13 - RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE 2017 LAMAR COUNTY MITIGATION PLAN

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Lamar County Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Chapter Three Levees are used throughout Lamar County and the State of Texas to protect from flood flows. A failure of a levee could also result in damage to property. There is no regulatory program for Levees so therefore, there is a risk of failure due to unregulated maintenance. 4. Previous Occurrences Ther have been over 50 documented dam failures in Texas. At least two of these incidents resulted in loss of life. In 2007 alone there was three dam failures and four dams overtopped but were not breached. Lamar County's dam history has shown no documentation of a significant dam failure. 5. Probability of Future events Minor dam failures occur often. However, most dam failures are minor and go unnoticed without any major effects on the population. Significant dam failures occur less frequently approximately every 30 years or less. They are often secondary effect of another hazard such as heavy rainfall. The classification of dam failuresas a hazard for Lamar County represents the consequence of a potential failure and not the probability of a failure. 6. Vulnerability Texas's Dam Safety Program evaluates and regulates both public and private dams in the state. This program inspects barriers that pose a high or significant hazard and then makes recommendations to the proper corrective measures. The problem is that the State of Texas has over 7,400 dams to inspect, the most in the nation. Most infrastructure facilities, such as roads, bridges, and wastewater systems, are owned privately. These private owners are responsible for the financing of its upkeep, upgrade, and repair. The dam owner, whether private or public is held liable for making sure that the dam operates safely and properly. With the building of additional dams and levees amid the construction of the two proposed lakes a review of this plan will be necessary in the near future as the number of vulnerable infrastructures and critical facilities threatened will change. Dams are considered 7. Secondary Hazards "Installations contain dangerous forces" under International If a dam failure were to occur in Lamar County Floding Humanitarian Law due to the would be the prominent secondary effect. If the dam massive impact of a possible failure is severe a large amount of water would enter the destruction on the civilian downstream waterways forcing them out of their banks. population and the environment. There may be significant environmental affects, as the Dam failures are comparatively resulting flood from the failure is likely to disperse debris rare, but can cause immense and hazardous materials downstream that can damage damage and loss of life when they local ecosystems. Debris carried downstream can block traffic flow, cause power outages, and disrupt local occur. - www.wikipedia.org utilities such as water and wastewater. Most often with failures the barriers similar to those in Lamar County the damage will be minor with little to no secondary effects. 128