You may have recently learned from reading our March 10th blog post that you live near a state regulated dam. Now you may be asking yourself, “what does this mean and how do I factor this information into my family’s emergency preparedness plans?“.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Engineering Division recently deployed a “Dam Evacuation Zone Map Viewer” to help property owners determine if they are located within a dam evacuation zone.
Keep in mind that an evacuation zone is not the same as an inundation zone. An inundation zone identifies areas that could be flooded based on a set of specific data. While an evacuation zone illustrates the extent of the surrounding areas of the inundation area that could be subject to an evacuation order by local emergency management officials.
Evacuation zones are developed by local emergency management officials, first responders, and other stakeholders. They will utilize pertinent information such as transportation routes, topography, population density, locations of critical care facilities and schools among other things to draw a boundary around the flooding source in an effort to safely evacuate the community ahead of an impending hazard.
To determine if you are located in a dam evacuation zone, visit the tool here and follow the simple instruction in the quick guide.
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