LMS Part 1 - Vulnerability Assessment

STEP 2

IDENTIFYING THE HAZARDS

Tasks In the hazard identification process

The vulnerability assessment process begins with the identification of all of the principal hazards threatening the community. Every Florida county and municipality will have a unique combination of natural, technological and societal hazards that could harm specific areas within the jurisdiction and/or damage important community functions. The Working Group members conducting the vulnerability assessment will want to undertake the following tasks to identify and characterize all of the hazards threatening the community:

• Contact knowledgeable representatives of the public and private sector

Involving a range of governmental, business and other local organizations will help to ensure that all of the hazards threatening the population, property and functioning of the community have been identified.

• Categorize and list the hazards

Organizing the identified hazards in a logical manner can facilitate the subsequent steps in the vulnerability assessment and eventually in the preparation of the Local Mitigation Strategy.

• Define the key characteristics of each hazard

In order to determine how a community is vulnerable to a hazard, it is necessary to define the characteristics of the hazard that actually make it a threat to the people, property and functioning of the community.

The completion of these three tasks can provide the subcommittee with the information that will be needed to analyze the vulnerability of the community to the defined hazards.

Sources of information on hazards

Identifying and characterizing the hazards threatening the community will often require a significant amount of information. For most Florida counties, government agencies and some private organizations will already have a substantial amount of such information. For example, every county is required under state law to develop a comprehensive emergency management plan, which will list the hazards threatening the jurisdiction. Local comprehensive plans should also include information valuable to the development of the Local Mitigation Strategy. Use of existing information should minimize the amount of new information that will need to be gathered. Subcommittee members could access sources such as those listed here for hazard identification and characterization information:

Category of Hazard	PPossible Source of Existing Information
Natural	County and city emergency management and comprehensive plans
	Response operations records of county and city emergency services organizations
	Flood insurance rate maps, hurricane storm surge maps, previous natural hazard computer modeling results
	Meteorological records from the National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, or private weather services
	Geological information from the Florida State Geologist or local building inspectors
	Agricultural extension agents, local agricultural and environmental organizations, and fisheries/wildlife agencies
Technological Hazards	Emergency response records of county and city emergency services organizations
	Chemical facility submittals to the local emergency planning committee under Title III of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986
	Hazardous materials transportation commodity flow studies
	Fire departments/hazardous materials response teams
	Local pipeline and fuel companies
	Local electric, water, sewer and telecommunications utilities
	Port, railroad, and barge owners/operators
Societal Hazards	Historical records of civil disturbance, economic crises, etc.
	Law enforcement agencies
	Social and community services organizations
	US Immigration and Naturalization Service
	Employment and economic development organizations

New information about the hazards threatening the community may be obtained from many government and academic sources. Using information available through the Internet is an easy and convenient way to obtain new data about hazards and the types of impacts they can have on a community. Some of the potentially useful Internet addresses are listed here:

Sponsor	InInternet Address	Summary of CContents
Natural Hazards Research Center, U. of Colo.	http://www.colorado.edu/UCB/Research	Searchable database of references and links to many disaster-related web sites
National Emergency Management Association	http://www.nemaweb.org/index.cfm	Site of association of state emergency management directors. Has list of mitigation projects
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center "Disaster Finder"	http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/ndrd/disaster/links/	A searchable database of sites that encompass a wide range of disasters
US State & Local Gateway	http://www.statelocal.gov/	General Federal information through the federal-state partnership
National Weather Service National Warnings page	http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin/nationalwarnings.html	Central page for National Weather Warnings
USGS Real-time Hydrological Data	http://water.usgs.gov/realtime.html	Provisional Hydrological data
Dartmouth Flood Observatory	http://www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/geog/ floods/index.html	Observations of flooding situations
The Floodplain management Association	http://www.floodplain.org/	Site of the Floodplain Management Association
FEMA National Flood Insurance Program Community Status Book	http://www.fema.gov/fema/csb.htm	Searchable site for access of Community Status Books
National Lightning Safety Inst	http://www.lightningsafety.com/	Lightning Safety Publications
The Tornado Project Online	http://www.tornadoproject.com/	Information on tornadoes including details of recent impacts
Florida Agricultural Information Retrieval System	http://waffle.nal.usda.gov/agdb/fairs.html	Agricultural information for Florida
Storm Prediction Center	http://www.spc.noaa.gov/index.shtml	Severe storms information
Independent Insurance Agents of America Natural Disaster information	http://www.iiaa.org/	Multi-disaster risk mapping
National Drought Mitigation Center	http://enso.unl.edu/ndmc/	Information regarding drought mitigation
Earth Satellite Corporation	http://www.earthsat.com/	Flood risk maps searchable by state
USDA Forest Service Web	http://www.fs.fed.us/land/	Forest fires and land management

Organizing the hazard information

When the Working Group believes it has adequate information regarding the hazards threatening the community, the vulnerability assessment process will be facilitated if the data are effectively compiled. First, the hazards can be listed and categorized, and then assessed for the type of impact they could have on the communities of concern. An analysis matrix may be helpful for this purpose, and a sample is shown here:

Such a matrix could address all of the significant categories of hazards confronting the community. The matrix could be prepared for the entire county and/or for each major region within a county that has a common characteristics, such as a municipality, a river basin, coastal vs. interior areas, etc. Careful organization of the hazard identification and characterization information will greatly facilitate the Working Group*s efforts on the vulnerability analysis, as well as the identification of feasible mitigation initiatives later during the preparation of the Local Mitigation Strategy.

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