Overview of the vulnerability assessment
When the areas vulnerable to the identified hazards have been delineated and mapped, the subcommittee is then positioned to identify the extent of the community
's potential vulnerability to each hazard. This is done by identifying the people, property, economic resources and valuable environmental features that are within the hazard areas, and then including this information on the hazard maps being prepared by the Working Group and/or the Department.This section of the Supplement further explains this process, offering suggestions on gathering and using available information and services to complete the vulnerability assessment both through "The Arbiter of Storms" (TAOS) modeling by the Department, as well as through the Working Group
's own efforts.Obtaining technical support from the Department
The Department
*s technical support for local planning will use data and information from the counties and municipalities, as well as other sources through the TAOS computer analysis, to estimate or predict the following for each local jurisdiction:- Total county assets, by the following risk categories:
- Single, multi-family and mobile homes,
- Commercial, industrial and agricultural property,
- Government and institutional property, and
- Utilities - Exposure to surge by storm category,
- Exposure to wind by hurricane category,
- Exposure to inland flooding,
- Surge damage estimate by risk category,
- Wind damage by structure construction type (e.g., wood frame, masonry, etc.),
- Inland flooding damage by risk category, and
- Estimates of debris produced.
When combined with property appraisal data provided by the county, the results of the TAOS modeling will also show estimated dollar losses due to structural damage (e.g., "expected value" loss estimates) for the type of construction in the hazard area analyzed and under specific storm scenarios.
In order to receive this vulnerability assessment information from the Department, the Working Group needs to ensure that adequate data and information have been made available for use in the TAOS analysis. The Department is independently contacting each county
*s property appraiser to obtain county-wide property on a parcel-by-parcel basis, as available. This information could be limited to simple data (the address and legal definition of the property) or, preferably, GIS produced data with property appraisal maps which show property boundary lines (e.g., "cadastral" coverage). The Working Group should contact the county*s property appraiser to solicit cooperation with this request, and to inform the appraiser*s office that the data are needed to support the local mitigation planning by the community*s own agencies and organizations. Without the necessary data, the Department will not be able to complete the TAOS modeling for the county, and the Working Group will miss an extraordinary opportunity to receive valuable technical support directly applicable to the Local Mitigation Strategy being developed.Additional local data for the vulnerability analysis
In addition to the property appraisal data, other
types of information regarding important community characteristics should be incorporated
into the vulnerability assessment and the TAOS modeling, when appropriate. Therefore, the
Working Group should attempt to gather relevant additional information, if possible, and
provide it the Department so it can be considered for incorporation in the modeling. These
data include location information regarding population in the hazard zones, critical
facilities, important public buildings and facilities, Indications of known repetitive
losses from floods and storms, information from SLOSH modeling, valuable environmental
features, as well as historical information regarding flood prone locations outside of the
designated flood plains.
Much of this information should be available in most counties from the emergency management office, the comprehensive planning department, and other local government agencies. When necessary, the Working Group should also consider undertaking efforts to gather new data, especially if it would be important to completing the vulnerability assessment.
Each of the type of local data gathering tasks that may be needed are discussed more completely below.
Population in the hazard zones
One major objective of the Local Mitigation Strategy will be to protect people from the health and safety impacts of disasters. Therefore, with the hazard areas for specific types of threats delineated, the population that may be threatened within those areas should also be defined. Census data are readily available to planners for this purpose, and the Working Group should assess such additional population factors within the hazard areas as:
Any or all of these characteristics of the population could be influential to the identification, prioritization and implementation of mitigation initiatives for the particular hazard zone.
Critical Facilities
Every community will have facilities that are "critical" to important community functions, beginning with, of course, emergency response and safety operations, It is important that the potential impacts of disasters on these facilities are estimated so that the Working Group can ensure that mitigation initiatives needed to protect them are identified and given an appropriate priority in the Local Mitigation Strategy.
Since 1995. the Florida Division of Emergency Management has been undertaking a program to inventory all of the locally-designated critical facilities in the state, If a county has provided up-to-date information to the Division in accord with its data specifications under this program, it will be included in the TAOS modeling. If not, the subcommittee should take steps to try to provide this information to the Department. Two steps are needed to complete this process: identify the critical facilities in accord with the state
*s criteria and gather the necessary information regarding each one. The types of facilities to be included, as applicable to the community, are the following:| Group quarters | Hazardous facilities | Health-related | Infrastructure |
| Schools | Hazard material | Hospitals | Fire departments |
| Churches | Radioactive materials | Clinics | Highway Patrol |
| Nursing/convalescent homes | Fuel storage | Emergency medical services | Police departments |
| Correctional facilities | Landfill - active | Red Cross | Sheriff’s Department |
| Mobile home parks | Landfill - inactive | Animal-related (veterinarian facilities, large agricultural/cattle areas, zoos, etc. | Communications centers |
| Electrical system | |||
| Sewage treatment | |||
| Sewage lift stations | |||
| Water treatment | |||
| Water lift stations | |||
| Well heads |
| Military facilities |
Response | Shelters | Transportation | Miscellaneous |
| Military base | Emergency Operations Center | Shelters | Airport | Any facility not fitting above categories determined by the county to be critical |
| Recovery center | Special needs shelters | Heliport | ||
| Disaster Field Office | Refuges of last resort | Sea plane | ||
| Comfort station | Marinas, sea ports | |||
| Tent city | Bridges | |||
| Mass care - feeding | Traffic control facility | |||
| Mass transit facilities | ||||
| Evacuation routes | ||||
| Maintenance facilities |
The number and type of "critical" facilities will depend, of course, on the unique characteristics of each community. Because more developed communities could have a very large number of critical facilities, the Working Group will wish to prioritize its efforts in this area, addressing first, perhaps, facilities important to initiate and sustain an emergency response and facilities important to returning local government to normal immediately after a disaster.
