendix C: Public Participation Documentation ............................................ 68 Appendix D: Critical Facilities in Detail ............................................................ 75 CHENEY MITIGATION PLAN SIGNATURE FORM Section 1: Planning Process The City of Cheney Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan includes resources and information to assist city residents, public and private sector organizations, and others interested in participating in planning for natural hazards. The mitigation plan provides a list of activities that may assist the City of Cheney in reducing risk and preventing loss from future natural hazard events. Cheney has developed this plan as an annex to the Spokane County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazard Plan in an effort to take a more regional approach to planning for natural hazards. 1.1 Multi-Jurisdictional Planning Effort In early September 2009 a meeting took place in Cheney, WA with the City of Cheney Director of Public Works and the Mitigation Program Coordinator of the Spokane Department of Emergency Management. The reason for the meeting was to discuss if the City of Cheney would agree to go through the planning process to add Cheney to the Spokane County Multi-Jurisdictional All Hazard Mitigation Plan. According to the administrative process for adding jurisdictions to approved Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plans, Cheney has chosen to tier off the FEMA-approved Spokane County All Hazards Multi- Jurisdictional Mitigation Plan, that was adopted in April 2007. Therefore, the bulk of this plan has been drawn from the Spokane County plan. Where risk assessment, hazard vulnerability, list of critical facilities, and mitigation plans are specific to Cheney -- those sections of the plan are titled “Unique to Cheney”. The City of Cheney has representation from the Spokane County Department of Emergency Management to ensure that the city’s interests are represented on the larger scale of the region in Eastern Washington. The city will partner in implementation of appropriate action items, and function in a multi-jurisdictional fashion to reduce losses from natural hazards. 1.2 Public Participation The City of Cheney is aware of the public participation process and has made efforts to include public participation in the development of this plan. The City of Cheney made review of the draft of the plan via the city’s website (http://www.cityofcheney.org/) providing a link where citizens could go online to review the plan http://www.cityofcheney.org/news.php?id=198 . The website served to provide a blog where citizens could comment on the plan during the planning process. http://cheneymitigation.blogspot.com/ Additionally, citizens were asked to be on the committee to provide comments on risk assessment and hazard vulnerability. A face-to-face public participation event took place on Saturday, April 3 at the Jarms Hardware Store in Cheney, from 8:30 am – noon. A listening post was created where citizens entering the store could be persuaded to find out about City of Cheney Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Annex Page 1 the planning process. Flyers were provided that explained the contents of a typical emergency kit and a “take-away” card with the link to the plan and blog spot were provided to make it simple for people to become engaged and provide comment at home during their leisure time. The number of surveys filled out was only 11 due to slow business at Jarms on that particular Saturday morning. The following results were tabulated from the survey. People were asked how long they had been a resident or business owner in Cheney. The number of years ranged from 1 – 40, making an average of 13 years. Three of the respondents had lived in Cheney over 30 years. In the second question of the survey, they were asked in their property or a nearby property had ever experienced damage from natural hazards. 55% reported damage from wind, and 9% reported damage each from flooding, erosion, ash fallout and snow. The third question asked how about their personal concern that Cheney would be impacted by a disaster. 45% reported “somewhat concerned” and 55% reported “not concerned”. When asked if they had a survival kit at home or in their car, 100% reported “yes”. When asked if they had to evacuate from Cheney, did they know exactly where they would go to stay and how they would inform necessary people, 73% reported “yes”, and 27% reported “no”. Finally they were asked what would be the most effective to receive information about how to make your home more resistant to hazards. 54% reported receiving that information via newspaper was best, 45% television, 27% radio, 36% internet, 27% mail, 9% public workshops/meetings and 9% via school meetings. Since Cheney is not particularly hazard prone, it makes sense that over 50% of the respondents reported that they were “not concerned” about any disasters happening in Cheney. Many people have chosen to live in this region for the simple fact that there are very few natural hazards that strike. Although, even though we have a fairly hazard-free environment here, still 27% reported they did not know where they would go or how they would inform necessary folks in the case they had to evacuate. For this reason, further education efforts would be helpful so that citizens in Cheney are made more aware in the case of a hazard event. Public participation was extended for the months of April and May in the hopes of receiving more comments on the blog spot. A flyer was mailed to aproximately 3,400 Cheney residents in their utility bills at the end of May. The front side of the flyer explained the All Hazard Mitigation Plan process and invited public comment; the reverse side of the flyer offered a list of recommended items to include in a basic emergency supply kit. While the mailing did not result in additional comments on the plan, it was a measurable step toward providing education on preparedness for hazard situations that Cheney residents may face. Please see Appendix C for details on public participation. City of Cheney Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan Annex Page 2 1.3 2009 Plan Development The planning process was a collaborative effort between public agencies within the city and the private sector. The Cheney Public Works Director and the Cheney Emergency Services Director