Towns plan to minimize exposure to natural hazards

Officials from Little Silver and Red Bank held a joint public meeting May 21 to discuss plans for town safety in case of a natural disaster.

Residents of both towns were invited to the public information session at Little Silver Borough Hall, Prospect Avenue, to learn about the respective natural hazard mitigation plans.

The information session was just one step in the process for the boroughs, both of which are participating in the county-wide, multijurisdictional planning project.

"Each town that is participating … has to come up with at least one plan to mitigate issues in the community," said Little Silver Police Chief Shannon D. Giblin. "Essentially, you are just trying to prevent potential and future issues [or hazards] from happening."

Although there were no residents from either town in attendance at the meeting, Giblin and Red Bank Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Coordinator Peter DeFazio said the public information session was part of the planning process.

"We are having meetings to inform people what's going on [for hazard mitigation] in each of our municipalities," said Giblin.

A similar natural hazard mitigation meeting was held in Oceanport on March 18 and was attended by about 30 borough residents.

While hazard mitigation plans are in the planning stages for Little Silver, Red Bank and Oceanport, the Sea Bright Borough Council has already adopted an implementation strategy.

The target date for implementation of Sea Bright's plan is December at a cost of $5,000 through local funding.

The primary natural hazard in Monmouth County is flooding, but other potential hazards such as drought, extreme cold, extreme heat, snow, ice, hail, windstorms and tornadoes will be included in the planning process, according to a Monmouth County press release distributed earlier this year.

The county began developing a comprehensive all-natural hazards-mitigation plan for the county and its 53 municipalities in 2007, the release said.

The goal of the project is to create a long-term plan to mitigate the impact that future natural disasters such as flooding and tornadoes would have on the community.

"The biggest issue is flooding in certain areas of town," Giblin said of the main natural hazard emergency in Little Silver.

He said the Little Silver plan calls for the implementation of a new outfall structure at the end of Little Silver Point Road, which will assist with storm drainage.

A second plan is to develop a street maintenance plan for cleaning and maintenance of the streets to reduce the amount of flooding during storms, said Giblin.

"We had to come up with a priority [and then] an action and what does that action address [and the] hazards," said Giblin of the Little Silver plan.

For Little Silver, officials are seeking $150,000 in grant funding for the two projects combined.

DeFazio said the borough of Red Bank does not have a flooding problem but instead lacks an emergency-alerting system to notify residents when a natural disaster strikes, an issue that has distressed residents previously at Borough Council meetings.

"Joint services will probably be the best way to go financially," said DeFazio of a possible route the borough would take to implement an emergency learning system.

He said a previous plan that involved a shared radio on Tower Hill had fallen through and the borough is now looking into a reverse 911 system.

Other plans for Red Bank include rectifying the heavy tide damage done to the bulkheads in Marine Park as well as enhancing the borough's aging infrastructure system, said DeFazio.

"It's a tough budget year for anything with taxes going up … but this is stuff we have to do and hopefully we get a grant," he said.

DeFazio did not have a potential cost estimate for Red Bank's plans, which are currently being put together by borough engineer T&M Associates.

The target completion date for both plans in Little Silver and Red Bank is 2009 to 2010.

The plans will identify community policies, actions and tools for long-term implementation to reduce risk and potential for future losses, according to a Monmouth County press release.

"You have to have a FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] mitigation plan to be eligible for funds, so that's why the county is doing it all together," said Giblin.

At the Oceanport meeting, Police Capt. Mauro Baldanza showed residents maps of the borough that displayed the flood level effects on the borough for category 1 through 4 hurricanes based on elevation and proximity to water.

Oceanport is susceptible to 14 of 16 natural hazards that include extreme wind, nor'easters and hurricanes. The risk is close to $800 million in damage, according to Baldanza.

"In a category 3 storm, 86 percent of this town will be under water," Baldanza said.

Residents were asked to fill out surveys to detail what steps they think the borough should take to improve readiness over the next five years.

Baldanza outlined some goals for the borough moving forward, such as promoting disaster resistant development, building and supporting the local capacity to prepare for and respond to disasters, and reducing damage and losses from floods.

A specific goal, according to Baldanza, was to plan and seek funding for backup electric and telecommunications equipment in local government critical facilities as well as the schools.

As of Nov. 1, 2004, communities that do not have a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan in place are no longer eligible for FEMA project grant monies under programs such as the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, Flood Mitigation Assistance Program and Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program, according to the Monmouth County Web site.

Monmouth County has received federal grant monies to develop the plan and has hired an outside consultant team to conduct the analyses, according to the Web site.

The consultant firm hired is URS Corp., of Wayne, and the firm's responsibilities include providing planning, engineering, architecture and applied science services, meeting the needs of government agencies and private industrial and commercial companies, according to the Web site.

Sea Bright's plan contains eight mitigation actions that address hazards such as flood, wind, storm and environmental.

"Develop a storm, flood and wind action plan, which will include police, fire and public works volunteer groups, to allow Sea Bright to be methodically protected during a storm or flood event," the plan states as the first action.

Other actions include creating a hazardous material response team; developing strategies to aid local, county and state officials to provide for replacement of sand and reconstruction of bulkheads; and providing additional support and training for the borough's Building Department on wind- and flood-resistance structures.

According to the Monmouth County Web site at www.visitmonmouth.com, a draft plan for the Monmouth County Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning Project is scheduled for release in July.