Northampton and Lehigh County are currently considering an update to their Hazard Mitigation Plan. This is done periodically to identify risks and vulnerabilities and develop strategies to protect people and their property. It's required to turn on the money spigots in the event of a disaster. The plan itself is 448 pages long and a bit beyond my paygrade. But according to an overview, it will confront the dangers posed by liquid/gas pipelines as well as cyber-terrorism.
You can share your own opinions or insights with both counties here. Public comment is being accepted until March 25. There also will be a virtual public meeting concerning the plan on March 6, at 4:30 pm. Details for participation are located here.
This is, as BOH pointed out, a very complex document. What I saw as I perused it last night before bed (generally a bad idea) is to look at the bi-county assessment of the likelihood of each of the hazards they examine.
ReplyDeleteThe document provides some fascinating definitions about the kinds of gatherings of people and categorizes them so they can be addressed appropriately. Nice that the document recognizes (in this case) that county responders recognize the importance of First Amendment rights of people assembling.
Ice jams are the least scary of this collection (under general category of water/flooding). Ditto earthquakes. Scariest by far is cyber terrorism.
Each hazard concludes in section *.4 or .5 with the counties’ assessment of likelihood. Prepare accordingly.
Bonus in the document: history of the Lehigh Valley as a sever-paragraph summary.