Clarksburg Residents and Business Owners: We Need Your Input

Dear Clarksburg Resident –

The Town of Clarksburg is developing a Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan and we need your input. Natural hazards pose a risk to people and property, examples of which are flooding, severe snow storms, drought and heat waves. Hazard mitigation is described in more detail on the reverse side of this letter. As part of this effort, we are evaluating how climate change is altering our weather patterns, which may be of interest to students. Information on the back of this letter helps to explain hazard mitigation in more detail. How you can help:

If you haven’t already, fill out our short survey. It will only take 10 minutes. It can be filled out online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ClarksburgHM before May 21.
Attend a short presentation about the major findings of the project, including the results of the survey, at the Board of Selectmen’s meeting on May 12, 2021. Details about the presentation will be posted on the Town’s website and Facebook pages.
Review and comment on the Draft Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan when it is posted on the Town’s website June 11-30. The plan presents historical and projected data explaining how climate change is altering our weather patterns, which may be of interest to students. Paper copies will be provided at the Town Hall and Library.
If you have information that you would like to share, contact the Town’s consultant, Lauren Gaherty at lauren@berkshireplanning.org or the Town Administrator, Rebecca Stone, here.

We hope that you will be able to share your experiences with us as we develop the Hazard Mitigation and Climate Adaptation Plan. We look forward to hearing from you. Thank You!!!

Rebecca Stone

Clarksburg Town Administrator

Natural Hazard Mitigation Planning

Bridge in Worthington had history of failing. ln 2003 the road washed out and was closed to all traffic.

New Worthington bridge - it even survived high water flows from Tropical Storm lrene in 2017.

The Town of Clarksburg is looking for input and we need the benefit of your knowledge of the Town and its history with natural hazards and disasters. We as a Town need to identify risks, both manmade and natural; to develop strategies to eliminate or reduce the potential for loss of life, property, infrastructure, cultural, environmental & natural resources of the Town from disasters; and to develop sustainable cost-effective actions to mitigate those risks and the impacts of natural or manmade hazards. Your input will help guide the Town through the planning process.

Natural hazards pose a risk to people and property, examples of which are flooding, severe rain or snow storms, tornados, drought and heat waves. Hazard mitigation Hazard mitigation is a term that describes an action taken to reduce the harm that natural disasters have on people and property - lf is the up-front work to mitigate or reduce the impacts of o disaster when it strikes. The mitigation action is pro-active, rather than reactive, and is an action taken to solve a problem on a permanent, long-term basis.

Some possible hazard mitigation actions include:

Replacing an undersized culvert or bridge with a larger one to reduce the risk of flooding or road
washout (like the examples here from Worthington).
Upgrading road storm drain systems to handle higher volumes of water.
Moving or elevating critical municipal infrastructure out of flood-prone areas I Ensuring that emergency response and operations can function during a disaster event.
Having communications systems and plans in place to shelter people during disasters or power
outages

A Hazard Mitigation Plan is the final product of this "pre-disaster" planning effort that identifies actions which can eliminate or reduce the risk to life and property in the event that a natural disaster occurs. Having a mitigation plan in place serves as a guide for future hazard mitigation actions and makes the Town more competitive for some federal and state grant programs.