Hazard Mitigation Plan APRIL 2018 Prepared by: City of Lakewood Hazard Mitigation Plan Working Group Michael Aguirre, Accountant Paolo Beltran, Assistant to the City Manager Paul Kuykendall, AICP, Senior Planner Chuck Martucci, Community Services Manager Toyasha Sebbag, Water Administration Manager Max Withrow, Assistant Director of Public Works City of Lakewood Community Development Department Sonia Dias Southwell, AICP, Director of Community Development J. Patrick McGuckian, Assistant Director of Community Development Paul Kuykendall, AICP, Senior Planner Guillermo Franco, GIS Management Trainee II Consultant Kenneth A. Goettel Goettel & Associates Inc. 1515 Shasta Drive #1207 Davis, California 95616 (530) 750-0440 i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Hazard Mitigation Plan for the City of Lakewood, California covers each of the major natural hazards that pose a risk to the City. The primary objectives of this plan are to reduce the negative impacts of possible future disasters on the community, to save lives and reduce injuries, minimize damage to buildings and infrastructure (especially critical facilities) and minimize economic losses. This mitigation plan is a planning document, not a regulatory document. This Hazard Mitigation Plan meets FEMA’s planning requirements by addressing potential hazards, vulnerability, risk, and identifying prioritized action items to reduce these risks over time as funding becomes available. Hazard means the estimated frequency and potential severity of each different type of potential disaster event. Vulnerability means the value, importance, and fragility of buildings and infrastructure that may be exposed to each type of hazard. Risk means the potential threat to people, buildings and infrastructure, taking into account the probabilities of each type of disaster event. Adoption of a hazard mitigation plan is required for communities to remain eligible for future FEMA mitigation grant funds. This document is a living document which is updated periodically. Review comments, suggestions, corrections and additions are enthusiastically encouraged from all interested parties. Questions and comments may be sent to: Sonia Dias Southwell, AICP, Director of Community Development City of Lakewood Community Development Department 5050 Clark Avenue Lakewood, California 90712 (562) 866-9771, extension 2300 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction and Overview Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Community Profile Chapter 3: Community Involvement and Planning Process Chapter 4: Mission Statement, Goals, Objectives, and Action Items Chapter 5: Plan Adoption, Maintenance, and Implementation Hazards and Risk Assessment Chapter 6: Earthquakes Chapter 7: Floods Chapter 8: Windstorms Chapter 9: Drought Chapter 10: Other Hazards Appendices Appendix A: Synopsis of FEMA Grant Programs Appendix B: Principles of Benefit-Cost Analysis Appendix C: Community Involvement and Planning Process Appendix D: 2011 Plan Evaluation iii 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is a Hazard Mitigation Plan? The City of Lakewood is subject to a wide range of natural and human-caused hazards, including: earthquakes, floods, dam failures, windstorms and others. The impact of a hazard event on the Lakewood community may be minor - a few inches of water in a street - or it may be major - with significant damage to important buildings and the potential for injuries or deaths. The impact of a major disaster on a community can be devastating; economic losses, casualties, disruption, hardship and suffering are often far greater than the physical damages alone. Furthermore, recovery from major disasters often takes many years, and some heavily impacted communities may never fully recover. Completely eliminating the risk from future disaster events in Lakewood is neither technologically possible nor economically feasible. However, substantially reducing the negative impacts of future disasters in Lakewood is achievable with the implementation of a pragmatic and effective hazard mitigation plan. This Hazard Mitigation Plan addresses all of the natural hazards which pose significant risk to Lakewood. This Hazard Mitigation Plan includes events such as severe weather events and localized storm water flooding that may happen in some locations almost every year. The Hazard Mitigation Plan also includes larger hazard events such as major earthquakes that will affect much or all of the Lakewood community, albeit with much lower probabilities of occurrence in a given year. This Hazard Mitigation Plan has several key elements. 1. Each hazard that may impact Lakewood significantly is reviewed to determine the probability (frequency) and severity of likely hazard events. 