Forest County Hazard Mitigation Plan - Local .DOCVIP

Forest County is located in northwestern Pennsylvania. The County has the lowest population of any county in the Commonwealth. With the lowest population density in the State, natural events tend to cause major disruptions in the lives or residents living in the County. With only a few major roads crossing the County, rural dirt and gravel roads are important transportation routes for residents. Natural weather events tend to impact the ability of residents to travel freely and so preparation for extreme weather events or natural disaster remains the most logical reaction to hazard mitigation. Many areas of the County are remote and isolated so neighbors tend to watch out for each other. Self-reliance and self-dependency are ingrained characteristics of long time residents or Forest County. Extreme weather events that have historically impacted Forest County include winter blizzard condition, flood, tornado and extreme occurrences. The building of the Kinzua Dam and the East Branch Dam has greatly aided major river flood events on the Allegheny and Clarion Rivers. Flooding in recent history tends to be localized in nature, affecting single stream watersheds where geographic confinement of watercourses concentrates water flow within small valleys. Windshear and high wind also affects the County in rather confined and localized areas. High snowfall can affect major areas of the County during winter blizzard occurrences. Lightning strikes occur during thunderstorms but rarely cause forest fires of any size or consequence tending to affect single building structure or single trees only. Spring in Forest County brings an event locally known as ice-out, when the ice in streams and rivers has softened sufficiently to begin moving downstream. At times dams can form from the ice flows causing localized flooding for short duration’s of time. Hazard Mitigation is realizing what condition or action is a hazard, how the hazard affects us, how we could prevent or