Discovery Meeting Notes

Transcription

1 Project Name: Meeting: Date and Time: Island of Guam Discovery Meeting June 1, 9:00 AM Place: WebEx Call in Number: Conference Code: Discovery Meeting Notes 1. Introductions Eric Simmons welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the team members. Meeting attendees included Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense, Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans (BSP), Guam Department of Land Management (DLM), Guam EPA, United States Geological Survey (USGS), National Weather Service (NWS), the United States Department of Agriculture/Natural Resource Conservation Service (USDA/NRCS), the American Red Cross, and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). A sign in sheet is provided as an attachment to these notes. 2. Meeting Goals and Objectives The June 1 st Discovery Meeting is an important step in the Discovery process under FEMA s Risk Mapping Assessment and Planning (RiskMAP) program. The goal of Discovery is for FEMA to work closely with local officials to better understand flood risk in order to prioritize possible projects identify areas at risk for flood loss. Eric Simmons summarized the objectives of the meeting. These included: 1. Introduce the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Risk MAP Program 2. Start a dialogue about the Island of Guam s flood risk 3. Communicate available resources 4. Offer partnerships and answer questions 5. Present the current status of the Island of Guam s flood hazards and risk 6. Learn about the Island of Guam s needs, and prioritize areas needing a flood risk study 3. Risk MAP Program Overview Eric Simmons described the Risk MAP program, giving details of the Risk MAP vision and the potential benefits of the program. This federal program is intended to assist with and fund mapping and risk projects due to the typical lack of community funds to do so. Risk MAP primarily looks at flooding hazards (from tropical storms, heavy riverine rainfall, etc), but can include other hazard types such as earthquakes or hurricane winds, especially through risk assessment. Risk assessment can be accomplished for typical flooding, earthquake and wind using FEMA s HAZUS software. This tool is being updated to include tsunami hazards as well. FEMA currently does not evaluate future conditions based on sea level rise nor coastal erosion. Headquarters is currently evaluating the future conditions effort. 4. Flood Risk Assessment Products April Smith discussed Risk MAP products and provided a comparison between regulatory and nonregulatory products. She touched on the Flood Risk Report, Flood Risk Map, and the Flood Risk Database

2 which could include the following: Changes Since Last FIRM, Depth and Analysis Grids, Flood Risk Assessments and Areas of Mitigation Interest. 5. Discovery Process Eric Simmons described the Discovery process. He discussed FEMA s desire to identify the unknown flood hazards and/or identify where flood risk products may be beneficial. If a specific area of concern is mentioned, then specific physical map revisions/areas of concern can be identified for potential projects. It is FEMA s intent to work collaboratively with key stakeholders to identify Risk MAP projects. For the Island of Guam, we are in the beginning of this Discovery process, and are looking to local stakeholders for a better understanding of local needs. Once these needs are identified, FEMA will evaluate potential projects and document the evaluation results in a Discovery Report and Map. 6. Discuss Flood Risk Data & Discovery Map April Smith identified the 12 major federally declared disasters that have affected the Island of Guam in the past 50 years. Stephanie Thompson continued with the island s mapping history, and identified geospatial data sources that have been collected to date. April Smith followed up with additional data that has been collected, and talked about areas of concerns. All attendees were asked to mark up their discussion maps to include known problem areas and to send them to FEMA and BakerAECOM so that locations of concern areas can be documented. Any additional information that would be helpful can also be ed for inclusion. The following additional data and data sources were identified: 2007 LiDAR is available from either Vic Torres or from the NOAA Pacific Coast Office Concern was also expressed that when the 2007 Effective DFIRMs were completed, some areas were taken out of the special flood hazard areas, and they may need to be reevaluated. The American Red Cross has helped residents within the last year with flooding and could be a source to document flooding locations. NOAA is currently conducting sea level rise modeling. This should be complete by early next year. NOAA conducted tsunami inundation mapping through the Marine Environmental Lab. Local online newspapers could be a good source to document problem areas and local issues during high rainfall events The Water and Environmental Research Institute of the Western Pacific (WERI) at the University of Guam is an excellent source of local studies and data. USGS stream gages exist, which are funded by WERI. Data on these gages is available on the USGS website if needed. Final Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for the Military Buildup Program The Villages of Piti and Asas were identified as as having critical flooding concerns during a Wetlands Reserve Program stakeholders meeting. Flooding also occurs along the low lying coastal areas which wrap around the southeastern coast to Merizo. Guam BSP is going to enter into a project with the USGS to update the GIS river file to meet the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) standard. This project should be completed May 2013.

