City of Irvine
2020 Local Hazard Mitigation Plan
materials or to move away to a home that is further from the potential sources of hazardous materials release events.
Other Threats
Hazardous materials release could threaten the City’s and potentially the region’s transportati on networks. Large areas of the local road or rail systems may be closed to keep people away from areas contaminated with hazardous materials in order to allow remediation and cleanup activities to occur. If a highly corrosive hazardous material is released, it could potentially cause significant damage to the exteriors of any homes or businesses in the area surrounding the release. Hazardous materials could also harm the City’s urban forest, resulting in the deaths of several trees.
Human-Caused Hazards
Physical Threat
Mass-Casualty Incident (Terrorism) There is no way to predict which of Irvine ’s facilities or assets may be impacted by a mass casualty incident/act of terrorism since the reasoning behind the incident is often complex or not easily understood. Generally, these types of incidents occur at places of political, economic, or cultural importance. If the motives of the perpetrator are to shut down City or regional governmental activity for a period of time, they may instead target pieces of infrastructure, like water systems, utility delivery systems, or transportation networks. In this situation, bridges may become prime locations for these types of activities. The financial losses that may result would depend on the degree of destruction associated with the activity. If the incident involves the destruction of physical assets, the cost to the City or property owners in Irvine would likely be immense. Civil Disturbance Like Mass-Casualty Incidents, Civil Disturbance threats to physical assets are hard to predict. Typically these incidents involve protests, marches, or celebrations that can turn into destructive or violent incidents (i.e., riots), causing property damage. Impacts associated with these incidents would likely initiate at the site of origin, which usually occurs at places of political, economic, or cultural importance. Cyber Threats Cyber threats would have a limited impact on physical assets. The extent of this impact would focus on City-owned computer and network infrastructure. Transportation Accident Since each transportation accident is unique, it is not possible to quantify the threat to Irvine’s physical assets. A common incident involving a collision between two vehicles is unlikely to threaten physical assets in Irvine. A more serious collision involving larger vehicles could pose an increased threat to CFs/FOC, depending on the location. For example, a large freight truck could damage a City-owned building if its operator mishandles the vehicle and drives it into the building. Such a scenario would be rare and nearly impossible to predict. It is more likely that a vehicle could collide with a utility pole impacting services to neighboring properties or portions of the community. The damage to one pole and potentially any wires carried by it would be minor, and the cost to repair or replace the pole would likely be low.
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