The type of information for the state
Public facilities
In addition to considering public buildings as "critical" facilities, a Working Group should recognize that repair of disaster-caused, damage to such facilities is a major contributor to the government*s costs of recovery and a factor in the speed with which the community can return to normalcy. Therefore, it also will be worthwhile to determine the vulnerability of all public facilities. If the Working Group has the location and description of public facilities, they can be reviewed in light of the results of the TAOS damage modeling. If not, the Working Group will still want to identify their vulnerability to determine if suitable mitigation initiatives need to be included in the Local Mitigation Strategy.
Locations of repetitive losses
Another of the objectives of the Local Mitigation Strategy will be to minimize repetitive losses from disasters. Areas experiencing such repetitive losses should be identified to the Department for incorporation in the TAOS modeling and/or considered directly by the Working Group as it develops its Local Mitigation Strategy and mitigation initiatives. For flooding, the National Flood Insurance Program defines repetitive loss to facilities within the flood plain as those that have experienced two or more insurance claims of at least $1000 in any given 10 year period since 1978. In addition, however, outside of the designated flood plain, historical information and experience can indicate areas prone to repetitive flood from severe rainfall events.
For other types of disaster damages, identification of repetitive losses could include such factors as the following:
Information regarding evacuation zones
For many of Florida
*s communities, Sea and Lake Overland Surge from Hurricane (SLOSH) modeling has been and will continue to be used for identification of coastal evacuation zones. However, data may be available from other sources, including the TAOS modeling, to indicate areas along rivers, lakes and the coast that could also be subject to evacuations. Evacuation zones may also have been identified for technological disasters such as accidents at nuclear power plants or chemical facilities.For several reasons, a Working Group would find it helpful in the preparation of the Local Mitigation Strategy to identify these zones on the maps being prepared. One reason is to determine if mitigation initiatives are needed to ensure that evacuation from such areas is feasible under various disaster scenarios. Another reason may be to define initiatives that could be helpful in preventing emergency incidents or lessening the severity of their health and safety impact.
Locations of vulnerable environmental resources
The Working Group should assess the hazard zones to identify whether they encompass valuable environmental, historic or cultural resources that may be vulnerable to the hazard. Vulnerable resources could include features such as aquifer recharge zones, potable water sources, historic buildings, and other such features. If the vulnerability of these types of resources is known, then the Local Mitigation Strategy can also consider mitigation initiatives to lessen the potential for damage.
Hazardous materials facilities
Facilities where hazard materials are stored represent a unique situation regarding their vulnerability to disasters, for the impact of the event could cause the accidental release of dangerous materials, further exacerbating the damage caused by the disaster itself. It will be worthwhile for the Working Group to assess the vulnerabilities of any such facilities that are located in the identified hazard zones.
Under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986. facilities using and/or storing specific types and volumes of hazardous materials must provide information to the "Local Emergency Planning Committee" representing the jurisdiction. By establishing contact with this organization, the Working Group can quickly gain access to information and expertise regarding these facilities and their potential vulnerabilities to disaster.
In Florida, most county emergency management agencies will have information regarding where these facilities are located as well as the types and volumes of dangerous chemicals present there. In addition, these facilities are also intended to be listed in each county
*s critical facilities database, which would contain location information, such as latitude and longitude.This information would enable the Working Group to determine which of these facilities are in an identified hazard area and to assess how they may be vulnerable to the specific hazard. The results of this analysis could indicate that the potential for release of dangerous materials during a disaster should be considered as the Working Group identifies and prioritizes mitigation initiatives during development of the Local Mitigation Strategy.
Historical information regarding hazard vulnerabilities
An important source of information to complete the vulnerability assessment process is "local knowledge" regarding specific locations or facilities that may be subject to disaster impacts. For example, it may be widely known that specific sections of roadways wash out after every heavy rainstorm, or that a certain electrical transmission line fails often during windstorms. The Working Group should try to identify these vulnerable areas or facilities and include them in the analysis process. If such information is available early in the planning process, the Working Group can also identify these vulnerable features, if relevant, to the Department for consideration in the TAOS modeling effort.
Putting it all together
At this point in the process, the Working Group will have identified the hazards that threaten the community, defined the specific geographic areas and community systems that can be threatened by those hazards, and determined the vulnerable characteristics of the community within the areas. One step remains to fully complete the vulnerability assessment process: to determine the actual risk that these hazards and vulnerabilities foretell for the community. This is discussed in the next section.