While many Cherry Hill residents are enjoying the sun this summer, officials with the Office of Emergency Management are looking to better prepare Cherry Hill for future severe weather and natural hazard events.
Cherry Hill, along with many municipalities in South Jersey, is undergoing an update of its hazard mitigation plan. The plan outlines ways the township can better prepare for a variety of natural and manmade disasters.
Cherry Hill is updating its plan to present to county officials later this fall. Kevin Seta, Cherry Hill’s Office of Emergency Management coordinator, said the township is required to update the mitigation plan every five years for it to be eligible for FEMA grants and programs.
“We update it with things that we’ve seen in the last five years that we need to address,” he said. “We’re all in the middle of the process right now.”
The mitigation plan is updated in cooperation with Camden County and Stuart Wallace LLC, the company contracted to assist municipalities. At a meeting in mid-July, township officials conveyed their feedback to Stuart Wallace officials for the plan update.
Seta said this year’s update will only include minimal changes from the last one. However, even minor changes to the plan could prove to be crucial for some residents.
“We want to make the recovery time less and lessen the impact on the residents,” Seta said.
Many of the events impacting Cherry Hill the most are weather-related. High winds, flooding and winter weather are designated as medium or high frequency events in the township.
Flooding has been an area of focus for Cherry Hill. Seta said the township has taken a look at flood-prone neighborhoods and made changes to reduce the impact on residents.
“There are places where we’ve looked in areas that flood,” he said. “We’ve improved the drainage, size of the pipes that go out, sticks and twigs that fall into drainage areas.”
Since the last update, a number of infrequent natural events have taken place. Cherry Hill has seen two hurricanes and an earthquake in the past three years.
Even though these events do not happen often, Seta said the plan still takes them into account.
“What we’re looking at in the mitigation, we see how the events in the past have affected the township and its residents,” he said.
In some areas, there is little the township can do to make improvements. Seta noted the area has had a lot of high-wind events with downed power lines in the past five years. However, Seta said there is only so much the township can do to prepare for these types of events.
“There not a whole lot of things we can do when power lines are down other than respond quickly, and that’s a whole different plan,” he said.
The update process will continue into early fall, when Cherry Hill officials will review a preliminary draft plan. The final draft plan will be released later in the fall. The plan will then go to FEMA for review. FEMA is expected to give approval and feedback next spring.
Residents who are interested in reviewing documents regarding the plan update can visitwww.nj4hmp.com, and then click on Cherry Hill Township. Residents can contact Sets with feedback at (856) 432–8836 or kseta@cherryhillpolice.com.
