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All hazard mitigation plan

All Hazard Mitigation Plan

The City of Saco, Maine, is a participant in FEMA's Project Impact program to increase the disaster resistance of the community. The City has experienced historic storms in the past decade including Hurricane Bob, the October 1992 storm, and the 1996 historic rainfall event approaching 19 inches of precipitation. These events designed to increase the City's cognizance of the impact natural disasters can have on a community.

DOWNLOAD FULL PLAN

This is the introduction from the City of Saco's All Hazard Mitigation plan which spells out potential natural disaster risks facing the city and what can be done to protect city residents from them. The full plan can be downloaded in the form of an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file by following this link.

Note: The above file is a PDF document. To learn more about these kinds of files and how you can view them, follow this link.

In the fall of 1998, the Project Impact process commenced with a four-pronged approach of building partnerships, assessing the risks from natural hazards, prioritizing needs of the community to address hazards, and involving the community in this process. A FEMA-funded Project Impact was initiated and work groups were assembled to evaluate the role of local government, the current City infrastructure, the role of the retail/business community, the role of the construction/building trades, the role of community-based organizations, and the role of the public education system in this process.

The groups agreed that Saco's disaster potential can be categorized into four areas:

Fire

Wind

Precipitation events

Catastrophic

The City also has the potential for other disaster types including earthquakes, civil disobedience, hazardous materials incidents and others.

Most notable risks of natural hazards are attendant with four events:

Coastal events, specifically hurricanes

Major flooding of the Saco River

Localized flooding due to intense storms

Wind and ice damage to overhead utility systems

Each work group established primary risks and prepared recommendations. The groups reconvened and established overall priorities to present to the Council.

The Council adopted recommendations and applied to FEMA for grants to implement priorities of the City.

A strategy to enhance disaster awareness, enhance disaster preparedness, reduce disaster hazard, improve response, assess risks, and implement the program has been prepared during this process.

This narrative summarizes the City's hazards, the mitigation plans, and short and long-term risk reduction strategies. This is the City's initial report which should be updated on an annual basis.