Duarte officials prepare to update city’s disaster response plan

Duarte is starting the process of updating the city’s disaster response plan, officials announced Tuesday.

The five-year update to the Hazard Mitigation Plan is required to keep the city eligible for funding opportunities prior to and following a major disaster, according to a city statement. The 2020 plan identified many hazards including earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, floods, dam failures, windstorms and hazardous materials incidents.

“The first task of the plan update will be to reassess the threats and impacts associated with these hazards,” according to the statement. “Plotting out the location of these hazards is important as critical facilities are considered and mitigation action items developed to minimize or eliminate threats associated with the hazards.”

The plan update also calls for finding “new resources and staffing capabilities,” according to the statement.

After a consultant assembles initial information and updates, a Planning Team comprised of staff members from city departments will perform the plan update, officials said. Planning Team members come from city agencies that maintain public facilities and regulate development.

In 2023, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management updated regulations for local hazard mitigation plans. FEMA added four areas of focus: climate change impacts on hazards, analysis and location of socially vulnerable populations, hazard-specific impacts on socially vulnerable populations and a more robust community outreach strategy.

“To respond to the new requirement regarding identification and outreach to socially vulnerable populations, the Planning Team will utilize an online tool from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention … to identify location and ranking of the community’s socially vulnerable population,” according to the city statement.

In order to help emergency managers identify and map communities that will most likely need support before, during, and after a disaster, the CDC has identified 16 social characteristics that determine a community’s level of vulnerability, Duarte officials said.

More information is available on the Local Hazard Mitigation Webpage.