3 A number of pre war/post war dams are scattered across the south. WERI should be able to provide more information on these. Fena Valley Reservoir structure does have information available. This data can be obtained either through an advanced internet search or through a request to the BSP. The Department of Public Works (DPW) recently adopted a storm water management plan which documents drainage structures and similar facilities. BSP is still in the process of obtaining GIS data related to this document. There are 8 10 NRCS emergency watershed structures for mitigation purposes that have been installed over the years, as well as the Talofofo watershed project that was conducted in the 1990s. A USGS report on dam sites throughout southern Guam should be available through WERI. Following typhoons Pongsona and Chata an, the University of Guam created numerous GIS watershed datasets that could be useful. There are two USACE sponsored projects (one along the Namo River and the other somewhere in the Agat area) that are available from Dan Meyers at Fort Shafter or BSP. FEMA also has some post disaster damage assessments, including GIS data from Paka, Pongsona and Chata an. FEMA, in partnership with the DLM, conducted a high water mark collection effort following Pongsona. A USGS study on the Guam rainfall during Chata an is available. 7. Mitigation Planning Risk MAP products could support the new mitigation plan that was approved in April Hazard mitigation grant programs were briefly discussed. We look forward to receiving any information that is available so that we can identify any needs that would benefit the local communities. All are looking forward to working together to promote mitigation, to be more resilient and to reduce future damage from disasters.

4 DISCOVERY MEETING ATTENDANCE SHEET Island of Guam June 1, :00 AM Name Street Address City, State, Zip Affiliation Phone Number Address 1. James McDonald 221B Chalan Palasyo 2. Leo Espia 221B Chalan Palasyo 3. Pilar Carbullido 221B Chalan Palasyo GHS/OCD HSA GHS/OCD Acting Administrator GHS/OCD Chief Planner Kenny Artero 221B Chalan Palasyo GHS/OCD Typhoon Program Manager Patrick Leon Guerrero 221B Chalan Palasyo GHS/OCD Chief of Operations Chip Guard 3232 Hueneme Rd Barrigada, Guam NOAA/NWS Penmer Gulac PO Box 2950 Hagatna, Guam Dept. of Land Management Planner x Paul Santos PO Box 2950 Hagatna, Guam Dept. of Land Management Chief of Cadastre x292 Sheet 1 of 3

5 9. Thomas Torres PO Box 2950 Hagatna, Guam Dept. of Land Management Engineering Tech x Dave Peredo Rt 4, Building 285 Hagatna, Guam Victor Torres PO Box 2950 Hagatna, Guam Ben Reder NOAA Pacific Services Center 737 Bishop Street, Suite 1550 Honolulu, HI Dale Cox Modoc Hall, USGS 3020 State University Dr East Sacramento, CA Derek Masaki 677 Ala Moana Blvd, Ste 415 Honolulu, HI American Red Cross Emergency Services Director Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans GIS Manager NOAA Pacific Services Center Geospatial Analyst USGS Pacific Southwest Area Regional Hazards Coordinator USGS National Spatial Data Infrastructure Partnership Office Maricar Quezon PO Box GMF Barrigada, Guam Ron Rickman USGS, Pacific Islands Water Science Center 677 Ala Moana Blvd, Ste 415 Guam EPA Engineer Data Section Chief Bart Lawrence FHB Building, Suite Route 8 Mongmong, Guam USDA NRCS Assistant Director for Field Operations, West Area John.Lawrence@pb.usda.gov Sheet 2 of 3

6 18. Eric Simmons 1111 Broadway, Suite 1200 Oakland, CA Gen Tamura 546 Bonney Loop, Bldg 520 Fort Shafter, HI Michael Hornick 1111 Broadway Suite 1200 Oakland, CA FEMA FEMA FEMA Stephanie Thompson 400 West 15 th St, Suite 500 Austin, Texas BakerAECOM GIS Analyst April Smith 400 West 15 th St, Suite 500 Austin, Texas BakerAECOM Project Engineer PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT (5 U.S.C. 552(a) Privacy Act) a. AUTHORITY: 5 U.S.C. 301 Departmental Regulations;14 U.S.C.2; 14 U.S.C.5 (88); National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. 4321; 44U.S.C.3101 b. PURPOSE: To obtain personal Information for the purpose of compiling mailing lists and to document public comments as required by the NEPA. NEPA requires public involvement in agency decision making processes. Decisional documents as well as comment mechanisms must be made available to the public. c. ROUTINE USES: To the Department of Homeland Security, U. S. Coast Guard, President of the Council on Environmental Quality, Environmental Protection Agency, and other authorized federal, state, or local governments who are authorized to develop and enforce environmental standards. d. DISCLOSURE: Disclosure of your name, street address, or other contact information is voluntary; however, if information is not provided, we may not be able to provide copies of decisional documents and to retrieve additional comments related to environmental impact actions or decisions Sheet 3 of 3