Wisconsin News

 

Wisconsin Entities Begin Various HAZUS Projects

December 13^th, 2005

Shane Hubbard

Wisconsin Emergency Management

 

HAZUS-MH MR1 provides flooding, hurricane, and earthquake modules.  Wisconsin is a state with a low earthquake threat and zero hurricane threat.  The state does however have a significant flooding threat.  The Mississippi floods of 1993 and 2001 demonstrated how significant the risk is.  The states efforts have reflected this with most projects centered on flooding.

 

As Wisconsin geared up to use HAZUS in its flood planning two very important hurdles had to be overcome.  The first hurdle was to make the model run correctly and the second was to train more people to use the model within the state.  After a few months of working closely with the developers of the HAZUS flood model a few Wisconsin members of CHUG were able to successfully run several cases within Wisconsin.  The second hurdle is an ongoing process, but two Wisconsin residents recently attended training at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI).  Another member of CHUG attended training a year ago.  Wisconsin hopes to hold further training in the future.

 

Currently, the State of Wisconsin Division of Emergency Management has begun a flood assessment project that will use HAZUS-MH MR1.  Wisconsin Emergency Management will perform a level one analysis on each of the state’s 72 counties.  Once the level one analysis has been created for each of the counties a more refined and extensive study will be conducted on the state’s most troubled areas.  This effort will help planners and communities examine their risk which will help for future planning locally.  Flooding from severe storms and hurricanes is the leading cause of death, injury and property damage in the U.S. each year.  This fact points to the importance of planning and preparing for such events.  HAZUS data will give The State of Wisconsin one more tool that can be used for better flooding planning and preparedness.  For more information about HAZUS and its use at WEM, contact Shane Hubbard or Kent MacLaughlin.

 

Other planning organizations will be working closely with local communities.  One such organization is the Bay Lake Regional Planning Commission which serves Florence, Marinette, Oconto, Brown, Door, Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Sheboygan County. 

Regional planning in Wisconsin has evolved from a long tradition of state and local concern for land and water conservation, balanced economic development, and other concerns for the future of our state. The realization that many natural and human problems and activities often affect an area larger than a single city, town, village, or county led to the concept of an area-wide approach to planning. The Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission has been established to provide advisory planning service on area-wide issues, to represent local interests on state and federal planning program activities, and to provide local planning assistance to communities in the region.

Bay-Lake RPC is currently in the process of completing All Hazard Mitigation Plans for Brown, Manitowoc, Marinette, and Sheboygan Counties.  As a part of current and future plans, Bay Lake is looking to use HAZUS as a means to develop flooding risk assessments.  For more information contact Tony Bellovary, GIS Coordinator at 920-448-2820 or tbellovary@baylakerpc.org