New hazard mitigation plan prepares Berkeley for the unknown
BERKELEY — Earthquakes, flooding, wildfires and extreme heat are among the list of about a dozen hazards Berkeley is preparing for in its updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan.
The five-year document, recently adopted by the city council and developed by city staff, builds upon areas of concern identified in previous iterations.
“We know how important disaster preparation is. All of us in different ways see it in our districts,” Councilmember Brent Blackaby said during a March 18 council meeting.
The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan specifically identifies earthquakes, wildlife-urban interface fires, extreme heat, rainfall-triggered landslides, poor air quality, high winds, sea level rise, flooding, utility interruptions, hazardous material releases and infectious diseases as all likely to occur up to once in the next 50 years. Tsunamis are another hazard listed as possible to occur up to once in the next 51 to 100 years.
What impact those hazards will have on the greater community can vary from minor to catastrophic. However, vulnerable communities are more at risk, including seniors, children, people with disabilities, those with limited English proficiency and those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Different areas of the city also are more vulnerable to some types of hazards than others, such as sea level rise on bay-front properties or wildfires in the hills.
Those factors were taken into consideration when drafting the 400-page plan, about half of which is dedicated to risk assessment, said Emergency Services Coordinator Jamie Albrech.
“Hazard mitigation is really designed to break the cycle of damage by taking action now to reduce impacts later,” Albrech told the council. “It’s the work that we do before a disaster that provides some kind of passive protection when a disaster occurs.”
A total of 34 actions are called out in the plan. Among those actions, a focus is placed on work that’s already funded and improvements to buildings, infrastructure and wildfire mitigation. A focus also is put on poor air quality, high winds, sea level rise, utility interruptions and infectious diseases – all newly listed hazards.
Passive mitigations, Albrech emphasized, are the key measures meant to reduce the impact of disasters like clearing debris, improving infrastructure, making smart land use decisions and implementing systems that kick in automatically.
In addition to being more prepared ahead of a disaster and saving the city substantial amounts of money, adopting the plan also enables the city to qualify for pre- and post-disaster grant funding from the federal government and state.
The new plan includes additional focus on hazardous vegetation that could enable the spread of wildfires when not properly maintained or when invasive, flammable species are present. The issue was a particular concern for residents who offered comments when the plan was being developed, Albrech said.
Concerns for fires in the hills and evacuation plans were raised by the public and will be better addressed once the city’s Evacuation and Response Time Study is completed, she added.
Recognizing concerns about land use decisions impacting emergency response times, a new action was added to the plan that calls for the fire department’s review of any proposals that increase density.
“This will continue to be a conversation in the coming months and years and is a big piece of work ongoing in the city,” Albrech said.
The updated Local Hazard Mitigation Plan includes improved maps that were requested by the public who were interested in seeing which hazards they were vulnerable to, Albrech said.
Additional work to update the General Plan Safety Element and Environmental Justice Element are also just getting started, she added.
The plan received unanimous approval from the council who lauded staff’s work and deep dive into the risks the city faces.
“We’re in very challenging times where every local jurisdiction is required to do more with less,” Councilmember Igor Tregub said. “I think you have far and away exceeded that mandate. You’ve taken it above and beyond.”