Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
If Mt. Jefferson were to erupt, how could that affect or endanger Sweet Home?
Or what if, as in 2002, a windstorm knocked out power to Sweet Home for days or weeks? Or what if there were a terrorist attack in the Sweet Home area? Or an earthquake?
To answer those questions, the city of Sweet Home is preparing to update its All-Hazard Mitigation Plan, which is required to maintain eligibility for Federal Emergency Management Agency funds in the event of such emergencies. Volunteers are needed to round the committee that will handle that work. The plan outlines ways to minimize and mitigate the possible effects of these disasters.
“(The plan) looks at all the natural hazards that are identified that can occur in Sweet Home,” Community Development Director Carol Lewis said. It measures risks and looks at ways of mitigating those risks before they happen.
An example is a flood mitigation project on Ames Creek behind the Fire Hall on Long Street, she said. The recently completed project allows water to back up, slowing flood effects downstream.
Similarly, the Ames Creek restoration work at Sankey Park, replacing the pond, helps slow water down, Lewis said, although the project was not specifically a hazard-mitigation project.
“The thing that everyone has to keep in mind (is) you can’t mitigate nature,” she said. That means a 100-year flood or a 500-year flood is still going to cause problems, but small things can be done to minimize the damage a disaster might cause, such as protecting a house chronically plagued by floods.
Specifically, the plan addresses flooding, winter storms, landslides, fires in urban-wildland interfaces, volcanoes, utility disruptions, dam safety, hazardous materials, terrorism and earthquakes.
“Those are the areas we identified originally when we did this plan,” Lewis said. The plan contains tables identifying long- and short-term projects for mitigating the risks from these hazards.
The plan was created five years ago and approved in 2004 by FEMA, Lewis said. Since then, Sweet Home has had windstorms and ice storms but no major flooding. At this point, the committee will update it based on those experiences.
FEMA requires the plan to be updated every five years.
The plan also will ask what kinds of projects can be done, as a community, to be a safe, resilient community, Lewis said, ranging from tree trimming to burying utility lines. Putting utility lines underground is a good way to protect against interruptions. Some communities require them to be buried, but there hasn’t been any pressure to do it in Sweet Home. Sweet Home does require it in new subdivisions.
Changing the existing infrastructure may cost a lot, Lewis said, but in the long run it may be considerably cheaper than repairing the utilities and the lost productivity of businesses shut down when power is out, for example.
Weighing such costs and benefits is part of the plan update process, she said. With the plan in place, the community is eligible for project funding for, for example, making sure older houses are properly attached to their foundations in case of earthquake.
The City Council created the All-Hazard Mitigation Committee in 1996, Lewis said. It tends to be inactive except during an update period. Right now, its members include Public Works, Community Development, police and fire staff. An equal number of citizen positions, four, round out the committee. Finance and library staff also is involved in the committee.
The process will include a public meeting hosted by the Planning Commission on March 2 at City Hall, from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Lewis hopes to submit the plan to FEMA for approval by July.
All four positions are open right now, Lewis said. People interested in participating should contact the city manager’s office at 367-8969. For more information about the plan or committee, contact Lewis at 367-8113.