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CHAPTER 5. CAPABILITY ASSESSMENT <br />5-5 <br />• Provides a means of compensating emergency management workers who may suffer any injury <br />or death, who suffer economic harm including personal property damage or loss, or who incur <br />expenses for transportation, telephone or other methods of communication, and the use of <br />personal supplies as a result of participation in emergency management activities. <br />• Provides programs, with intergovernmental cooperation, to educate and train the public to be <br />prepared for emergencies. <br />It is policy under this law that emergency management functions of the state and its political subdivisions <br />be coordinated to the maximum extent with comparable functions of the federal government and agencies <br />of other states and localities, and of private agencies of every type, to the end that the most effective <br />preparation and use may be made of manpower, resources, and facilities for dealing with disasters. <br />Washington Administrative Code 118-30-060(1) <br />Washington Administrative Code (WAC) 118-30-060 (1) requires each political subdivision to base its <br />comprehensive emergency management plan on a hazard analysis, and makes the following definitions <br />related to hazards: <br />• Hazards are conditions that can threaten human life as the result of three main factors: <br />– Natural conditions, such as weather and seismic activity <br />– Human interference with natural processes, such as a levee that displaces the natural flow <br />of floodwaters <br />– Human activity and its products, such as homes on a floodplain. <br />• The definitions for hazard, hazard event, hazard identification, and flood hazard include related <br />concepts: <br />– A hazard may be connected to human activity. <br />– Hazards are extreme events. Hazards generally pose a risk of damage, loss, or harm to <br />people and/or their property. <br />Washington State Floodplain Management Law <br />Washington’s floodplain management law (RCW 86.16, implemented through WAC 173-158) states that <br />prevention of flood damage is a matter of statewide public concern and places regulatory contr ol with the <br />Department of Ecology. RCW 86.16 is cited in floodplain management literature, including FEMA ’s <br />national assessment, as one of the first and strongest in the nation. A major challenge to the law in 1978, <br />Maple Leaf Investors v. Ecology, is cited in legal references to floodplain management issues. The court <br />upheld the law, declaring that denial of a permit to build residential structures in the floodway is a valid <br />exercise of police power and did not constitute a taking. RCW Chapter 86.12 (Flood Control by Counties) <br />authorizes county governments to levy taxes, condemn properties and undertake flood control activities <br />directed toward a public purpose. <br />Flood Control Assistance Account Program <br />Washington’s first flood control maintenance program was passed in 1951, and was called the Flood <br />Control Maintenance Program (FCMP). In 1984, RCW 86.26 (State Participation in Flood Control <br />Maintenance) established the Flood Control Assistance Account Program (FCAAP), which provides <br />funding for local flood hazard management. FCAAP rules are found in WAC 173-145. Ecology distributes <br />FCAAP matching grants to cities, counties and other special districts responsible for flood control. This is <br />one of the few state programs in the U.S. that provides grant funding to local governments for floodplain