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Sherburne County Multi -Hazard Mitigation Plan, 2020 CITY OF ELK RIVER Part A: Past Events & Vulnerability Assessment 1. In the last 5 years, has your community experienced any severe weather or disaster events that posed risk to life safety, caused property damage, or incurred costs for recovery? Yes. Elk River has had a total of 57 historical tornado events that had recorded magnitude of 2 or above with ioo tornado events since 3.950. In addition, the city has had severe weather with straight line winds and heavy rain with hail causing damage to City buildings and infrastructure. In 2017 there was severe weather during the time of the Sherburne County Fair which luckily had occurred right before the fair started so there were only the workers on site. They had to seek shelter at the nearby fire station due to no storm shelter on the fairgrounds. If the weather happened during the actual fair, the fire station would be inadequate to hold more than Soo people. This severe storm with straight line winds also resulted in damage to several park facilities with hundreds of trees being uprooted or damaged causing hazards along city streets and trails. Additionally, the City Hall, Library and Public Safety campuses had damage along with uprooted trees. Elk River's Municipal utilities experience the same storm which caused property damage to overhead electric facilities from trees. In addition, they had damage to electronic equipment from lightning strikes. 2. In the last 5 years, has your community taken any particular actions to reduce the vulnerability of your community against future severe weather or disaster events? Yes, the city conducted hazard tree assessments of all publicly owned trees within active use areas of its parks. Trees were evaluated based on the U.S. Forest Service model hazard tree assessment and assigned a hazard rating of i-7. Trees with a rating of 4-7 were identified as having defects which may result in failure of part or the entire tree and requiring corrective action. Staff assessed each tree with a rating above 4 and performed the corrective actions required to include pruning or complete removal. Annual assessments are conducted by certified tree inspectors of all trees within active use areas of parks. Trees along trail, sidewalk and road corridors are not evaluated, however hazard trees that are identified during the general course of daily assignments are documented and follow-up treatment conducted. In the past 5 years, has anything, especially related to zoning or development, changed that you feel has increased your community's vulnerability to future severe weather or disaster events? In the last five years we have seen population growth with a new Boo -home development on the east side of the city, as well as the establishment of an outdoor motor cross track on the north side of town. At times there are 5,000 plus people at this outdoor venue with two campgrounds and no storm shelter. Page I K - 12