Disaster Preparedness & Emergency Communications

Preparedness: planning, training and educational activities for events that cannot be mitigated. This includes disaster communication plans, earthquake drills, and having household emergency kits.

Response: the immediate aftermath of a disaster when businesses and other operations do not function normally, and personal safety and well-being is impacted. Disaster response efforts include search and rescue missions and implementation of disaster response plans.

Recovery: restoration efforts, like rebuilding impacted infrastructure, occur along with regular operations and activities, possibly over an extended period of time.

CITY OF LONG BEACH NATURAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN

The City of Long Beach’s Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan identifies hazards that pose a risk to the community and actions City agencies are taking to reduce the impacts of these hazards. The plan is required by the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 to be updated every five years.

The 2017 plan is currently being updated by the Department of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Communications in partnership with a number of City departments and partners including:

• Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Communications
• Long Beach Airport
• Port of Long Beach
• Long Beach Police Department
• Long Beach Fire Department
• Development Services
• Parks, Recreation and Marine
• Public Works
• Water Department
• Health and Human Services
• Energy Resources
• Human Resources
• Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management
• California State University, Long Beach

2022 NATURAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN GOALS

Goals are established to identify the overall improvements the City of Long Beach wants to achieve through the implementation of the Hazard Mitigation Plan update.

The five goals of the 2022 Hazard Mitigation Plan update include:

1. Protect public health and safety
2. Invest in property and protection
3. Promote policies that embrace mitigation
4. Create a healthy and equitable environment
5. Ensure equitable and inclusive mitigation measures

2022 PROFILED NATURAL HAZARDS

Based on findings from the Hazard Analysis and direction from the Hazard Mitigation Steering Committee, the top threats to the City of Long Beach, in no particular order, are:

• Earthquake: Long Beach is especially susceptible to earthquakes due to its proximity to multiple faults, which are zones of weakness in the earth’s crust.
• Tsunami: With nearly 9 miles of coastline, Long Beach is a potential target for tsunamis, or high-energy waves triggered by earthquakes, landslides or submarine volcanic explosions.
• Flood: During a major rainstorm, some areas of Long Beach run the threat of flooding.
• Dam Failure: Partial or full failure of dams has the potential to cause massive destruction, and is usually caused by prolonged periods of rainfall, sabotage
• Climate Change/Sea-Level Rise: Climate Change refers to alterations in the long-term patterns of temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind, and seasons that play a fundamental role in shaping natural ecosystems and the human economies and cultures that depend on them.
• Severe Weather: Severe Weather includes Extreme Heat, Fog, High Winds, and Thunderstorms.

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE?

Hazard mitigation is a whole community effort that requires a collaboration between government agencies and the private sector, as well as the public. Below are a number of ways that you can participate in the 2022 Natural Hazard Mitigation planning process with the City of Long Beach, including reviewing the first draft of the 2022 plan.

• Download the draft 2022 Hazard Mitigation Plan (Executive Summary available in Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog)
• Provide feedback on the draft 2022 Hazard Mitigation Plan
• Complete the Hazard Mitigation Survey