San Diego County Cohort

CALIFORNIA COLLABORATIVE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE SAN DIEGO COUNTY COHORT

In 2019, FEMA and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) launched the Collaborative Technical Assistance (CTA) Program with San Diego County California. CTA is designed to help communities at risk of dam-related flooding better understand their risk landscape and the potential consequences of dam-related emergencies. The CTA included planning for emergencies related to operational discharges or dam-related infrastructure failure. Members from the FEMA National Dam Safety Program, and National Integration Center’s Technical Assistance Program worked with the CalOES and California Department of Water Resources to meet the county’s goal of increasing state, county, community, and individual preparedness in participating jurisdictions for responding to dam emergencies. The CTA assisted San Diego County and participating jurisdictions in leveraging and building upon CalOES’ previous and ongoing dam and levee safety initiatives. The San Diego County CTA offering provided: • A structured approach to developing or refining dam emergency action plans (EAPs) to increase community preparedness for a dam emergency and integrating the EAPs into appropriate emergency planning documents; • Access to National level subject matter experts that provided guidance and offered feedback on dam risk management, emergency planning, community analysis, dam inundation modeling, infrastructure dependencies and interdependencies, hazard mitigation, floodplain management, risk and crisis communication, and exercise planning; • Peer-to-peer learning opportunities from fellow dam owners and emergency managers that had experience performing inundation modeling, dealing with an actual dam emergency, communicating during an emergency, and dam-related planning other issues. From November 2019 to May 2021, nine sessions were hosted for over 250 participants. In addition, four office hours were conducted which allowed participants from San Diego County to meet with subject matter experts to go over topics discussed throughout a session. The San Diego County CTA included individuals from multiple organizations including federal, regional, state, and local agencies and jurisdictions, along with one non-governmental partner. This cohort was originally scheduled to be a combination of in-person delivery and virtual sessions, however, due to COVID-19, the delivery of the CTA changed to be fully virtual. Session topics included: • Session 1 – Framing the Issues: Community Analysis and Infrastructure Dependencies • Session 2 – Modeling and Simulation using Decision Support

System for Water Infrastructure Security (DSS-WISETM) Lite • Session 3 – Community Resilience & Dam Risk • Session 4 – Information and Planning Gaps for

Emergency Response and Emergency Action Planning • Session 5 – Risk and Crisis Communication Strategies for

Dam Emergencies: Virtual Workshop & Tabletop Exercise • Session 6 – Evacuation and Shelter-in-Place Planning for Dam Emergencies • Session 7 – Planning and Implementing an Exercise for a Dam Incident or Emergency • Session 8 – San Diego County Dam Safety

Tabletop Exercise • Session 9 – CTA Closeout and Evaluation

Sessions were interactive and encouraged participation and collaboration between attendees to help them build relationships with one another. Attendees were provided access to subject matter experts, models, tools, and templates that allowed them to enhance their knowledge of dam safety and dam incident operations. Each session was designed to touch on at least one of San Diego County’s objectives that were decided on during the initial Kick-Off meeting. The objectives of the San Diego County CTA were for the cohort to: • Form an active dam emergency planning working group, which includes core stakeholders for this CTA.

o Maintain working group after completion of the CTA, potentially through Water Agency Emergency Collaborative (WAEC). o Annually assess the benefits and needs of the working group. • Achieve a detailed understanding of direct and cascading impacts (to the community, critical infrastructure, and key resources) due to a dam emergency through the CTA analytic framework that will inform planning, response, and recovery activities. • Develop a joint strategy for stakeholder identification, engagement, and risk communications for dam emergencies to be captured in the appropriate emergency planning documents. • Complete revised, risk-informed emergency action plans (EAPs) for the dam owners and operators. Integrate these plans into the appropriate emergency planning documents for each stakeholder. • Conduct an exercise to evaluate and identify gaps in the written plans and further enhance relationships amongst stakeholders. While challenges such as the onset of COVID-19 impacted the delivery of this CTA, it was still seen as a great success and met the county’s overall goal and objectives. This CTA provided stakeholders with access to better modeling tools such as DSS-Wise Lite and a clearer understanding of emergency action plans and emergency response plans. In addition, it gave them the opportunity to practice communicating with each other and the public in the event of a dam emergency as well as informed them of new practices such as shelter in place. At the end of the CTA, participants expressed their appreciation for the program, topics discussed that they felt could assist them in their jobs, and areas of the CTA they felt could be improved upon. For additional information on the CTA Program, please visit here. For more information on the FEMA National Dam Safety Program, please visit here. 17