As Kendall County and Boerne officials continue the process of developing their five-year Hazard Mitigation plan, the company drafting the new plan has begun identifying mitigation measures to prevent or manage natural hazards and identified four manmade hazards.
Laura Haverlah, mitigation specialist with H20 Partners, hosted a public meeting last week where she outlined some of the natural hazards identified by the local municipalities and pointed out some of the mitigation strategies the group has developed.
Haverlah said an extensive list of 72 hazard mitigation strategies has been developed, but she noted lighting and extreme heat as examples of plans put in place. She said lighting is a “weird one” when people think about how to mitigate a natural occurrence, but she said the county and city can conduct education and outreach programs by sending out email or media blasts.
When it comes to extreme heat, which Haverlah acknowledged is the way of life for most Texas residents, she said there are times the impacts are compounded by extreme drought and significantly can impact vulnerable populations such as senior citizens. She said the county and city can mitigate the impacts of extreme heat by pushing social media blasts educating the public about the signs of heat stroke and other concerns. Additionally, in times of extreme heat, the city has offered cooling stations for residents at the Patrick Heath Public Library.
All of the 72 mitigation strategies, which range from public outreach to infrastructure projects, are intended to help gain access to federal dollars when disasters are declared, information stated. This is what Haverlah said is a big focus in developing a new hazard mitigation plan from the ground up, adding that her team is looking over the county’s and city’s hazard mitigation efforts over the past five-year cycle to ensure objectives are being met and grants are being applied for.
Another benefit of having a detailed mitigation plan is it allows the county and city to apply for several state and national grants when a disaster declaration is issued. Haverlah outlined several grants that are made available to the county or city if a hazard mitigation project is outlined in the plan that relates to a natural disaster declaration.
For example, if a major flood were to warrant a national disaster declaration, the county or city could apply for grant money to put toward a project that would mitigate the harmful impacts of flooding. However, this grant money only is available if the project already is outlined in the hazard mitigation plan.
While these grant dollars only are available for the 12 natural hazards identified in Kendall County, local officials have added four manmade hazards to the list in hopes they will be opened to grant money sometime over the new hazard mitigation plan’s five-year lifespan.
This year, the hazard mitigation plan will include mitigation strategies for hazardous materials, pipelines, terrorism and infectious disease, which are all manmade hazards. The hope is legislation will allow for funding to be granted for terrorism hazards when events like the Uvalde school shooting occur or for infectious disease hazards when pandemics or endemics, like COVID-19, occur.
In terms of natural hazards, Haverlah said the new plan will add mitigation efforts for expansive soils, which she said can be a contentious topic. Haverlah described expansive soils as the expansion and contraction of soil as the earth goes through its heating and cooling cycles, potentially causing damage to the structures above.
The 12 natural hazards which may be open to grant dollars pending any natural disasters, includes flooding, wildfires, drought and extreme heat, thunderstorms, wind, hail, tornados, dam or levee failure, hurricanes, winter storms, lighting and expansive soils. While many of these natural hazards have little chance of happening in a given year, Haverlah said H20 Partners staff examine historical data and essentially include any natural disaster that has any chance of occurring regardless of the odds.
The three natural hazards most likely to hit the Hill Country include flooding, wildfires and – as one might expect in Texas – drought and extreme heat. Information from a presentation earlier this year estimated flooding costs the county upwards of $463,000 each year and wildfires can run the county around $36,500 in a given year. While extreme heat and drought don’t necessarily cost the county in way of money, Haverlah noted it can have significant and disproportionate impacts on vulnerable populations like children, older residents or low-income residents.
Beyond the grant funds made available through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other national funds tied to the hazard mitigation plan, Haverlah said there are plenty of other grants the city or county can take advantage of, including dollars from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, the Army Corps of Engineers and more.
Haverlah said a draft of the new hazard mitigation plan will be submitted to county and city officials to review in October, and the plan will then be moved to the Texas Division of Emergency Management in November. After approval from TDEM, it will go to FEMA for approval before heading to the commissioners court and city hall for final adoption.
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