The Town of Amherst is a community located in the Western New York area with a population near 122,000. We are located northeast of the City of Buffalo, southwest of the City of Niagara Falls. We have three major interstates running parallel to or through the area and we are on the northern border of the Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. We have a total area of approximately 54 square miles, larger than the City of Buffalo. We have 44 public/private schools and 3 college campuses within our boundaries. The Amherst Campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo, which is located in our town, has approximately 28,000 students and staff. The Village of Williamsville is also located within the territorial limits of Amherst.
Disaster Risk
The Town of Amherst is annually exposed to severe weather. In the past few years we have had significant snowfalls along with high water conditions that have resulted in the flooding of portions of our community. Several natural waterways run through our town that expose us to significant flooding. Most recently we have had significant flooding events in 1985, 1998 and 1999. Most of the flooding occurs in residential areas. With the northeast region of New York State being one of the busiest for the transportation of hazardous materials our three major interstates expose us to a serious threat of a major chemical accident. We are also located to the west of the Claredon-Lindon earthquake fault which experts have identified as having extensions that come close to our town. Many of our community’s structures are not designed to withstand earthquakes, and we are unaware of any monitoring devices located within our community. Our town also has a history of significant power outages and property damage caused by high wind conditions.
Capacity for Public-Private Partnerships
We have worked with the Army Corps of Engineers on a flood control project along one of the waterways in our town, and we have identified additional projects that have not yet been completed. These projects are identified in our Town Capital Improvement Program, a planning tool to lay out the next five (5) years. The opportunity exists for private sector involvement due to our association with the Amherst Chamber of Commerce and Amherst Industrial Development Agency along with many community organizations and committees who are currently involved in various aspects of our town. We have a public/private partnership in place with our Pepsi Center, an extensive recreation center within Amherst. We have several hundred volunteers and community groups supporting the town’s operations.
Disaster Prevention Commitments/Actions
The Town of Amherst has a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan in place along with various local zoning regulations which were initiated after we became involved in the National Flood Insurance Program in 1984. Our Commissioner of Building is the Flood Plain Administrator for our Town, our Assistant Commissioner of Building is our Community Rating System Coordinator and we also have a full-time Emergency Services Coordinator who is responsible for emergency preparedness planning. We are updating our town’s Master Plan and, once completed, it will have taken into consideration mitigation activities, zoning, building codes, and local laws. We are currently working with the NYS Emergency Management Office on preparing our Flood Mitigation Plan which will help us to further reduce our Class 8 community rating. This plan is also being written to identify additional hazards in our community and the mitigation activities associated with these hazards. This year the Town of Amherst has been designated as a NYS Project Impact Community. We have had meetings with state, county, and town personnel to discuss the program and how we should proceed. On April 18, 2000 we had our Project Impact Kick-Off meeting where we had 30 representatives from various agencies and departments within our town in attendance along with 10 additional agencies (see attached sign-in sheets) who were unable to attend but very interested in becoming involved. We are in the final stages of developing our web-site which is intended to not only educate the public on what the Town of Amherst is doing but to link our site to additional Project Impact sites across the nation. We are placing literature on emergency preparedness in the public libraries, in our public buildings, and making handouts available when presentations are made to community groups. These are a few of the projects we have begun implementing to make the Town of Amherst a "Disaster Resistant Community". |
