Benny Westcott
Severe storms and wildland-urban interface fires, where neighborhoods and nature meet, pose the two greatest threats to Sweet Home, according to a recent update to the city’s 2021 Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan.
The draft, submitted Tuesday, Nov. 30, to the Oregon Office of Emergency Management for review, is scheduled for completion in February 2022.
The NHMP’s official steering committee – which consists of city Finance Director Brandon Neish, Staff Engineer Joe Graybill, Communications Specialist/PIO Lagea Mull, Public Works Director Greg Springman, Police Chief Jeff Lynn, Fire Chief Dave Barringer, City Manager Ray Towry, former Linn County Emergency Management Coordinator Joe Larsen and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development Natural Hazards Planner Tricia Sears – evaluated the probability of and community’s vulnerability to seven natural hazards during meetings between December 2020 and February 2021.
All seven were assigned numeric “risk scores,” with risk-level ratings from low to high. Severe storms topped the field with a risk value of 221, up from 179.3 in 2015. Wildland-urban interface fires ranked second at 166, a 31.2-point increase from that year. They were followed in descending order by floods, earthquakes, volcanic events, droughts and landslides.
“For flooding, the main danger has been rain events that impact our stormwater system,” committee chair and Sweet Home Economic and Community Development Director Blair Larsen said. He recommended a “stormwater master plan” as the “most crucial” step toward deterring detrimental flooding. Initial meetings to formulate such a plan began about a month ago.
Larsen added that some of the “older parts” of the city have experienced localized flooding in recent years.
“There are a lot of areas of the city that are not developed to urban standards,” he said. “Adding homes and pavement means more water that is not soaked up by the ground, adding more water to the system that it might not be capable of handling.”
The goal of future improvements, he explained, is “mainly ensuring that the infrastructure moving water away from potential flood areas is sufficient. Any time a development occurs we need to make sure that development is addressing the stormwater on their own property first and foremost. Beyond that, infrastructure needs to be in place to take the water to the city system and rivers and streams.”
The committee found that the city’s most flood-prone areas are between 12th and 18th Avenues north of Poplar Street, around 37th and 38th avenues and Long Street, and 45th Avenue south of Main Street. The first two contend with drainage issues, resulting in the collection of water, the report revealed, adding that city staff could work to alleviate the issues. The situation on 45th Avenue appears to be more difficult, the report continued, with drainage running through private, not public, property.
An existing city stormwater fee increased this year to $3 per household per month “to provide funding for a position and the writing of the stormwater management master plan,” according to the report. That rate may be raised again in the future to address items in the stormwater master plan and for maintenance. Also, on May 1, 2021, a stormwater system development charge went into effect for capital stormwater system improvements.
Wildland-urban interface fires rose three spots in the ratings from a 2015 ranking of fifth to become the city’s second-riskiest natural hazard, moving past floods, earthquakes and droughts in this year’s assessment. The NHMP’s report noted that a fire’s impact on communities can be “huge” and “has been estimated at three times the cost of suppression.”
“I think the 2020 fire season really showed us that we are more at risk than we previously thought,” Larsen said.
“The edges of the city closest to forests obviously are in the most danger. I think this plan will help in getting buzz going, so people are mindful of how their behavior can affect the safety of their property.”
He added that the plan called for more public outreach about fire safety.
Find the NHMP draft online at https://bit.ly/3yjUnT4.