safety element S-6: Disaster Preparedness, Response & Recovery

Only areas below are considered part of the General Plan.

Disaster Preparedness, Response & Recovery

A disaster is a sudden and dramatic emergency.  When a disaster occurs, the threatened community strives to: 1) protect its residents to the extent possible, 2) care for victims, and 3) restore basic services as soon as possible.  To do this, a community needs to respond quickly and dynamically and as effectively as possible. This requires preparation at all levels, from the federal government (for large-scale disasters) down to individual neighborhoods, families, and businesses. Planning issues pertaining to emergency response, disaster preparedness, and disaster recovery require an assessment of the hazards, identification of functions and resources to handle short-term and long-term response, and development of recovery procedures.  Planning can help speed the response to an emergency, while ensuring that the response is appropriate to the situation. Some level of preparedness, however basic, can be very useful to facilitate the safety and recovery of people who live and work in the City of Menifee.

HazUS (short for Hazards United States) is a methodology developed by the National Institute of Building Sciences with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make standardized loss estimates at a regional scale resulting from earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes.  HazUS addresses nearly all aspects of the built environment and is used in planning for disaster loss mitigation and emergency preparedness, response and recovery. HazUS breaks critical facilities into two groups: (1) essential facilities and (2) high potential loss (HPL) facilities.  Essential facilities are those parts of a community's infrastructure that must remain operational after an earthquake.  Buildings that house essential services include hospitals, emergency operation centers, fire and police stations, schools, airport control towers, and communication centers.  HPL or high-risk facilities are those that, if severely damaged, may result in a disaster far beyond the facilities themselves.  Examples include power plants; dams and flood control structures; and industrial plants that use or store explosives, extremely hazardous materials, or petroleum products in large quantities, Exhibit S-7 - Critical Facilities, identifies where these facilities are located in Menifee. 

Goal

• S-6: A City that responds and recovers in an effective and timely manner from natural disasters such as flooding, fire, and earthquakes, and as a result is not impacted by civil unrest that may occur following a natural disaster.

Policies

• S-6.1: Continuously review, update, and implement emergency preparedness, response, and recovery plans that make the best use of the City- and county-specific emergency management resources available.
• S-6.2: Ensure to the fullest possible extent that, in the event of a major disaster, critical, dependent care and high-occupancy facilities remain functional.
• S-6.3: Work with the Riverside County Airport Land Use Commission to strengthen the City's disaster preparedness, response, and recovery program in accordance with the Airport Land Use Plans for March Air Reserve Base and Perris Valley Airport.
• S-6.4: Locate new essential or critical facilities away from areas susceptible to impacts or damage from a natural disaster.
• S-6.5: Promote strengthening of planned and existing critical facilities and lifelines, the retrofit and rehabilitation of existing weak structures, and the relocation of certain critical facilities as necessary to adequately meet the needs of Menifee's residents and workforce.

General Plan Exhibits

• Exhibit S-1: Fault Map
• Exhibit S-2: Slope Distribution
• Exhibit S-3: Liquefaction and Landslides
• Exhibit S-4: Geologic Map
• Exhibit S-5: Flood Hazards
• Exhibit S-6: High Fire Hazard Areas
• Exhibit S-7: Critical Facilities
• Exhibit S-8: Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones and Public Facilities
• Exhibit S-9: Evacuation Routes