Natural Hazards and Disasters

1
Natural Hazards and Disasters

2
Natural Hazards in NC
Landslides
Hurricanes
Wildfires
3
Natural Hazards in NC
Severe Winter Weather
Flooding
Tornadoes
4
Disasters in NC
Hurricane Floyd (1999)
Peeks Creek Landslide (2004)
5
Disasters in NC
Credit Drew Kohler Special to News Record
Stoneville Tornado (1998)
Hurricanes Ivan and Frances (2004)
6
Disasters at the intersection
7
Natural Hazard
8
Built Environment
9
Disaster
10
Cost of Disasters
Environmental
Social
Economic
11
Cost of Disasters
Infrastructure Repair
Emergency Services
12
Cost of Hurricane Floyd on Eastern NC (1999)

• 4 billion
• 30,000 jobs
• 75 of businesses close

13
Cost of Hurricane Floyd on Eastern NC (1999)

• Hundreds displaced
• 800 million in agricultural losses

14
High Frequency of Weather Related Disasters in NC
15
Hurricanes Frances and Ivan (2004)
Ivan

• Severe flooding in Western NC

Frances
16
Peeks Creek Debris Flow (2004)

• 5 deaths
• 15 homes destroyed

17
Wildfires in NC

• 7,000 wildfires in 2007

Pocosin Lakes Wildfire (2008)
18
What can be done?

• MITIGATION
• To make or become less intense moderate
• - American Heritage Dictionary

19
Who should mitigate?

• EVERYONE

Governments
Businesses
Community Organizations
Home owners
20
What are we doing?

• We are updating our Hazard Mitigation Plan

21
Hazard Mitigation Planning

• Hazard Identification
• Hazard Profile
• Vulnerability Assessment
• Capability Assessment
• Develop Goals and Actions
• Adoption and Implementation
• Public Involvement

22
Hazard Identification

• What hazards are out there?

23
Hazard Profile

• What are our chances of getting hit ? How
  frequently? How badly?

24
Vulnerability Assessment

• When we get hit, how serious will it be?

25
Capability Assessment
Legal
Fiscal
Political

• What can we do to make the impact of hazards
  less severe?

Technical Know-How
Institutional
26

• Should we do something?

27
Develop Goals Objectives

28
Mitigation Actions
Public Information
Structural Projects
Dams
Hazard Mapping

Dune Preservation
Elevation
Floodplain Regulation
Property Protection
Natural Resource Protection
Prevention
29
Goals gt Objectives gt Actions

• Goals
• Reduce the vulnerability of flooding in the
  community
• Minimize wildfire losses
• Protect the local economy from the impacts of
  future hazard events
• Objectives
• Protect structures in the downtown area from
  flooding
• Educate homeowners about wildfire risks
• Create incentives for local businesses to take
  mitigation actions
• Mitigation Actions
• Elevate three structures located in the
  floodplain
• Create and distributed educational brochure about
  wildfire hazards
• Provide tax incentives for local businesses that
  add hurricane storm shutters to their structures

30
Hazard Mitigation Planning Process
Hazard ID Profile
Goals
Adopt Implement
Mitigation Action
Vulnerability Assessment
Mitigation Action
Capability Assessment
Mitigation Action
Monitoring Evaluating Updating
31
Adoption and Implementation

32
Public Involvement

33
For further information

• North Carolina Division of Emergency Management
• Recovery Section
• Risk Assessment and Planning Branch
• www.ncem.org
• 919-715-8000