2. The vulnerability of Lakewood to each hazard is evaluated to estimate the likely extent of physical damages, casualties, and economic impacts. 3. A range of mitigation alternatives are evaluated to identify those with the greatest potential to reduce future damage and loss in Lakewood, to protect facilities deemed critical to the community’s well being and that are desirable from the City’s political and economic perspectives. 1.2 Why is Hazard Mitigation Planning Important for Lakewood? Hazard mitigation simply means actions that reduce the potential for negative impacts from future disasters. Mitigation actions reduce future damage, losses and casualties. Effective mitigation planning will help Lakewood deal with natural and human-caused hazards realistically and rationally. It will help differentiate specific locations in Lakewood where the level of risk varies per hazard type and identify areas where one or more hazards apply. The Hazard Mitigation Plan provides guidance in implementing cost effective ways to reduce such risks. Mitigation planning strikes a pragmatic middle ground between underestimating the potential for major hazard events on one hand and unnecessarily overreacting to the potential for disasters on the other hand. 1-1 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires each local government entity to adopt a multi-hazard mitigation plan to remain eligible for future pre- or post-disaster FEMA mitigation funding. Thus, an important objective in developing this plan is to maintain eligibility for FEMA funding and to enhance Lakewood’s ability to qualify for future FEMA mitigation funding. FEMA’s mitigation planning requirements for communities are based on the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which requires every state and local government to prepare a hazard mitigation plan, which includes the following steps: 1. Conduct an assessment of the natural hazards that pose a threat to the jurisdiction; 2. Determine the potential impact of these hazards; 3. Create a hazard mitigation plan to mitigate these hazards; and 4. Implement the hazard mitigation plan to reduce the impacts of natural disasters. This Hazard Mitigation Plan is specifically designed to help Lakewood gather the data necessary to compete successfully for future FEMA funding of mitigation projects. FEMA requires that all FEMA-funded hazard mitigation projects be “cost-effective” (i.e., the benefits of a project must exceed the costs). Benefit-cost analysis is thus an important component of mitigation planning, not only to meet FEMA requirements, but also to help evaluate and prioritize potential hazard mitigation projects in Lakewood, regardless of whether funding is from FEMA, state or local government or from private sources. An overview of the current FEMA mitigation grant programs and the principles of benefit-cost analysis of mitigation projects are included in Appendices A and B. Hazard mitigation planning is applicable to the Lakewood community as a whole, including not only City-owned facilities but also the entire built environment of buildings and infrastructure. 1.3 The Lakewood Hazard Mitigation Plan This Hazard Mitigation Plan is built upon a quantitative assessment of each of the major hazards that may impact Lakewood, including their frequency, severity, and areas of the City likely to be affected. The hazards addressed include: Earthquakes; Floods (including dam failures); Windstorms; Drought; Other Hazards (including extreme temperatures, landslides, wildland/urban interface fires, subsidence, and volcanic events). This Hazard Mitigation Plan includes a quantitative assessment of the vulnerability of buildings, infrastructure, and people to each of these hazards, to the extent possible with existing data. The Hazard Mitigation Plan also includes an evaluation of the likely magnitude of the impacts of future disasters in Lakewood. 1-2 The review of the hazards and the vulnerability of the City of Lakewood to these hazards are the foundation of this Hazard Mitigation Plan. From these assessments, situations where buildings, infrastructure, and/or people may be at high risk from one or more hazards are identified whenever possible. These high risk situations then become priorities for future mitigation actions to reduce the negative impacts of future disasters in Lakewood. This Hazard Mitigation Plan deals with hazards realistically and rationally and also strikes a balance between suggested physical mitigation measures to eliminate or reduce the negative impacts of future disasters and enhancements in planning to reduce the potential for negative impacts of disasters on new development. Finally, the Hazard Mitigation Plan suggests better emergency planning to help prepare the community to respond to and recover from disasters for which physical mitigation measures are not possible or not economically