Emergency Response Planning for Coastal Flood Risks for Small Craft Harbors and Marinas

The increasing frequency and intensity of coastal storms and accelerating sea level rise are resulting in greater coastal flood-related risks to waterfront facilities and structures in New England. These risks include direct impacts such as property and content damage loss, “during storm,” near-term and potentially long-term operations and service disruption, release of environmental pollutants, and public and personnel safety. They also include indirect risks, including unrecoverable financial loss, the increasing cost of insurance, and the decreasing availability of insurance.     

There are many types of waterfront structures including: Piers and Wharves; Dry Docks; Bulkheads; Quay Walls; Breakwaters, Jetties, and Auxiliary Structures, Components, Equipment, and many types of waterfront facilities including commercial Ports and Harbors, Bulk Terminals, Military Ports, and Small Craft Harbors and Marinas.  The Design Criteria and Emergency Response requirements for many of these facility types is highly regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies, building codes and industry specific guidance.  This brief article looks at Emergency Response Planning for Coastal Flood Risks for Small Craft Harbors and Marinas, which are more common (and present significant cumulative risk) but are typically less regulated than other types of waterfront facilities.

The purpose of emergency response planning and implementation for Small Craft Harbors and Marinas, in addition to safety, is to manage and mitigate coastal flood risks, which principally include: 

• Direct damage to waterfront and in-water structures including bulkheads, fixed and floating docks, floating breakwaters, and to a lesser extent stone and concrete jetties and breakwaters;
• Direct damage to ancillary facilities including fueling facilities, travel lifts, pump-out stations, and electrical, water, communication and security utilities, etc.;
• Direct damage to buildings (ancillary, commercial, industrial and residential) and building contents;
• Direct damage to moored and berthed vessels;
• Direct damage to vessels stored “on-the-hard”, in buildings or on dry racks; 
• Direct damage to parked vehicles;
• Service and business disruption that could range from short-term (a few hours or days) to long-term (weeks to years);
• Release of hazardous materials and pollutants to the environment; and
• Uninsured financial losses (i.e., financial losses in excess of private property and casualty insurance and National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) coverage and federal disaster relief funding).

As noted above, the extent and frequency of occurrence of these risks are dramatically increasing due to climate change, and a volatile and worried insurance market is pushing the financial risk to be more weighted upon the owner through limited coverage and high deductibles. The increase in typical recreational vessel size is also a contributing risk factor.  

Emergency response planning and implementation includes the specific actions and deployable measures with the goals of increasing safety, mitigating impacts, reducing losses, and a rapid post-storm recovery. The components of a coastal Emergency Response Plan (ERP) to address the risks identified above may typically include the following. These plans can be stand-alone ERPs or be incorporated into the comprehensive facility Emergency Response Plan. 

A. Purpose of Plan
B. Plan Overview 
C. Site Flood Hazard and Facility Vulnerability 
D. Emergency Contacts
    - Facility Contacts 
    - Local Emergency Contacts 
    - Key Contractors / Vendors
E. Authority to Activate Plan 
F. Flood Action Plan 
     - Flood Warning Action/Notification Phases 
     - Emergency Announcements 
     - Emergency Response Equipment
     - Utility Shut-Off and Lockdown (Electrical, Water, Communications)
     - Fuel Dock Lockdown
     - Facility Shutdown 
G. Fire Prevention Measures   
H. Fuel Release Prevention and Response Measures
I. Flood Control Measures (including deployable flood control measures)
J. Vessel Management (e.g., hauling, evacuation, anchoring and securing)
K. Recovery Plan 
     - Fuel Spill Restoration 
     - Fire Protection Restoration 
     - Restoration of Operations 
L. Post-Event Review 
M. FERP Training Exercises 
N. Annual Review 
O. Plan Limitations 
P. Attachments 

Existing programs such as New England’s “Clean Marina” programs, along with Spill Prevention Control & Countermeasures Plans (SPCC) also provide emergency response planning guidance for management of fuel and other hazardous materials and mitigation of environmental releases during both normal use and during coastal flood events and can be used conjunction with or incorporated into the ERP.  Depending upon stored quantities, facilities covered by Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) requirements will also annually submit an Emergency and Hazardous Chemical Inventory Form to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), and the local fire department.

Additional considerations: 

• Small Craft Harbors and Marinas present several unique challenges relative to emergency response planning.  First, the light construction of many in-water structures (e.g., floating docks) means that both structure and vessel damage are greatly increased if vessels are berthed during the storm versus removed.  This requires significant thought relative to the practicality and cost of vessel hauling or evacuation, as well as facility owner versus vessel owner risk and responsibility.  
• Secondly, tropical cyclones (hurricanes and tropical storms) represent the significant coastal hazard risk to much of coastal New England.   The combination of the time required to implement emergency response measures compared to typical hurricane storm track forward speeds, means that the decision to deploy potentially costly emergency response measures may need to be made when the storm is still in the Florida or the mid-Atlantic regions and the probability of a landfall that would affect the facility is still quite low.  However, even waiting for a National Weather Service (NWS) “Hurricane WATCH” notification (usually within 36 to 48 hours of the hurricane threat) may be too late to deploy emergency response measures especially if marina workers may be required to evacuate their homes prior to landfall by the storm. A NWS “Hurricane WARNING” notification (usually around 36 hours) will almost always be too late.                 
• Third, coastal risk reduction starts with resilient site design. “Risk-Informed Decision Making (RIDM)” provides a framework for resilient site design of waterfront facilities and structures based on: 1) probability-based characterization of coastal hazards (e.g., water levels, wave effects, high winds, precipitation, tornadoes and sea level rise); 2) developing design criteria based on risk-based benefit-cost analyses; and 3) characterization and consideration of residual risk. RIDM provides a framework to balance capital costs of construction and financing, predicted maintenance costs, post-construction residual risks, and predicted insurance and non-recoverable costs.         

In summary, reducing financial and other losses, maintaining safe conditions during and after storms and preventing or minimizing operational and service disruption due to coastal storms is essential for Small Craft Harbors and Marinas.  Resilient site design and Emergency Response Planning are key components of coastal storm risk management.

Dan Stapleton is a Senior Principal at GZA and has over 35 years of professional experience. He has professional degrees in geology, civil engineering, geotechnical engineering and ocean engineering and is a licensed Professional Engineer. He specializes in the assessment of geohazards and their effect on natural and built environments.