Item 26 - Updated Hazard Mitigation Plan

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Hazard Mitigation Plan | 2022 Climate Change Hazards - 90 - Figure: U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook - 2019 (Source: NOAA) Q&A | ELEMENT B: HAZARD IDENTIFICATION AND RISK ASSESSMENT | B3a. Q: Is there a description of each hazard’s impacts on each jurisdiction (what happens to structures, infrastructure, people, environment, etc.)? (Requirement §201.6(c)(2)(ii)) A: See Impact of Climate Change in the City below. Vulnerability of the City to Climate Change According to the 2021 County of Orange and Orange County Fire Authority, climate change has the possibility of producing impacts that span many sectors of the economy and reaches well beyond the areas experiencing physical sea level rise or long-term temperature rise. The impacts would be complex and can be direct or indirect. A few examples of direct impacts are productivity from agriculture could decrease; wildfire hazard could increase; drinking water levels could decrease; wildlife mortality rates and damage to wildlife and fish habitat could increase. The consequences of these impacts may result in reduced income for businesses, increased prices for food and resources, unemployment, reduced tax revenues due to reduced expenditures, increased crime, foreclosures on bank loans to businesses, and migration. The web of impacts would be complex making it challenging to come up with financial estimates of damages. The impacts of climate change can be categorized as economic, environmental, or social. Social impacts involve public safety, health, reduced quality of life, and inequities in the distribution of impacts and disaster relief. Many of the impacts specified as economic and environmental have social components as well. We could see migration out of the coastal areas where increasing pressure on the social infrastructure could result. Municipalities will have to make decisions about which critical assets to protect, relocate, or remove and