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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNew Hanover County LEPC Minutes 1.8.2020 New Hanover County LEPC Meeting January 8, 2020 New Hanover County Government Center Training Room B The following persons signed the roster indicating they were in attendance: NAME BUSINESS NAME BUSINESS Mike Alexander Kinder Morgan Lisa Brown NHC Public Health Kevin Cowan Seaside Safety, LLC Heidi Cox NCDEQ DWR Stan Harts Withers and Ravenel Jon Booth Kinder Morgan Eric Hatcher CFPUA Billy Howard NHRMC EMS Lena Butler NHC Daniel Adams Pender County EM Steve Mason WFD Frank Meyer NHC Fire & Rescue Kate Oelslager NHC Community Outreach Alan Pytcher NCDOT Josh Schieffer Duke Energy Ron Stancil Sturdy Corp Ernestine Kuhr GE Hitachi Jeff Suggs NHC Environmental Health Phillip Tarte NHC Health Department Mark Venters GE Randy Wright SR&R Environmental Carol Yates Corning Adrienne Michalek Pender County Health Department Michael Thompson ARC John Smith ARC David Stone NHC Fire JD Limberger NHC Sarah Wright Sturdy Corp Anna Allen NCDA & CS Stephen Alexander SR&R Env. Normand Lavoie Invista Linda Willis NCDEQ DAQ Welcome and Introductions: Frank Meyers opened the meeting at 11:02 thanking everyone in attendance and reminding attendees to sign the attendance roster and pick up a copy of the meeting agenda and the minutes of the meeting from December 10th, 2019. Introductions by each attendee were made. Review and Approval of Minutes: Members reviewed the minutes of December meeting and motions were made to approve the minutes as written. Business: The business was postponed until after a presentation titled “Hurricane Florence and New Hanover County’s Road to Resiliency”. The presentation was prepared by the New Hanover County Office of Strategy and Communications and Outreach. Frank introduced Kate Oelslager (presenter) who works in Communications and Outreach with New Hanover County and JD Limberger who works in the Office of Strategy. Kate is the Communications and Outreach Coordinator and supports hurricane recovery, emergency management and health and human services. Presentation by Kate: “Hurricane Florence & New Hanover County’s Road to Resiliency”: Much was learned during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. The Florence After Action Report was developed after meetings with employees of New Hanover County and over 40 organizations identified areas of greater vulnerability with the number one vulnerability in communication. During the hurricane reverse 911 calls were made in areas vulnerable to storm surge and flooding. The county partnered with Fire and Rescue, community groups, and faith-based groups to go door to door and provide transportation to shelters. An inland shelter plan and evacuation and shelter policy were developed and will go to the Commission for approval. A call center was set up to take calls regarding donations of resources to better utilize community partners. Eleven churches were trained for distribution of essential supplies for emergency resources. Volunteers were expanded via community partners. New Hanover County established the Hurricane Recovery Coordination Office under the Office of Strategy to spearhead long-term recovery efforts. The Florence After Action Plan resulted in a revision to the Emergency Operations to include a Planning Section in the Emergency Operations Center. The Long Term Recovery Plan includes five main categories of recovery:  Housing - Mitigation of damaged properties, repairing and rehabilitating damaged homes, increasing the number of affordable workplace housing units.  Infrastructure – Removing debris and sedimentation from streams and stormwater drainage and increasing the watershed outflow in areas experiencing flooding. Starting July 1, 2020, the county will assume the responsibility of stormwater conveyances which were the prior responsibility of homeowners.  Health and Human Services – Repair critical for non-profit partner facilities.  Economy – Ensure large employers worker retention and provide funding for new and expanding businesses.  Community Resilience and Planning – Update key plans such as landing zones for resources received by air, sheltering plans, and communication plan. Work with faith based, for non-profit partners, and the community for long term recovery and disaster preparedness. Working on Resilient Children Communities grant and identifying households eligible for repairs or rebuilding. Michael Thomas with the American Red Cross indicated he had the opportunity to speak to people upon their return home from evacuation after the hurricane via Wave Transit buses and that they had expressed strong concerns about seating and the availability of bathroom facilities. Kate spoke of the New Hanover Disaster Coalition and how coalition partners can serve more of the needs during disaster recovery. She also spoke of Ready NHC (ReadyNHC.com) for emergency preparedness planning which promotes three basic elements;  Make a Plan  Build a Kit  Stay Informed She spoke of what’s to come:  HUD yet to release the Community Development Block Grants for disaster recovery funding.  Infrastructure projects will continue in coordination with DOT.  A Business EOC to utilize local businesses for supplying essential needs, resource sharing between companies, information sharing and establishing a virtual “JIC”.  The Long Term Recovery Plan will evolve as needs change and opportunities are identified within the county. Kate provided the web address for the New Hanover County Hurricane Recovery website at Hurricanerecovery.NHCgov.com. She also reminded us to sign up for Emergency Alerts. Kate opened for any final questions and comments. Mark Venters with GE indicated that they were awaiting a response from the county regarding concerns GE had pertaining to the flood zone map. Member Announcements: Kevin Cowan with Seaside Safety, LLC announced that the National Weather Service took recommendations from our local user’s group for their Wave Height product and that the product will be test marketed soon and quite possibly in our area. Stan Harts with Withers and Ravenel reminded everyone about the Tier II Reports due by March 1st. Michael Thompson with the American Red Cross announced a new Emergency Manager for Pender County, Mr. Chuck Tear. Grant Information - Frank stated that we have applied for $32,000.00 in grant monies as follows: $2,000 for Tier II Noncompetitive (we receive this one each year) $20,000 – Tier II Non-competitive ($10,000 maximum for each county since our LEPC includes New Hanover and Pender County) $10,000 – HMEP Grant which is an NCDOT Grant for training/exercises Subcommittees – Frank indicated we need member volunteers for the subcommittees, those being Emergency Planning/Response and Community Education/Public Response. Please email Teresa directly if you are interested in joining those committees and a response will be provided. We would like to get these committees developed. Members for those subcommittees may be solicited depending upon the voluntary response. Open Forum: Frank requested input concerning the possibility of industry members making presentations during upcoming meetings to better inform the members of who they are, what they do, and share with the group their emergency response plans. Michael Thompson inquired about where we stand with the full-scale exercise since the exercise was postponed due to hurricane events. Mark Venters (GE) indicated that the LEPC participated in their biennial exercise in 2019. It allowed the LEPC to take credit for and fulfill their responsibility for the full- scale exercise. Frank reminded members that this was one of the benefits of the LEPC and industry working together to fulfill such requirements. A comment was made that industry could also educate the LEPC by making a presentation on their Tier II information. The Regional Hazardous Mitigation Plan is in revision and they will try to bring that information to the group. Mark Venters moved to adjourn, motion was seconded. Sub-Committee Breakout Summaries: N/A LEPC Committees: New Executive Committee  Chairman- Teresa Smith  Vice-Chairman- Frank Meyer  Secretary- Linda Willis Emergency Planning & Response Sub-Committee:  Chairman-  Members Community Education & Public Response Sub-Committee:  Chairman-  Members- Next LEPC Meeting: The next meeting will be held on March 11, 2020 in the NHC EOC.