SOUTHAMPTON — At its Nov. 12 meeting, as the area faces a significant drought that has made it more prone to brush fires, the Southampton Select Board began the process of reviewing and implementing a new hazard mitigation plan.
Mimi Kaplan, senior land use and environmental planner at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, presented a thorough slideshow that reviewed the risks and hazards of the town as well as possible actions the town can take to mitigate those risks and hazards.
The current plan was put in place in 2016 and a lot has changed since then, explained Kaplan. This new plan will address the effects of climate change and allow the town to apply for grants from FEMA if ever needed.
Kaplan described the goals of the plan as helping to prevent future losses in the town and making it more resilient to natural hazards and climate change. The plan has five components: hazard identification and description, risk assessment, identification and mapping of critical infrastructure, assessment of the town’s mitigation capabilities and a review of previous mitigation strategies and identification of new mitigation strategies.
Kaplan noted that climate change has impacted almost everything that the plan would deal with except earthquakes. According to the plan, high risks for the area include severe snowstorms and ice storms with severe thunderstorms, brush fires and extreme temperatures posing medium risks. By 2050, experts predict that the area will see approximately 20 days over 90 degrees per year, up significantly from the handful the area generally sees now. According to the report, the most urgent impacts of climate change will be shifts to different native plants and species as temperatures and conditions change, forest health degradation and damage to utility and energy distribution.
Members of the Select Board noted that they’re interested in the idea of acquiring open space to keep it as a flood plain and looking at the effects of possible drought.
The Nov. 12 meeting is the first of two required meetings before the plan can be sent to the emergency management agencies. After receiving feedback at this meeting, Kaplan and the committee will review the feedback and make adjustments to the plan before presenting it again, which will likely happen in June. After that meeting, the plan will be submitted to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency and FEMA for approval.
The committee working on the plan includes Town Administrator Scott Szczebak, Select Board Chair Christine Fowles, Fire Chief Richard Fasoli, Police Chief Ian Illingsworth, Highway Superintendent Randall Kemp, Public Health Director Geraldine Swanson and Water Department Superintendent Brett Simmons.
