The Mercer Island School District held its first of two public hearings regarding its Hazard Mitigation Plan on June 9 at City Hall, addressing infrastructure concerns in the event of a natural disaster.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requires each local government entity to adopt a multi-hazard mitigation plan to remain eligible for future pre- or post-disaster FEMA mitigation funding.

In a report to the school board, Mercer Island CFO Dean Mack said one of the objectives in developing the mitigation plan is to maintain eligibility for such funding as well as to attract future FEMA mitigation funding.

The six major hazard areas evaluated were earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanos, flood, wildfire, urban wildfire and landslides. Only two of those areas received mention in the plan: urban wildfires and earthquakes. Concerns registered low for urban wildfires but high for earthquakes.

“Earthquakes have a very high potential of having significant impact on Mercer Island,” Mack said. “Tsunamis can be related to an earthquake, but all of our facilities are high enough on the Island that it is not deemed that they would be impacted by that kind of an event.

“I would also state that one of FEMA’s goals is not just to communicate with us, but every member of the community, so they are also assessing their own homes and assessing the things they are in contact with day-to-day and analyzing the risks that they will have given a high-magnitude earthquake event,” Mack said. “It is very important that we all do that and that we understand what our risks are and try to mitigate anything that has a life-threatening danger to either the home, the school or the community.”

Mack said the district began the process of assessing its buildings two-and-a-half decades ago, and therefore none of the district buildings needed any action in the short term nor the longer term of 10 years out.

“They are anticipated to survive an event,” he said. “There could be major damage, but we’re not anticipating a collapse.”

The second public hearing will be held at the board’s regular meeting at 8 a.m. on June 23 at City Hall. Following the second public hearing, the board will be asked to authorize the plan to be submitted to FEMA for approval.