As we prepare for the end of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane season at the end of the month, the risk of flooding from extreme precipitation events and other natural hazards remains a chief concern for water and wastewater utilities. To help utilities manage their flood risk, WaterISAC is sharing resources from EPA and other organizations.
As WaterISAC highlighted in its 2024 “Threat Analysis Report,” climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including strong precipitation that leads to flooding. Accordingly, most areas of the continental U.S. are projected to experience greater flood risk in a warming climate going forward. Last year, for example, a First Street Foundation study found that larger parts of the U.S. can expect to experience “1-in-100 year flood” events with greater frequency. Highlighting the threat to critical infrastructure, an AP analysis found about one-third of wastewater facilities in the U.S. would be at risk of flooding if an extreme precipitation event hit their area today. Many drinking water utilities will also likely face similar vulnerabilities as flood risks continue to grow. Read more at EPA.
To help utilities prepare for flooding events, WaterISAC encourages its members to review the following free EPA resources, as well as resources from other government agencies and private sector organizations:
- EPA’s “Flood Resilience: A Basic Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities,” helps utilities understand their flooding risk and identify practical mitigation options to protect critical assets.
- EPA - Incident Action Checklist – Flooding
- EPA’s “Power Resilience Guide,” offers utilities information and strategies to help strengthen relationships with their electric providers and increase their resilience to power outages.
- EPA - Incident Action Checklist – Power Outages
- CISA’s “Resilient Power Best Practices for Critical Facilities and Sites,” offers guidance and discusses power resilience in regards to the all-hazards threat landscape.
- EPA - Mutual Aid and Assistance for Drinking Water and Wastewater Utilities
- FEMA - Climate Risk and Resilience Portal – offers free data to stakeholders seeking to understand the risks facing their communities from natural hazards like flooding, wildfires, droughts, extreme heat, and more through the end of the century.
- FEMA - Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool – allows users to combine layers of community resilience indicators, infrastructure locations, and hazard data to prioritize preparedness and resilience strategies.
- CISA - Extreme Weather and Climate Change
- Risk Factor - allows users to type in an address and see the specific flood risk for that property for the next 30 years on a scale of one to 10.
- ClimateCheck - offers a risk rating for flood, precipitation, heat, drought, and wildfire on a 1-100 scale relative to the risk for the rest of the contiguous U.S.
